In 2011 the vocational school for parquet and floor layers in Minsk was established. In this year the vocational school 12 was chosen to organize the european parquet layer contest of EUFA. 

Ivan Rak from Belarus, Heinz Brehm and Josef Heller from EUFA invested a lot of time and commitment in the preparation – the documents had to be created, sponsors had to be found, participants and representatives of each country had to be invited.

They were able to get 14 participants from nine countries – Belarus, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, South-Tirol, Czech Republic and Ukraine. The contest task and the evaluation documents were created by Heinz Brehm and Josef Heller. For the participants they have created following parquet design.

The work spaces were prepared outstandingly by Ivan Rak and the vocational school teachers Aliaxandr Volkau and Maxim Ananidsch from Minsk. So could the work spaces be set up, the participants be explained the machines and be familiarized with the task at Thursday evening. They then had the opportunity to deal with the task until the start of the contest at Friday.

Before the start at Friday representatives from the politics took the chance to appreciate the importance of such a contest.

Mr Vitaly Prigodich, first representative of the chairmen of the state committee of Minsk, was pleased that a successful training for parquet and floor layers took place in this city.

Mr Stepan Scheleg, director of the vocational school was convinced that this event would support the education in Belarus and would bring new friends.

Representative of the parlament Belarus, Mrs Anna Konopachkaja, expressed the wish that this event would make interpersonal relationships between the countries possible. She said: „Guests are invited, to improve education in Belarus.“

Mr Alexsander Samoilich, head of the center for international relationships, was there as representative of the ministry for education. For him the event is a good opportunity to improve education in Belarus through the exchange of experiences and to bring new ideas in the training.

Before Heinz Brehm started the contest, he thanked the responsibles with a wooden sculpture. 

Mrs Ludmila Volkova, responsible for the cultural questions at the school, motivated the participants with a song at the end of the greeting.  She has a special relationship to parquet; her husband Aliaxandr is professional teacher for the parquet lessons at the school and her nephew Ilya Volkau represented Belarus in the contest.

The quality of the works of the participants was determined by the preceded education and by sufficient training. The jurors and spectators could see that there was an increase from contest to contest. 

Especially safe working with machines and rational ways of working are more and more present. It would be desirable, that the responsibles of countries without special training would appreciate the value of crafts education and establish necessary structures and facilities.

Every participant layed his own plate. Just when working with machines two participants had to share one circular saw. To avoid communication problems partners from one country or at least with the same language were put together. 

Even if everybody had the aim to create a proper work there were no difficulties. For the jurors it was interesting to see who many variations of working technique and work routine are possible to get to the result. In the end of the first work day at 18 o’clock all plates were layed. So could the plates be grinded and oiled at Saturday. 

At 11 o’clock the jurors were in demand for the last time. Their work with checking the dimensional accuracy and the accordance to the drawing was faciliated.

With a foil which contained every line in original size, it was fairly easy to check how accurate the parquet has been layed. 

In principle not just the end result was decisive for the evaluation. Also considered was: work preparation, logical way of working, safe and rational  working at the work place and at the machines and usage of springs.

This irritated the spectators because they only looked at the end result. The committee assumes that the quality of a parquet layer can not only be found in the end result, the way to get there is also an important criteria for the evaluation and for the work on a construction site.

The final celebration at Saturday made the peak. The guests came together in the comfortable theatre room of the school.

Heinz Brehm praised the great contest, that has no equal. The contest was also successful because Ivan Rak could manage to get local representatives and media. 

Also did every participant create a really good result. The participants applauded the school for the great organization.

As chairman of EUFA P + F emphasized Heinz Brehm that the contest could encourage to continue training and to strive for a specific education.

Ivan Rak handed every participant, guests of honor and jurors a medal. The medal graced the logo of the contest, the acorn male Janka.

The sponsors got a certificate and a medal handed over by Ivan Rak and Heinz Brehm. Following sponsors made the contest possible thanks to their great support: 

The jurors were honored who could evaluate without any longer discussions:

• Belarus:                    Ivan Rak was represented by Dr.-Ing. Andreea Mircea from Romania
• Germany:                 Germann Kirschbaum
• Poland:                     Piotr Pioro
• Romania:                 Puiu Cadar
• Russia:                     Nikolai Yakubchik
• South-Tirol:            Andreas Holzer
• Czech Republic:     Jiri Dvorak
• Ukraine:                   Jurij Rudchenko

Before the presentation ceremony explained Hein Brehm the rules of the contest. He warned not to just see the finished plate as one decisive criteria. It is important to consider the work preparation, the approach and the safety at the machines.

Every participant got a certificate, a valuable medal and a design present. Just like the previous contests only the first four places were offered as a reward.

The further participants were:

• Ilya Volkau, Belarus
• Jan Razek and Filip Lipiansky, Czech Republic
• Michal Lipinski and Kacper Widawski, Poland
• Daniel Ganter, Germany
• Sergej Chuno and Petr Neifeld, Russia
• Anatolij Baranowskij, Ukraine
• Dmitry Pisarev, Lithuania

And finally –  only winners

Presents were edge grinder, cordless screwdriver, jigsaw,

construction site radio, power saw and electric screwdriver, tool bag.

The representative of the ministry of education explained, he would work on increasing the education, even if Belarus and the contest was already highly praised.

At the school the guests could experience real hospitality. Already at the previous day teachers and students were there to help with the final papers; Students were there for reception and questions, they organized a multi-course lunch and occasionally distributed drinks.

Ivan Rak as local organizer cared for a perfect procedure of the contest. So important media was invited, that organized presents. T-Shirts for every involved person in fitting size.

But also the little things were considered. Even the notepad had the logo and the label of the contest. They even went to the disco with the young people at Friday evening. 

Now two links to YouTube videos in russian and in english:

youtu.be/yyYrkvjhqCE  /  youtu.be/91fIY80Ew5E

Authored: EUFA-secretary Josef Heller