Berufsförderungsinstitut Steiermark

The Berufsförderungsinstitut Steiermark (Vocational Promotion Institute Styria) is one of the leading training institutions in Austria. It was founded and is owned by the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund) and the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer). Bfi Steiermark has been in the training business since 1960 and is classified as an association, whose activities are non-profit oriented. The main activities of bfi Steiermark lie primarily in the planning and implementation of courses and learning events within the field of predominantly employee-oriented vocational training and development, adult education and rehabilitation. In addition to the main field of adult vocational training, bfi Steiermark has high competence in active labour market policy measures such as workforce providers, vocational placement organisations, socio-economic organisations, self-help projects in the employment policy, as well as in services in the consulting sector (EDP, training and education, quality management, company consulting in terms of personnel development). At the moment bfi Steiermark has a permanent staff of 358 employees and about 1400 freelance trainers in 16 locations and 9 training centres throughout Styria, which is in the southeastern part of Austria. Furthermore, bfi is a partner or holds the majority in 13 companies, which operate in fields such as personnel certification or non-profit provision of manpower. In 2001 the annual turnover of bfi Steiermark was EUR 21 Mio. In spring 2001 bfi Steiermark was awarded the ‘Fair Work' quality and training model to the bfi employees. In 2000 bfi Steiermark trained 28.538 clients in 2.319 different courses with a total of 232.771 teaching units. The seminars of bfi are based on a modular system. This allows full flexibility in choosing from all different kinds of ‘training units', which saves time and money. Under the working title ‘Business Service' bfi offers solutions with regard to educational policy to companies. In 1996 bfi Steiermark was certified to ISO 9001, and was one of the few training organisations in Austria which were able to reach the quality requirements of this international standard. In 1999 bfi Steiermark was certified to the new quality requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and is the only training institution with this certificate in Austria at the moment.

Contact:
Berufsförderungsinstitut Steiermark
Ms. Anita Lerch
Eggenberger Allee 15, 8020 Graz (Austria)
Fon: +43 (0)316 7270-2214
Fax: +43 (0)316 7270-2299
Web: http://www.bfi-stmk.at
Email: anita.lerch@bfi-stmk.at