At the age of 37

German is Austria’s youngest HTL director

Computer scientist Torsten Welsch is head of HTL Grieskirchen, where he has been teaching since 2015.(Bild: Dostal Harald)

Torsten Welsch has been head of the technical school in Grieskirchen for a few days now. The 37-year-old is already struggling to cope with the workload and accepted the job due to a lack of other applicants. The position of principal now seems to be anything but coveted among teachers.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" That's what many people around Torsten Welsch initially asked him. The 37-year-old has been the new director of the Grieskirchen Higher Technical College since last week - making him the youngest HTL director in Austria. This was confirmed to him by the Ministry of Education, says Welsch in an interview with "Krone".

"Who else would do it?"
So why did the native of Thuringia, who moved to Upper Austria for love, take over the school management? Welsch's honest answer: "The motivation was the support from the teaching staff, but also: who else will do it?" Because the current staffing situation is difficult. "In the last application rounds, there were three out of four HTL schools with only one applicant," says the 37-year-old.

Director of Education Alfred Klampfer congratulates the new HTL director Torsten Welsch.(Bild: HTL Grieskirchen)

"Will have to learn not to burn out"
A parliamentary question from the previous year paints a similar picture. According to this, 31 principal positions were advertised in Upper Austria's secondary schools in the previous five years, and nowhere were there more than three applicants. According to the forecast, 35 head teachers at secondary schools will retire in the next five years.

Of course, Welsch is still a long way from this. But he is already making plans: "I will have to learn not to burn out. I often only set myself one task a day and still don't get it done because so many new things come up. Then the work takes place at night."

Closer than before
The image of the principal has changed: "In my school days, you never saw the principal. And if you did, it was a huge problem." Today, principals are much more approachable. Welsch would like to see relief in the form of "middle management" at schools, which collects problems that now come directly to him and passes them on.