FID:

Event Profile

Facts and Figures on BeSt Vienna

The BeSt Vienna is held every year in early March. The Job, Training and Education Fair lasts four days and counts around 75,000 visitors. About 350 exhibitors are involved, of which about 40 are from abroad. The organizers of Austria's largest education fair are the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Public Employment Service Austria.

Long-standing Tradition

The BeSt already looks back on a long tradition. It first took place in 1986 as a study and career information fair in Vienna's city hall. Thereafter, the former Vienna Messepalast served as a venue for some time. In 1996, the fair then moved to the Wiener Stadthalle and in the following years received its name: BeSt³ – Die Messe für Beruf, Studium und Weiterbildung.

Wide-ranging Information

The education fair also changed with the education landscape. In recent years, for example, the higher education system throughout Europe has been converted to the Bologna structure. In Austria, the Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschulen) established themselves alongside the Universities. And the number of study programmes and locations has multiplied. The choice of study and training opportunities is enormous today and the need for expert advice is correspondingly high. The BeSt always wants to take the latest trends in the educational and professional world into account in the best possible way and to appeal to a broad fair audience with its comprehensive information offer.

Exhibitors of BeSt

The BeSt's 350 exhibitors include universities, colleges, academies, private education providers, language schools, interest groups, and companies that provide information on jobs and in-company training programmes.

Target groups of BeSt

The BeSt is aimed at pupils, apprentices, high school graduates, students, school and university dropouts as well as at parents, teachers, university graduates, professionals and persons interested in further education.

The catchment areas of the fair are primarily Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, as well as Upper Austria, Styria and Salzburg as well as the neighbouring states of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Fair Statistics

Data and facts about the fair are provided by the survey, which takes place among the visitors. During the BeSt³ 2020 in Vienna, around 1,000 people took part in it. As the survey shows, most visitors of BeSt are female (63%), 16 to 19 years old (63%), go to school (53%) and come mainly from Vienna (42%) and from Lower Austria (32%). School graduates after the Matura (21%) represent the second highest proportion of visitors, followed by those interested in continuing education (11%) and university students (8%). The main impulses to visit the fair are schools and teachers.

Main topics of BeSt

BeSt – the Job, Training and Education Fair focuses on various topics. Further information can be found here on the website under Topics.