Internship at Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg, Sweden 2003

Andreas Tauer, Andreas Pachler, Christoph Putz (5WIB)
Michael Brucker, Ulrich Weiser (5WIA)
Christian Bauer (5WMA)
Wolfgang Hubinger (7MBA)

This year seven students from HTL Vöcklabruck, two from HTL Hallein (Alexander Mayer, Philip Kotroba), one from HTL Mödling (Florian Aubauer), one from HTL Klagenfurt (Sebastian Burgstaller) and one from HTL Eisenstadt (Bernhard Bliem) did an internship at Volvo Car Corporation in Sweden.

Our journey to Sweden started on August 10 at Salzburg Airport. After a short stop in Amsterdam we arrived in Gothenburg where our contact person Stellan From welcomed us. Then three VIP taxis took us to our flats in Västra Frölunda where we were given instructions on public transport and housekeeping. We had to do everything on own (cooking, laundry, etc.).

Berni from Eisenstadt had made a tour through Europe by car and arrived on Monday. We spent the following two days getting instructions for our jobs and visiting Volvo’s private school, the “GTG”. In class we learned about the differences between Sweden and Austria. So this was our first contact with the Swedish youths.

On Wednesday things became more serious. It was our first workday. Andy T., Michi; Philip, Berni, Basti, and Mundl were assigned to the body shop where they accomplished time measurements for the determination of the OEE characteristic number (overall equipment effectiveness). Christian and Alex were sent to the paint shop and made measurements of different kinds of paint types for various car models (XC90, S80, V70). Andy P. was involved in the Volvo business services and was responsible for the check up of calculations. Moreover he inserted customers and suppliers into the internal listing. Uli’s job was to program a transport system linking the planning section of the school in Lindholmen and the construction division in Torslanda. Christoph worked in the department of tooling and equipment, updating archives. Each Wednesday he were allowed to participate in a department meeting in which quality standards for the future were being assessed. Wolfgang held a responsible position at the Volvo safety centre, the most modern in world. One fact deserves mentioning: all Austrian students were treated warmly and received great support from the working staff.

At the weekends we plunged into the night life of Gothenburg, noticing some big differences to Austrian nightlife. For instance, we had to identify ourselves when entering a restaurant. Another astonishing and slightly annoying difference: in some discos admission was only granted to 20-year-olds. Anyway, going out was rather expensive, so we had to plan it carefully.

Thanks to Bernie’s car we had the chance to see picturesque spots in the surrounding as well as in the inner city of Gothenburg. For example, on one of our Saturday trips we visited the entertainment par “Liseberg” where you find its most well known attraction, Europe’s fastest and largest wooden roller coaster. We could use almost all attractions with our daily pass. In the first week of September when Professor Elisabeth Schwarz and Professor Stefan Dlapka from the HTL in Vöcklabruck were in Sweden as exchange teachers, we were invited to the “Universeum”. This is a mixture between a tropical garden and a technical museum which is really worth seeing. Apart from beach barbecues and trips to the islands off the Gothenburg coast we enjoyed playing soccer several times.

The five weeks having raced by, we had our two farewell parries on Wednesday and Friday and prepared for our home journey on Saturday. We were taken to the airport by Stellan and flew back home. We really enjoyed our stay in Sweden and we gained a lot of experience. We thank Professor Anton Pixner and Mister Stellan From for their efforts and the “Freunde der HTL Vöcklabruck” for their financial support. We hope that also in the future students from our school will be given the chance to do such an internship abroad.