Zertifizierungspartner
 
 
 

Internship abroad at Viessmann Ltd. in Telford, England

Martin Röck, 5AHMIE

Arriving and getting to know my hosts

From 2 July to 3 August 2007 I took the chance to do a five-week internship at VIESSMANN Ltd. in Telford, England. I flew to Birmingham on Saturday, 30 June and got picked up there by Mrs Ward, human resources manager at Viessmann Telford, and her husband who is a taxi driver. They took me to my host family in Aqueduct, a part of Telford where we arrived at about eight o’clock p.m.

My host family, the Irvine’s, consisted of four people, Nick and Helen, the parents, and the two cute boys George (4 years) and Oscar (2 years). They welcomed me in a very friendly way and to sum up I had a good time with them and felt quite good there.

The next day I accompanied my host family to their allotment garden and helped to weed the garden. After that we drove to a vineyard nearby and visited a small farmers’ market. In the evening I met Thomas, who was a German student, living in the neighbourhood. He also worked at Viessmann. He was working at his final papers for his graduation in “International Business Studies”, he did a comparison of the heating market in the USA and Great Britain, in cooperation with Viessmann. We went together to work in a company car and we both enjoyed using the car weekends and in the evenings. I also spent most of my free time with Thomas because it was easy for us to get around.



1st week, 2 - 8 July

On 2 July, my first workday, I was firstly shown the office and got introduced to my new colleagues. At the beginning I had to enter the information given by the service reports of Viessmann’s subcontractors into the company’s data management system, information about the diagnosed failure, type of adjustment, used spare parts, the time it took to repair and so on.

Due to loads of these reports which had to get filed, and to daily more reports coming in, this was my major task for the next weeks.

After work Thomas and I visited a gym in Telford where Thomas had been training for several weeks before, I instantly got myself a four-week membership. It became a ritual for us to go to the gym two to three times a week and do some exercises to break with the mainly mental and not so much physical work we had to do during the day.

During the week I was given my own company account to carry out the given tasks more efficiently and autonomously.

On my first weekend I explored the area around my new home a little closer and discovered a few very nice lakes and parks behind our house. In the evening I visited the English clubs for the first time. On Sunday morning we decided to join Thomas’ host family Kerstin and Rüdiger, a German couple who has been living in England for about twenty years. We went with them to Wales to see a waterfall and do some hiking in the green hills of Wales. Really nice!



2nd week, 9 - 15 July

I started my second week at VIESSMANN with a training course for installers and technicians about Viessmann’s solar products, in particular solar panels and tubes. This course was very interesting and I was already looking forward to two other courses I should be allowed to attend: one course about heat pumps and another one about gasboilers, basic and special information about the Vitodens 100 series of Viessmann.

For the rest of the week I was busy processing the service reports, but also helped two colleagues who came from Germany to help optimize the work flow at Viessmann Telford. I helped with the listing of the so called “blue bags”, the installation and safety guidelines which go with the Viessmann products. I also created lists and diagrams to overview the stored products and the storing positions.

On this week’s Wednesday we went to a typically English pub after a short city walking tour. That evening I also tried “ale” for the first time, a typical English type of beer which tastes very malty and is brewed with top-fermented hops.

At the weekend I went to Birmingham with Rüdiger, Kerstin and of course Thomas. We listened to numerous jazz bands spread all over Birmingham due to the “23rd Birmingham Jazz Festival” taking place at that time.



3rd week, 16 - 22 July

The third week started again with a training course, this time about heat pumps. I had already heard most of the things in our lessons at school and therefore managed to follow the presentation quite well and also learned some new technical terms in English.

And again, for the rest of the week I was happy to get fresh supply every time I told my colleague Zoey that I had finished the given reports. Lucky me! I also went to a “Caribbean party” and another pub that week.

My third weekend in England was a little more quiet and “canny”. The parents of my host Nick were visiting and I had some very interesting conversations with a very friendly but sometimes hard to understand Scottish grandfather.



4th week, 23 - 29 July

The following week I was busy with processing the “letters of complaint”. I also got the chance to compile my own folders with some information brochures and data sheets about Viessmann products and send them directly home via mail.

On Thursday we celebrated Thomas’ early homeward journey with a few friends. Thomas was about to fly home to Germany the following week, but only to leave again a few weeks later to go to Scotland for another yearlong study.

On Friday 27 July I finally got the opportunity to go “on sight” for the first time! I therefore went with Alan, a Viessmann technician who was usually working in “technical service” in the office, to Worksop. After some hours of driving we arrived at the huge but almost empty shop floor in which three Vitodens 300 boilers for heating the office rooms were installed and I helped as well as I could with the testings and measurements necessary for commissioning the three boilers.

After a long, long night in the clubs of Wellington and Shrewsbury I spent the rest of the weekend in a rather relaxed way and me and Thomas only did some sightseeing and shopping in Shrewsbury and Ironbridge. In Ironbridge we visited the world’s oldest Ironbridge that gave the village near Telford its name. The bridge was built in 1779.



5th and last week, 30 July - 5 August

In my last week of work I was once again concerned with the service reports but also had to make some phone calls to get several bits of information from extern Viessmann technicians. On Friday 3rd August, my last day at work, I was on sight for the second and regrettably last time. This time I went with John, another Viessmann technician from the technical service department. It took us about 3 hours to get to Anglesey, an island at the coast of Wales.

With the installer there we looked at a few installations which had shown problems and dysfunction to decide how to solve the problems or if the failed products where within warranty how to replace them. After that we visited two faultlessly working solar installations, thus the panels and the piping. At about nine o’clock in the evening and after a very interesting last day of work and nice completion of my internship I arrived at Telford at my home of the past five weeks.



5 August - "..finally back “home” again"

On Sunday 5 August, I got picked up at eleven o’clock in the Morning by Kevin, Mrs. Wards husband, who took me to Birmingham airport. After another exhausting day of travelling and anticipation to see my family and especially my girlfriend again I arrived in Munich at about seven o’clock in the evening. At nine o’clock pm I was finally back “home” again!



Thanks a lot!

Concluding I want to thank everyone who helped me arranging this internship, especially I want to thank Prof. Weissensteiner and Prof. Pixner at the HTL, IFA in Vienna and Viessmann Ltd for giving me the opportunity to do this very interesting internship which will most likely help me in my further occupational and also private development.

I hope that many other students in the following years get such an opportunity and that this report encourages a few of them to decide for similar projects.



I'll end my report with some more pictures and impressions of my internship in England.