Practicum at Volvo Car Company Göteborg

Stefan Frank, Robert Sommer, Manuel Krempl, Franz Wieser, Thomas Lemmerer

Five pupils from our school (four from the renamed 5 MUA and one from the 5 MTB) got the opportunity to go to Gothenburg (Sweden) for some practical training. After several formal meetings with our sponsors IFA ( EU ) and instructions from Prof. Mag. Anton Pixner, we began our trip on the 11th of August. We departed from Linz Hörsching Airport at 14:05 arriving in Frankfurt where we met the other 5 participants from Niederösterreich, Burgenland and Salzburg. At the Frankfurt Airport, we used the down time to buy some goods at the duty free shops. After another 65 minutes on the plane, we finally arrived at Gothenburg Airport, where our coordinators from Volvo, Stellan From and Eric Alexanderson, were waiting for us. The situation had changed a bit because we had some trouble with our luggage. When we finished loading our packs into the 2 Volvo taxis, we continued on our journey to reach our new home in the area called Frölunda. In our flats our coordinators briefed us on what next week would be like, and of course, it looked very attractive. In order to become better acquainted with the city, we were invited on a sightseeing tour by boat through the canals and the harbor of Gothenburg. At the Volvo Car Company plant they took us on a detailed tour trough the car and truck assembly lines. We then met the GTG class, for the first time and they took us to the cinema on Wednesday. They also taught us some Swedish vocabulary and a bit of their culture. We subsequently got our ID – cards, which gave us access to the whole plant. Finally on Friday, we received our work clothes and visited our work place for the first time. We were taken two by two to different departments which started work at different times. Some of us began work at 6:30, others at 8 o'clock. At the end of the day after work, our weekend began and we looked forward to the city's nightlife. Swedish nightlife turned out to be bad for us because most of the pubs had an age limit of 20 and most of us were only 18. But were lucky, because there was a big festival called kalaset taking place that week in Gothenburg . There were lots of people in the streets and the atmosphere was sensational. We thought Monday, was going to be our first real working day, but it turned out not to be. We went around the factory and watched how the production lines worked. During the following days we got more interesting things to do and we even had enough time to contact our relatives and friends in Austria by E – Mail and phone. In a short time, we got to know many people, who were very friendly and could speak very good English. One of them was Maria Söderström, an Austrian woman who has lived in Gothenburg for nearly 50 years. She and her husband worked for Volvo. She invited us to eat a typical Swedish meal and gave us tips on what was worth seeing in Sweden. The big highlight was in the final week. Mr. Göran Carlzon, organized a test-drive of some of the vehicles at Volvo's Demo track. We had the opportunity to test nearly all of the new Volvo cars with different horse powers. The brand new XC 90 was not available for a test-drive, because this car is already in the test phase. After they saw that we are able to handle the cars competently, the company lent us 2 V70's for the final weekend. On Saturday morning, we drove past some big lakes to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. The speed limit was 110 km/h on the highway, and that was very unusual for us, but we got to see the beautiful countryside. This weekend was a big highlight for us. During the 5th and final week our bosses invited us to eat with them, and we visited the school class again. We told them about our adventures and experiences in a short presentation. The five weeks went very fast and it was hard to say goodbye to our new friends and the beautiful city. On the 14th of September, one of our bosses organized a taxi, which brought us to the airport where we began our journey home. We arrived in Salzburg at 18:35 at the Wolfgang Amadeus Airport and were very happy to be home again.

Looking back we can say that it was a really good experience for us to work in a foreign country and learn something about other peoples and cultures. We want to give special thanks to our sponsors, the IFA and the HTL Vöcklabruck and also to the Club of the friends of the HTL Vöcklabruck. Without them it would have been expensive for us. And last but not least, a big thank you to Mr. Anton Pixner for his efforts without which, we would not have been able to go on this very helpful placement.