Introductory internships at KOSTAL

We recently welcomed 31 year seven pupils from Fichte high school to our first introductory internship at KOSTAL Industrie Elektrik. The aim of this new concept is to explain to young people all about physics and solar power, as well as how a company works and wherever possible to do this before they have to decide whether to focus on STEM subjects at school or not.

Following this vision and after a short presentation about the company, we went outside to look at the PV systems to explain series and parallel connections and voltage calculations

. The pupils were then fascinated when we showed them direct and alternating current on an oscilloscope and the group also had no problems understanding the PIKO Solar Portal. Dr. Armin von Preetzmann, Vice President of R&D, and Markus Vetter, Head of Marketing and Communication, were surprised at how keen and motivated our group was to complete the tasks and were amazed when all their hands shot up when jointly comparing solutions. In the afternoon we joined Uwe Schulz, Head of Production Planning, and Rocco Maroni, Production Shift Supervisor, in production to watch a PIKO being manufactured first hand.

Because this was the first time that the pupils had had any contact with a company, in small groups we worked through the jobs of the individual departments and the relevant internal and external relationships. 

This paved the way for them to understand how an organisation is structured (taking the example of KOSTAL) and transfer this to other companies.

Not only did the pupils learn something about renewable energy, they also discovered that the organisational structure of a company can be very complex and that it takes a lot of members of staff to cover the entire value-added chain. By the end of the afternoon, we were able to say with certainty that the day had inspired the participants and we had enjoyed lively discussions and plenty of fun too.