An international setting, engaging lectures by academic staff from Europe and specialists with practical experience, workshops, excursions and new information - this was what was on offer at the first season of GSBI Summer School organized by ŠKODA AUTO University from 30th August to 12th September in cooperation with its partner universities from abroad. The GSBI project was visited by 30 students from the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Poland and Slovakia. Due to the great interest in the Summer School from the students' side, students also held a second module of the school (funded from out-of-project sources), which was attended by 22 students from the Czech Republic and India. Teaching was provided by a team of academics and professionals with practical experience, mainly from Logistic Planning, Lean Centre and ŠKODA Parts Centre. The guarantor of this event was the Department of Logistics, Quality Control and Automotive Technology of ŠKODA AUTO University.

ŠKODA AUTO University has already had several years of experience with organising summer schools. "The current summer school project, however, is much more comprehensive and is only one part of ŠKODA AUTO University's collective project, in which it cooperates with its partner universities from abroad. An international team of academic staff work on topics and outputs from the projects. Students working together create case studies which will be subsequently used directly in classes", said Lenka Stejskalová, the vice-rector for foreign relations about the Summer School.

This year's summer school was held with the support of ŠKODA AUTO, whose employees were directly or indirectly involved in teaching the students. Also employees of ŠKODA AUTO, Department of Logistics Planning prepared interesting lectures on logistics. During the two-week program, students also had the opportunity to visit a variety of operations at ŠKODA AUTO, such as the press shop, welding shop, ŠKODA Parts Centre, Lean Centre or ŠKODA Museum. As part of the accompanying program, they also visited a glass factory in Poděbrady or a brewery in Nymburk.

And how did the students themselves evaluate the summer school?

"At the summer school I liked all the excursions and also the tutors who were very helpful all the time. Mainly thanks to the excursions we gained a lot of interesting and practical information."

Anuj Shah, Parul University, India

"The most valuable thing that I learned at this school is to communicate with others. This was the main reason why I decided to participate in the summer school - to improve my communication skills."

Stefan Ewert, HTW Dresden, Germany

"I am glad that I could take part in the summer school not only because it deepened my knowledge in the area of logistics and the application of methods used in practice for our project, but also because of the opportunity to work in an international team, which was very motivating for us."

Gabriela Žiaková, ŠKODA AUTO University, the Czech Republic