Aerobloggen

Hi there, we are the new graduate engineers and we are the ones who will continue to brighten your day!

On Monday, the 4^th of September, we started our careers as graduate engineers here at GKN Aerospace. In this year’s edition we are five graduates in the local graduate program at GKN Aerospace Sweden and two graduates who have almost the whole world as their workplace through GKN PLC´s International Graduate Program (IGP). Now in the beginning of our program we have been strengthened in numbers by two American graduates who attend the equivalent graduate program with GKN Aerospace North America. They have just started their international placement here in Trollhättan where they will stay for the next six months.

Shortly we will upload our presentations where you will get an opportunity to get to know us better, but in brief we are:

Local graduates

Alexander Hall
Kasper Janehag
Lisa Markusson
Emma Winblad von Walter
Maria Östman

Global Graduates

Philip Simonsson
Signe Vallin

As many of you already know, the glorious graduate program here in Trollhättan has been around for over 30 years. Flying is an association for both new and old graduates which organizes exclusive events. A very fun part of being a graduate is the strong community that exists between new and old graduates, where many graduates (~ 75%) are still working within GKN. As new graduates we have already attended a Flying lunch and an interactive lecture held last Tuesday by our former graduate Torgny Stenholm, Head of Services and Special Products (SSP), and former graduate in 1988. SSP is one of the two business units in GKN Aerospace Sweden, which includes space and military operations. Among 20 engaged new and old graduates participated with engaged spirits with a lot of reflections and questions which created interesting discussions on the topic. It was a fun and educational event!

Right now we are doing workshop training in our facilities where we get to learn more about GKN’s products and processes, but more about that it in a later post!

Today’s Proverb
New brooms sweep best

See you later!
Trainees 17/18

Our year as young graduates at GKN Aerospace has been raging fast, but even so we have experienced incredibly much along the way! We have come to know a vast number of different departments, people and roles at Sweden’s largest (and finest!) aerospace company. We have visited other sites within the GKN plc. group and countless other exciting companies within Sweden as well as in Europe. We have gained contact with and been inspired by the most fascinating people in all possible fields of work and business roles. We have traveled hundreds of pleasant miles in our minibus and, most importantly, we have become a lovely new little family and friends for life!

Therefore, it is not without sorrow that we now leave room for a new year of enthusiastic youngsters. On Monday this week, a new group of GKN graduates started their journey and we welcome them to our comapny with open hearts. You readers of the blog will soon get the chance to know them better as well.

But do not worry too much about losing us. We promise to return in a near future with exciting guest posts from our upcoming international practices.

Until then – thanks and good bye from the graduates of 2016-2017!

One year has passed, a year filled with so many interesting meetings and exciting challenges. It’s sad in so many ways that the program is coming to its end. Unfortunately, from the very beginning its end has been as inevitable as death itself.

Now, new challenges are arising, one of them an abroad internship for 6 months. Like Andreas and Joakim, I will also go to the Netherlands. However, I will move beyond the walls of the entire GKN plc and instead go to ESA (European Space Agency). This is the first time since we became GKN that trainees are allowed to go outside of GKN for their abroad placements, something we have been fighting for several months to realize.
That we now have the possibility to move outside of GKN should of course be recognized as a huge success, mostly as the sole purpose of the trainee program is to bridge cooperation and create networks, not only within GKN but also within the heart of the European industry.

There are a lot on the to-do list the next few weeks, much of it concerning accommodation, car, insurances and other paperwork. Then, of course, one must wrap up unfinished projects and delegate work tasks. Maybe you wonder what I will do at ESA? Well, at the moment of writing, I together with my supervisor is working on a directive for the project. However, I can reveal that it will involve their AM processes and material studies. I will also work to try initiating a collaboration within additive manufacturing.

I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and I will do all I can to take advantage of it. This will be very exciting indeed, towards the Netherlands and beyond!

Hello world!

 

A full year has passed since I started here as a graduate engineer. It’s gone by so incredibly fast. It is now less than a month until I leave Trollhättan for half a year. Leaving feels a bit melancholy, but I look forward to the following six months a lot! During these coming time I will be working at Fokker Services in Hoofddorp, right outside Amsterdam. According to their HR department I will be the first person from GKN to be stationed there for work, which feels exciting. Fokker also have their own graduate program and I’ve been told they are considering sending a graduate for placement here in Sweden as a response.

I risk sounding like a broken record – but I really look forward to these coming six months so much. I’m very hopeful at the moment about the whole thing and I can’t wait to get going. There was a time when I was a bit stressed out about finding accommodation, but I have now booked the a place for the first few weeks and the rest I can handle when I’m actually there.

The place I’ve booked is called The Student Hotel and is situated about a kilometer west of the city center. I’m glad I found something so central, which means my free time will be much closer to the buzz. The Student Hotel is partly an apartment hotel, but also a regular hotel and like the name suggests it also hosts student apartments. It has a few common areas with ping pong and pool tables and I think I might quickly find a few friends there which I’m hopeful about.

Anyways I’m very excited to soon be going and as you notice I’m looking forward a lot to the whole ordeal. From all the experience and new things I will learn at work, the experience of living in another country and all the new friends I will meet. This will be six great months!

 

Over and out!

Joakim

 

ps This year has been so much fun and I’ve been having a great time. The place I liked the most was my home department, where I will be working indefinitely when I get back to Sweden. Looking forward to this so much as well! J ds