Introduction into internships

Introduction

In the Bachelor’s program in Aerospace at TUM, you must complete an industrial internship consisting of a pre-study internship and a specialized internship with a total minimum duration of 14 weeks (8 weeks pre-study + 6 weeks specialized). Both parts may be completed either separately or in one continuous period, as long as the total duration and content requirements (fields, weeks per field) are fulfilled.

During the internship, absences of more than three days (e.g. due to sickness, vacation, company holidays) must be made up; public holidays are the only exception. If you have long-term limitations certified by a doctor, missing time can be compensated by suitable alternative activities after consulting the internship office.

Pre-Internship

The pre-study internship provides basic experience in manufacturing technology and related work areas to support your later design and engineering courses. It is usually completed in industrial manufacturing, but can also be done in development or service/operations within the aerospace or related industries.

You should complete the pre-study internship before starting your studies, and according to the guidelines, all documents must normally be submitted to the internship office no later than two weeks before the end of your second semester of enrollment. If you cannot meet this timeline, you can also complete the pre-study internship later; the submission deadline can be extended up to the end of your studies by sending a simple, informal email, asking for extension of the deadline, to internship.asg@ed.tum.de.

Main framework:

  • Work areas: at least two of the three areas A) Manufacturing, B) Development, C) Service/Operations must be covered across the whole industrial internship.
  • Minimum duration per company stay for recognition: 1 continuous week.
  • To count one work area as “covered”, you need at least 4 consecutive weeks in that area.
  • The pre-study internship should ideally be completed before starting the degree; the default submission deadline is two weeks before the end of the second semester.

Typical activities include manufacturing processes (e.g. machining, joining, assembly), quality assurance, development and design tasks, production planning, and maintenance work. The weekly working hours follow the regular collective working hours in Germany.

Required documents for recognition:

  • A written report signed by you, indicating whether the internship belongs to area A, B, or C; for the pre-study internship this is typically 3–4 pages of continuous text describing work steps, special issues, etc..
  • A work reference from the company stating at least the internship period, your tasks, and your social conduct.
  • The official internship certificate for the Bachelor’s program in Aerospace.
  • Forms and templates

If you completed several internship periods at the same company, you can list them together in one confirmation document; in this case, add extra rows for the “from–to” fields so that each separate period is clearly indicated.

Specialized internship

The specialized internship is designed to give broader insight into your future professional field, including technical, economic, and organizational aspects as well as the societal role of engineering. It offers considerable freedom, allowing you to choose areas and tasks that match your interests and available opportunities.

Key framework:

  • Minimum duration: 6 weeks, usually completed in the 5th semester; it generally only makes sense after the 4th semester.
  • Credits: 8 ECTS are awarded for the specialized internship.
  • Alternative: you can replace it with a 6-week project seminar at a Chair worth 8 ECTS; this then counts as a separate component.
  • Content-wise, it can be performed in any of the same areas: manufacturing, development, or service/operations.

Recommended tasks for the specialized internship include project management activities (planning, coordination, technical/economic monitoring), technical supervision and operation of complex systems, sales and marketing of technical products, technical company planning, and investigations into the necessity, requirements, and impacts of technical systems or products on environment and society. Regardless of your specific work, you should gain an overview of the company’s products and services and understand how the departments you visit fit into the overall organization; this should be reflected in your internship report.

For proof of completion, you must submit:

  • A more detailed report describing your tasks (around 5 pages as a guideline) or, alternatively, a technical report written for the internship supervisor, together with company and organization descriptions as specified in the guidelines.
  • A company work reference and the official internship certificate, analogous to the pre-study internship requirements.
  • Forms and templates

Introduction

During the course of the bachelor’s degree, students must complete professional internships lasting a total of five weeks by the end of the 6th semester. These do not have to be completed in one go, nor do they have to be completed at the beginning of the program. The internship counts for 5 credits towards the Bachelor’s degree, but does not count towards the degree progress check.

The practical work can be carried out at various places in industry, administration and research, such as engineering offices that mainly carry out surveying work, or a specialized authority. In the case of the choice of non-relevant companies, prior agreement must be reached with the Internship Office.

Proof is provided to the Internship Office by submitting a certificate from the employer, which must contain information about the place, type and time of the activity.

The placement of internships is not the responsibility of the Internship Office, but is done on the student’s own initiative.

Source: BayernCollab Wiki Geodesy and Geoinformation Section Students / Professional Internship

Places of internship

As stated in the introduction, internships can be carried out in:

  • surveying offices of local administration
  • engineering offices of companies
  • research

Here are a few useful links for offices:

Source for some of the links: BayernCollab Wiki Geodesy and Geoinformation Section Students / Professional Internship

University contact

Internship documents (report and certificate from the company/institution) should be submitted to Mr. Oliver Geißendörfer.
Location: Munich Main Campus, Room 0501.EG.119
Email: praktikum.bsc-gg@ed.tum.de

Source: BayernCollab Wiki Geodesy and Geoinformation Section Students – Chapter Praktikum – B.Sc. G. u. G

Student advice

A few recommendations from Geodesy students would be:

  • Look up offices on Google Maps and contact them, they usually have a website with contact data
  • Contacting offices can also be as simple as giving them a call, as they usually have a phone number

Nach oben scrollen