Archive for category: In-house

HTL students from OPAVA gain practical experience at GST

Students from the HTL for mechanical engineering from OPAVA – SŠPU Opava – úvodní stránka – are currently completing their Erasmus traineeship at GST.

Only the best students are allowed to apply this kind of internship. If the letter of motivation is convincing, they get the opportunity to complete their internship abroad. The students are accommodated in Vienna as part of the Erasmus program and commute to Sierndorf by train.

With two weeks behind them, the students were able to get acquainted with many areas of our company. GST offers practical experience in the production and mechanical design departments as part of the internship. They are coached and accompanied by our experienced designer DI Vera Sucha, who lives in Brno and travels to GST on a daily basis. As a graduate of the Technical University CVUT Praha – Czech Technical University Prague, she is a role model for the four young students when it comes to mechanical engineering.

In an informal interview, the trainees were asked how they like working at GST:

“The activities in the mechanical design department are very interesting. The 3D program runs in German language, but thanks to intuition and experience, we are still able to work with it very efficiently.”

The two trainees who are currently working in the mechanical production department feel particularly comfortable because they can work together with colleagues of the same age who have also completed their training at GST. Because of everybody speaking English, there is no language barrier between them and if certain technical terms are unclear, translation tools make short work of problems of that nature. Many areas such as the “engraving area for machine plates”, the “spindle room” and the “assembly of assemblies” are presented and activities in these areas are taught.

And what do the young trainees think about their stay in Austria?

 „We are fans of the ÖBB, it is always on time, well equipped and clean”, the way to and from work is rather hectic: „In Vienna, people are constantly on the run, whether on the way to the subway or anywhere else, there is hustle and bustle everywhere”. They enjoy their spare time, including weekend trips to i.e. the Technical Museum in Vienna, which they found to be quite interesting.

But not everything works perfectly: “The stove in the apartment always causes problems, but now it has been replaced” and “Unfortunately, the Austrian beer doesn’t taste as good as the Czech one”. 😉

All in all, the four young people find their stay in Austria very exciting and praise the internship very highly. Some of them could even imagine a life in Austria, although probably not in Vienne, but its more rural surroundings like Sierndorf.

We would like to thank the students for their interest, their cooperation and the overall great exchange!

As part of the 30th anniversary, the employees and their families took a look back on the company’s history and celebrated together. The event was held in the company’s production hall. Speeches were held by not only GST’s managing directors Franz Hein and Günter Hacker, but also the mayor of Sierndorf, Mr. Ernst Kreuzinger.

On behalf of the staff, Mr. Leopold Fröhlich gave a humoristic review of the company’s evolution from his perspective as a longtime employee. Our sales representative in Germany – Mr. Rainer Balles, offered words of greeting and congratulations via telephone message. The Balles company is working for GST for 2 generations already and Germany still is the most important export market for GST.

The Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce also congratulated for the jubilee and its Vice President Dr. Moser presented an award for 30 years of successful business activity as a company and employer.
After a leisurely lunch, the celebration turned into an open day starting at 1:00 p.m., at which our gates were opened for everyone interested in taking a closer look at our everyday work processes.

A particularly large number of young people took this opportunity to take a look behind the scenes. GST offers apprenticeship programs in the fields of “Metal technician” and “Construction” within our company. Accordingly, the company is an attractive employer for those looking for an apprenticeship.

But not only local people, but also business partners from other countries showed up to celebrate with GST. Long-standing suppliers over the years became friends of the company. In summary, we are very happy to say that the celebration was a big success and used by many sides for a relaxed exchange.

Fact sheet

In 1992, the GST company started overhauling machine tools under the name „GST – Gesellschaft für Schleiftechnik GmbH“. The first new machine was soon sold to Volkswagen AG Germany, and thereby secured our economic success.
The technical know-how was there from the very beginning, since the company was founed out of necessity, because the former employer of the GST’s founders quit the “Heid-AG” in Stockerau, thus giving up the areas of grinding technology and lathes.
Today the company operates internationally under the name GST Grinder GmbH. Around 100 people work at the Sierndorf production site. Customers are located primarily in Germany, but our high-quality machines are sold to places as far away as China and Mexico!