A group of 26 students and 3 teachers embarked on a Business educational trip to Germany.
The programme of the trip outlined below.
Day 1: Wed, 15 Dec – The group was picked up at the Nuremberg Airport by a coach Bus to visit the Coca Cola bottling Plant at Weimar. We were treated to a presentation about how Coca-Cola started and their bottling process. We proceeded to the factory where we experienced how they recycle bottles to make new ones to bottle the drinks. There were machines that washes, rinses, cleans, and bottles the drinks; labels and pack at the plant. The only manpower available was individuals driving forklifts to move products from one place to the other.
After an exciting experience and jetlagged, we returned to the hotel to check in and have dinner. Light out – 10:30pm
Day 2: Thurs, 16 Dec – We had breakfast at the Hosel at 8:00am. During breakfast we had an orientation on the entire trip and the places that will be visiting and laid down some dos and don’ts to guide the students on the trip.
We departed around 9:00 am to visit Herzogenaurach, Addidas Group Headquarters. It was a huge premises and students were amazed at how organized and appealing their shop looked. The marketing mix, strategies and tactics employed by Adidas were explored.
We took off to lunch around 1:30pm. Then we made a brief stop at one of the top comprehensive research universities in Germany with approximately 40,000 students, the Friedrich – Alexander University Erlangen – Nuremberg
We went straight to the hotel to relax and after dinner we had a reflection session spearheaded by Mr. Darko
Day 3: Friday, 17 Dec – Breakfast – 8: 00am
After breakfast we took a ride of about 1hr to Mercedes Benz at Sindelfingen near Stuttgart. This is where robots are soon to take the place of manpower and human labour for the most stages of their assembling process.
It was a fascinating to see robots fix, turn, and screw, adjust and even spray the cars during it stages. We learnt here that very soon, there would be no need for manpower and human labor because it slows production. The robots were fast and accurate which boost the business of Mercedes Benz.
We spent the whole afternoon in the Plant and took off for lunch at 2:00pm. We made a stop and walked through the beaming and busy Christmas market in the heart of Nuremberg. This was where students purchased most of their Christmas gifts for their loved ones
We later went to the hotel to relax and took a cold night walk to experience the night life in Nuremberg after dinner. We experienced their business life at night. Lights out – 9:30pm
Day 4: Sat, 18 Dec – Breakfast 8:00am
We took a city tour around Nuremberg. We went to the Nazi Grounds and the old colosseum at the old township of Nuremberg, where most people have vacated their residence because of the winter.
We visited a Staedler museum, where there were varieties of Stationery ranging from pens to color pencils. Students walked through the shops and we had an in house guide who explained how the pencils are made and demonstrated manually how it was done in the 70’s. The Staedler shop was close to a busy Christmas market, we then took advantage to walk through the market, interacting with people and natives of Nuremberg.
We drove back to the hotel to relax and pack for the next day after dinner.
Lights out – 9:30pm
Day 5: Sun, 19 Dec – Breakfast – 8:00am
We were ready by 9:00am and we took a long 3hour drive to Stuttgart, the second city to continue with the trip.
We arrived in Stuttgart around 1:00pm. We had lunch together at a Chinese restaurant.
We took a city tour around the beautiful city of Stuttgart. We saw the Prince of Stuttgart Palace known as the Solitude palace. We also drove pass an old castle which was dated back to 950. We went the Schlossplatz, which was filled with different monuments and statutes with their different meaning of existence. We drove to the Stuttgart’s hill cityscape from atop a place called Korshole, where you get a great view of the whole of the city. Then we drove to the TV tower in Fernsehturm Stuttgart a 216.61 m telecommunications tower. We took a lift to the top of the tower where we saw the whole of Stuttgart and some neighboring areas. It was a great beautiful view, very organized and neat. The purpose of the tour was to brief the history students about some of the true happenings in Germany. Our last stop was at the Mercedes Benz Museum where we saw all the different types of Benz cars produced over the times.
We arrived back at the hotel in Stuttgart around 5:30pm. We had dinner and had a reflection time spearheaded by Elizabeth.
Students reflected on how seeing things make what is been thought in the classroom clearer.
We had dinner at 6:30pm at the hotel. Lights out – 9:30pm
Day 6: Mon, 20 Dec – Being the last day of the trip, we relaxed after breakfast and around 10:00a, we took a ride to Milaneo Mall just around our hotel for shopping.
We had lunch at Mc Donald’s inside the Mall and continued to shop. We were picked by the bus around 4:00pm,
We took the rest of the time to pack and get ready to come home.
We had dinner at 6:00pm. During dinner we had an open forum about the trip and a few reflections before lights out at 9:00pm
Day 7: Tuesday, 21 Dec – Arrival at Stuttgart airport 8:00am,with a departure at 12:40pm
Arrived in transit at Schiphol airport (Amsterdam) at 1:30pm and then departed from Schiphol airport at 1:45pm. Arrived at KIA, at 8:45pm.
The trip was extremely educational, fun, and enlightening. Students were exposed to a variety of production processes as well business procedures. They had a first-hand experience of the lessons taught in the classroom and on the whole, we attest to the fact that the purpose of this trip was greatly met: students really appreciated its relevance as some students took contacts from the various companies to assist them in their various academic research work.
We would like to extend our profound gratitude to the Principal, Dr. Ken Darvall for his support throughout the preparation period to the end and also to the senior management team for making this trip possible.
