Pankl Racing Systems AG and local education institute team up to empower future engineers

Pankl Racing Systems AG specializes in developing and manufacturing engine and drivetrain components for racing cars, high performance vehicles and aircraft. They recently team up with HTL Kapfenberg to provide a three-day workshop for mechanical engineering students.

HTL Kapfenberg is an engineering-focused secondary school in Austria. Last summer the school was looking for a partner with deep expertise in system-administration and working with Siemens NX Software. Michael Ofner, Head of IT at Pankl, offered their support for this project and collaborated with HTL Kapfenberg for future recruitment of engineers.

The school implemented NX in their core curriculum. Then the collaboration led to a hands-on workshop to give students the opportunity to present their knowledge and learn new skills from the experts of Pankl.

Core topics of the workshop were design, simulation and data management with Siemens NX and Teamcenter software. In addition, the students had the opportunity to get insight into the processes of a leading company via presentations by the Pankl mentors. The workshop was led by experts and long-term employees at Pankl; Bernhard Drosg, Marko Muhrer and Gerald Waskan.

Pankl issued a certificate to the students for participating in the workshop. Next they will get an exclusive guided tour at Pankl. Due to the success of this workshop, all participants agreed that they would like to repeat this in the future.

In our recent research with Tech Clarity on closing the skills gap, manufacturers noted they need to take an increased role in engaging with academia on curriculum. Pankl and HTL Kapfenberg show us a great way to get started.