22.08.2023
Karsten Schnake, the Member of the Board of Directors responsible for Purchasing, awarded Procurement/Purchasing Certificates to successful students of the Škoda Auto University. The ceremony, which took place on the 16th of August in the ŠKODA Museum, was attended by Eva Jaderná, PhD, a graduate of the SAU, Camara Safiatou, Mr Schnake’s assistant, and Iva Šonková and Kateřina Těhanová, representatives of the Procurement Academy.
Skoda Auto University Bachelor’s and Master’s students can become real professionals with purchasing experience. The Strategic Purchasing Foundations certificate was developed for undergraduate students, while students of the subsequent Master’s programmes can obtain the Advanced Strategic Purchasing certificate.
This year, the following students have successfully obtained their professional certificates: Student of Bachelor’s Degree, Ms Eva Vágenknechtová, Ms Michaela Blehová, Mr Martin Syrovátka, Mr Dominik Smetana, and Mr Bc Tomáš Hesoun, student of the follow-up Engineering Degree.
Students who wanted to obtain the certificate completed selected courses in the field of purchasing, spent a one-semester internship in the Škoda Auto Purchasing Department, and prepared and successfully defended a final thesis focusing on a purchasing-related topic.
Eva Vágenknechtová wrote a thesis on “The process of categorising suppliers in a particular company”. Michaela Blehová focused on the topic “Issues of recruiting new employees in the General Purchasing Department of Škoda Auto a.s.” In his final thesis, Dominik Smetana assessed the subject of “Chatbot for automated negotiations in ABC company”. Martin Syrovátka studied the topic of “Changes in purchasing processes with regard to the growing importance of digitalisation and e-commerce.” Last but not least, Tomáš Hesoun successfully defended his thesis on “Quality assessment tools for suppliers in the automotive industry.”
Students deepen their knowledge and professional skills, become more familiar with the processes and gain a greater insight into the field of automotive purchasing while earning their professional certificates. The professional certificates are issued under the auspices of the Purchasing Department of Škoda Auto a.s. The way how the university cooperates with Škoda Auto a.s. is appreciated not only by Škoda and SAU representatives but also by the students themselves: “At SAU, I really appreciate the wide range of professional certificates we can gain, enabling us to combine our professional knowledge with the world of work. Personally, I found the internship in the Kaufteilmanagement department, where I worked on my final thesis, to be the most rewarding and challenging,” said one of the award-winning students, Mr Tomáš Hesoun. His colleague Michaela Blehová added that the certificates also gave the students an advantage over other graduates: “I studied Human Resource Management as a Bachelor’s degree student. The Procurement/Purchasing Certificate allowed me to branch out from my original field of study, gain expertise in Purchasing, and distinguish myself from other students.”
