NAEMI SAKARIA - STUDENT: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS INFORMATICS (HONOURS)

Brief: Exchange student at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

You recently went to Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany on a student exchange program. Please tell us more about that. Where did you go, how did you get to know about it, how long were you there and in what activities you were involved in. I visited Flensburg University of Applied Sciences in Northern Germany under the student exchange partnership between the Polytechnic of Namibia and Flensburg University of applied science from the 12-29 September 2015. I got to know about this program as a word of mouth when I was attending classes at Polytechnic.

I was involved in various activities, such as exposure to different logistical, IT and production sites around the city of Flensburg. Another amazing experience was having the opportunity to do practical exercises on the Enterprise Resource Planning System. This is a world’s market leading resource planning software. We also did simulations on various tasks revolving around the concept of “logistics and supply chain management”.

How would you compare Namibia to Germany, in terms of culture, climate, sport, transportation etc.? Just like Namibia, Germany is a multicultural country with fascinating integrated cultures. However it gets colder than our country. They love sport mainly handball and soccer. Transport wise, they have an advanced and large railway system that transports its large population to different destinations in an efficient way.

What did you do on your leisure time? I had an opportunity to visit remarkable tourist attractions such as Glucksburg’s waterfront and its amazing castle. Other places visited include Hamburg and Denmark.

How did this international experience benefit you? And what would you consider as a special highlight for you? My stay in Flensburg made me understand things from a broader perspective. Development requires expertise and artisans to build the country in terms of infrastructures and I have seen a number of them during my stay. Another interesting highlight for me was acknowledging the level of self-sufficiency in many ways.

Success quote: “If you really want to do something, you will find a way, if you don’t, you will find an excuse.”