Resuming the BMW Group Internship Program

The entire Academy team are very happy to say that we are officially resuming the BMW Group Internship program this year, after a couple of years on hold due to international travel restrictions and general disruptions around the world. The BMW Group Internship program started in 2016 with Industrial Design student Dylan Sheppard, and since then it rapidly grew traction as more QUT design students completed paid internships with BMW in Germany. This BMW internship program was arguably the ignition source for establishing the Academy and structure that we have today. It remains the core of the BMW Group / QUT partnership and is administered through the Academy under our Internship Program.

Over the years the number of teams and departments who have welcomed QUT students has grown, in addition to the number of students accepted into the program; as of March 2023 there have been a total of 35 QUT design students accepted for internships within the Group. Now that we have confirmed the names of the 2023 Interns, our Founder + Lead A/Prof Dr Rafael Gomez and Design Associate Jordan Domjahn have noted down some of their thoughts regarding the BMW Internship program.  

Rafael – Relaunching our Cornerstone Program

The BMW internship program is perhaps the foundational program that helped establish this unique collaboration between BMW Group and QUT. It is beyond exciting to see this program re-established and to have so many interns heading overseas to work with this incredible company. And for the first time ever we are not only sending Industrial Design students, but we are also sending a double-degree Design and Engineering student to BMW Group and idealworks. Furthermore, as our partnership and collaborations expand, we are happy to say that we are sending interns not only to Germany, but also to work at Hams Hall factory in the UK.

We can’t wait to update you on the progress of our BMW Group interns. They are involved in an exciting journey which will hopefully propel them further in their design career. They join a very unique group of students who have had the opportunity to travel and work at the worlds premium automotive company – and get to enjoy being in a thriving environment to live and play in.

We thank our incredible partners at BMW Group and idealworks for having the confidence in our QUT students and who continue to provide these exclusive opportunities to them.

Jordan – My Thoughts and Supporting Role

As a previous BMW intern (2019) it is great to see that the program is still going strong and that there is continued interest from students each year. My personal internship experience was filled with positives – I learnt a lot, met new people, saw a lot, and the icing on the cake was being offered a job at the Academy when I got home to Brisbane. To see that there’s a lot of genuine interest from students who are chasing opportunities like this, is awesome. It’s also good to see that most of our 2023 BMW interns came through the Academy in-house Internship Program

While it was unfortunate that we couldn’t send interns to BMW across 2021 and 2022 (luckily most of the 2020 interns happened to travel and get settled in Germany prior to lockdowns), it was a necessary move. It took a while to get the ball rolling with the various BMW teams last year in preparation for the early 2023 intake, but we are now on track and have settled back into a rhythm with the program. As we resume the internships my goal is on documenting the application, contract and Visa processes, plus any tips and tricks as much as possible for future interns. It’s always a daunting experience when you have to pack up and move overseas (even more so when there’s a language barrier) and understand their processes and structures around Visa’s, so my aim is to make these steps as streamlined and easy as can be to remove some of the stress for future interns – based on information provided by current, recent and other interns before my time.

I’m also keen on expanding the network of BMW Group teams and design disciplines involved in these internships. In 2023 we have 8 Industrial Design students and graduates going to idealworks (both Digital Design and Hardware sub-teams), Tech Office Munich, Logistics Robotics and Plant Hams Hall in the UK. Fortunately for us Christian (Plant Hams Hall) had already reached out to us last year asking for QUT students after moving from the Logistics Robotics team in Munich. Moving forward we have our sights on the Digital Products departments and creating opportunities for students from Interaction Design and/or Visual Communication Design. BMW Motorrad is another team on our radar, and I’m sure there will be additional departments that we’ll explore in future.

In short, it’s great to have the internship program resuming and see that students are super excited and focused on making their international placements a reality. I’m fortunate to be able to support this initiative for QUT students and help it grow and succeed. Hopefully this time next year we are typing another blog post similar to this one, but instead announcing a larger number of interns and new BMW Group teams.

BMW Group Interns for 2023:
(Munich, Germany)                                                                                         (Birmingham, England)

Idealworks                                                                                                          BMW Plant Hams Hall
Isaac Bonora (Digital Design)                                                                      Pieter Barkhuizen
Emily Campling (Hardware)                                                                          David Quick       

BMW TechOffice Munich
Hsuan Lee
Emily Boehmer
Daniel Fisher (accepted into program)

Logistics Innovation +Robotics
Benjamin Cornelissen
Damian Noviello

As always, thanks for reading,

A/Prof. Dr Rafael Gomez + Jordan Domjahn
Academy Founder + Lead / Design Associate