Report on Erasmus+ training
(by Kamil Haładyn)

This Summer I had the possibility to participate in 2 months practice on Tenerife with the company Uroborus SL (Travel Tenerife and Astronomy and Science Centre). I've joined the international team of astronomers and those who make the company running. During this period I've worked as an astronomer assistant. I had the unprecedented possibility to practice my knowledge in the field of astronomy, both directly by operating the telescopes and by finding astronomical objects. The possibility to work on the best sky in the whole World gave me a new perception of practical astronomy. After coming back to Poland even with low visibility I am able to recreate the star patterns and find objects not visible with the naked eye. Additionally working manually with the telescopes (not using computerised robotic equipment) gave me the best training in woking with all kind of telescopes as well as being able to perform the maintenance. After 2 months of working with all kinds of people with absolutely different backgrounds I've learned to be able to explain the most sophisticated issues in the way pleasurable and understandable by everyone. I am now ready to perform my own astronomical shows and share my passion with others.

During my practice I was also involved in every day life of the company. That gave me great understanding of the issues each person deals with as well as how aspects I would expect unimportant, influence the working of a company. I've learnt characteristics of different areas such as promotion and marketing, IT, maintenance, transport, logistics, psychology of teamwork and management and even basics of finances. I was shocked how much management and logistics is required for accomplishing each task. I think I've returned home more experienced, matured and responsible than I would have expected. In my personal opinion this kind of practices that the program Erasmus provided for me, should be implemented more often. I find it the most efficient way of learning and confronting the theoretical knowledge and expectations of young and basically unexperienced student with the realities of a job he/she may have undertake. The most important fact is that thanks to the international relations with both team and clients, I have far better grasp of the way different people react to different things as well as I have realised how much cooperation is important in achieving ones goals. I saw astronomy as fully scientific subject while now I understand that working in astronomy, demands interdisciplinary team in which everybody's skills and knowledge are equally important. I understand now that this knowledge of mine relates to not only astronomy but all aspects of science. With this new understanding I am ready to continue the development of UZ Space Club, the student association I am the president of, by advertising our need of representants of various different fields of expertise starting with management, through different areas of science such as biology, geology, medicie, as far as arts. Thanks to my time spent with Uroborus SL, I now know that to pursue science, not only scientists are needed. I have learned that science will always need assistance of managmet, social sciences and many more more experts to be able to develop efficiently. What is more important I feel that I have also learned to communicate and respect even those I don't fully understand.