Krzysztof Szkoda, staż w EMCA S.A.

16 grudnia 2025

I began my Polish adventure in Warsaw in mid-September. Since other scholars had started earlier, I had to catch up quickly. On the same day, I signed the scholarship contract and rushed to a pierogi workshop, where I made my own Polish dumplings my first activity in the programme and the first time I met my fellow scholars.

After the dumpling experience, I hurried back to my uncle’s house to prepare for an important evening event: the Gala Ceremony held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw’s historic Old Town. There, I met other scholars, including those who had joined during the early Summer and Winter terms. The Gala featured speeches by government ministers including Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Radosław Sikorski and PAIH organizers, followed by a light piano concert performed by a previous winner of the International Chopin Competition.

As part of the programme, I had the opportunity to explore Poland and experience its events, regional traditions, culture, history, and cuisine. The very first tour group I joined was a visit to Gdańsk. Before the meetup, I decided to climb the tallest Gothic tower of St. Mary’s Church to take in the panoramic view of the city. After descending, I explored the Old Town with the tour group and visited iconic museums such as the Solidarity Museum, which was once a shipyard where the Solidarity Movement began in the 1980s.

Later, I visited the extraordinary World War II Museum with the group, which is even larger than the Imperial War Museum in London. It offers a powerful insight into the dark history of Hitler’s occupation of Poland during the war. We also explored the Amber Museum, as Gdańsk is renowned for its amber mining and craftsmanship. Even before Poland existed, barbarian tribes in the area traded amber with the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago.

At the end of the Gdańsk tour, I decided to visit the Baltic Sea for the first time, including a stop at Westerplatte, the site of the first battle of World War II in Europe. On September 1st, 1939, at around 4:45 a.m., the German warship Schleswig-Holstein docked in Danzig (now Gdańsk) and opened fire on the Polish army base, marking the beginning of the war. WWII had hugely impacted my family, and it's one of the reasons why I was born in the UK. My father's side of the family had already made a life in the UK since the end of the war. Years later, my father married my mother in Lublin, and they decided to live in the UK, where I was born in London.

Among the personal tours I’ve taken was a visit to Kraków to attend the Film Spring Open Workshop, where I had the chance to meet professionals from Poland’s creative industries including music, games, VR, film, and TV. It was fantastic to connect with such lovely and inspiring people including the famous cinematographer Sławomir Idziak.

I visited Poznań for the games industry events GIC and PGA, where I engaged with the vibrant Polish game development community. I had an opportunity to see the legendary goats appearing in front of the clock tower at the Old Town, and to taste the regional Poznań dish called Pyra z gzikiem at Pyra Bar.

Another memorable trip was a family visit to Lublin to celebrate All Saints’ Day, when cemeteries are beautifully illuminated with lanterns in remembrance of loved ones who have passed away.

Warsaw is where I’m temporarily staying in Poland to complete my internship. This has given me the opportunity to explore the city and take part in study visits, including a trip to the Warsaw Stock Exchange to learn about the Polish economy and how businesses operate. I also visited the Polish Parliament (Sejm) to understand the country’s political structure and the facilities where laws are debated and enacted.

I have attended the PAIH Business Forum, where I’ll participated in talks and meet many business representatives. I have gained valuable networking experience to explore how Polish businesses contribute to both the national economy and the international community.

I attended an important event in Poland: Polish Independence Day, celebrated on November 11th. This was my very first time experiencing this special event, and it was wonderfully breathtaking, especially in Poland. I’m sure in the future I would like to try visiting different cities on the same day to see what events they prepared. The day after, I went with the tour group to check out the Frédéric Chopin Museum, which was also a fun experience for understanding his piano musical journey.

I visited Wrocław with the group to experience the city’s rich history and vibrant culture, including the famous 360-degree panorama painting. That was also a breathtaking experience.

Overall, the programme has been an incredible experience, and it’s been amazing to meet so many people, especially during the fun social events with the other scholars. I hope to stay in touch with them. What’s next for me? I will be hunting for work in Poland, possibly in the Polish games industry, as I’m hoping to migrate out of the UK for good and have a nice, wonderful life there.

Work experience

Working at EMCA S.A. Energy Logserver has been a very interesting experience. My background is in game development, specifically Level Design, so adapting to a cybersecurity company as an intern required me to focus on how I could apply my skillset to designing UI/UX for cybersecurity products and marketing.

I received great support from the company, which helped me enjoy my internship. Of course, there is a language barrier due to my limited Polish, but the team is always happy to help and teach me, so I don’t feel left out. Speaking of Polish, I have made hilarious mistakes, including the best moment when a fellow scholar sneezed and I mistakenly said "Smacznego!" We had a good laugh about it.

EMCA S.A. Energy Logserver is a great, fun company to work for. A massive thanks goes to them for making me feel comfortable and for helping me gain business insight into working for a Polish company.

The areas I have worked on:

Produced content for the Marketing team to work on website, video, and product materials.
Understand how the AI works as an assistant within the product Energy Logserver and how the data gets stored onto another product Energy SOAR while its being examined by another product called Energy Monitor.
Provided some UI/UX content and suggestions, for example how to make UX interactions for Energy Logserver more comfortable.
Improved UI design looks such as the AI icon.
Designed a various of UI icons to be use for marketing, and to apply it onto the products in the future.