GA Maintenance Engineer Review

As a whole the placement was very enjoyable with the variety of jobs that were completed as well as the helpfulness and friendliness of most staff.

The majority of staff were very helpful in making me feel valued by giving me interesting jobs and trying to involve me into the business and their jobs. As the placement is only for a year it can be difficult at first to get involved with some members of staff but I found that throughout the year they become more willing to help and make you feel valued.

I found the help and guidance from my supervisor to be very helpful as he was keen to make sure that I knew exactly how to complete each task as well as involving me in tasks that would increase my engineering knowledge. He also took an active role to make sure that I rarely had no work and showed me a wide variety of engineering work.

During certain stages of work I found myself lacking work (usually around holidays e.g. Christmas, summer, etc) but in between these I was given a wide variety of different projects which helped to fill my days. Every day was very different during the placement and it was often a case of asking the right people for work.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility with a few different projects. These projects were occasionally quite critical in improving the car build process but were often not as well supervised as I would have liked as I found myself unsure of what step to do next. The weekly tasks of the job were fairly un-important as the information was rarely looked at unless an audit was taking place. The weekly information could be useful for the future however.

Although I haven't learnt a ridiculous amount of engineering knowledge that will be used in university throughout the year, I think that I have learnt a great deal about manufacturing and personal skills which will be very helpful in future careers. The placement has also helped give experience of working 7AM-5PM which will make the adjustment from University to a job a lot less difficult. The placement also gives good examples of engineering projects/work that will be useful in future job interviews.

Although my office was quiet with only 2 other people (supervisor and procurement) I found the atmosphere very relaxed and enjoyable. I got on well with the other staff in offices nearby as well as my own and found most were happy to help with any problems.

The placement could have been organised better with more structured training and projects earlier in the year. Deadlines were rarely given with projects and there wasn't a clear process to follow when completing projects that would lead you onto another project. The set up of my job was relatively organised and improved throughout the year but could have been better at the start.

I did not complete much training while on placement due to the role needing little training. I did receive problem solving training which lead to a project trying to reduce a manufacturing fault in the plant but found that this training was too late to complete the project and would have been more beneficial to myself and the company much earlier in the year. Having 2 weeks of 'handover' was useful to have the previous undergraduate show me the role in order to be able to complete the weekly tasks each week after he had finished.

Future employment depends massively on the initial job you are given within the placement. Some roles and teams are often short on staff and therefore have more of a need to employ undergraduates straight from the placement (usually 1 day a week while at university). The majority of roles (mine included) rarely have a need or the funds to keep on undergraduates despite possibly doing a good job throughout the year. I am unaware of any system that lets previous undergraduates know about future jobs in the company which is somewhere the company/placement could improve.

Socially the placement is good as there is usually a facebook group set up to invite everybody to events people might be attending/hosting throughout the year. The students on placement tend to go out together occasionally although everybody is free to attend whatever and whenever they want to.

I lived at home during my placement which involved just paying for travelling in, nights out, etc. It was quite easy to save a bit of money this way while also enjoying going out regularly throughout the year.

Ellesmere Port is quite close to Chester where most of the undergraduates moved to. The nightlife in Chester is quite good with a good mix or pub, bars and clubs.

I didn't attend any out of work activities organised by people in work as there were none in my department but I did get involved with activities with other undergraduates outside of work such as football and nights out.