Engineering Summer Placement 2016 Review

Very enjoyable! Very well constructed program for the whole placement. There were clear targets and goals to be achieved day by day and week by week. The company values and work ethic make the workplace a safe and friendly environment to carry out your work in. The recent graduates at the company are also very welcoming and the placement buddy scheme provides an easy way for asking any questions you have.

The work I undertook on the placement was on live projects and was therefore valued by my managers as I completed the work independently.

There was a lot of support given throughout my placement. I was assigned a buddy from the first day who talked me through the day to day activities of the work place and got me started. I was also assigned to a line manager who provided my day to day work and gave me feedback on my activities. On top of this my placement manager also kept in touch weekly to provide me with support if it was needed. Finally, all the employees and head managers at the company were very approachable and always found time to answer any questions I had.

Every morning I was provided with tasks to complete for the projects I was working on. These would take up a sizeable proportion of my day, if not the whole of the day. There was an underlying project given to each placement student for the length of the placement. So if there was a time my daily tasks were completed, I was always busy.

I was given a large amount of responsibility. This ranged from being one of the main roles during testing of a component for project, to checking if the manufactured components met the design specifications required for a project.

The skills I learnt will definitely help me for my future studies and employment after graduation. Ive taken away better organisation, management, interpersonal, communicational and analytical skills, as well as learning various new design and manufacturing softwares.

For most of my placement I worked on the manufacturing site in Whetstone Leicestershire, which was a very friendly, sometimes noisy but an enjoyable atmosphere to work in. Other times I was based at the office site in Leicester, which was slightly quieter. But all the employees across all the sites of the business were equally approachable and friendly.

The placement was very well organised. My contract was sent to me via from an agency immediately after accepting reasoning my placement offer and me accepting it. I was emailed weeks in advance from both my signed buddy and my placement manager to welcome me and describe me of the events on my first day. I was given set tasks and goals to achieve day by day and week by week from my manager. There was also three placement student masterclasses. These were based a multiple sites across England and gave the placement students a chance to meet each other and experience other working environments.

The company sent all of us placement students on three masterclasses, where we experienced talks from employees from different areas of the business. Placement students were also involved in classes to improve our networking and communicational skills. Placement students also received guidance talks and advice on how to achieve charter ship for their relevant engineering body. I also received teaching on how to use the company's design and manufacturing softwares.

The future employment prospects are very appealing to me. The graduate scheme is well set out and provides good relevant guidance for achieving chartership. The company flexi-time is also very appealing as it means you don't ever have to work a Friday afternoon! The company working atmosphere and graduates and employees also make it a desirable place to work.

I lived at my own home during the placement so had the benefit of socialising with my old school friends, as well as having a large group of graduates at the company to go out with. The graduates at the company were all out going and came together most weeks to go out for drinks/cinema/meals.

The placement was mainly based in Leicester, so the cost of living is very reasonable.

The night life in Leicester isn't bad! There are big clubs such a Club Republic Leicester, but there are also lots of bars and pubs for a quieter night out.

There were always opportunities organised by the current graduates and employees to go out and socialise as a group. There was also a few opportunities to participate in company events such as annual golf day.