Nuclear Science and Engineering Placement Review

I felt my progression throughout the year was constant, apart from the last couple of months where, because I was leaving, there was 'no point' in putting me onto new work as I wouldn't have gained enough experience on a job to give valuable input. I worked on some very large scale projects which were very interesting and my line manager placed me into project teams that were working on projects relevant to my University studies. This helped me to put into context what I'd already learned, hopefully helping me in final year.

The engineering office environment suited me perfectly. I felt I fitted into all the teams I worked with very well, this was partially because of previous work experience but also because the people at EDF sites are very willing to help and are generally very easy to get on with. The only reason I haven't put a 10 for this is because there will always be 1 or 2 people that you clash personalities with but this will be the same everywhere.

During the first couple of months at EDF, there wasn't a particular structure for a placement student (my department had never had a placement before and this was felt by colleagues in other departments as well) so I was set to research the reactors and generally make myself busy for a month or two. Although there wasn't a set structure, the research helped me out a lot for the rest of the placement as I had a far better understanding of the reactors and how they worked. I never worked very close with my line manager directly, but I did work very closely with an experienced project manager for a lot of my time at EDF and his mentoring and guidance was completely voluntary but was extremely useful.

During my first two and last two months I had far less to do than during the middle 8 months. During the 8 months, I was very busy, having to organise my time efficiently to fit it all in. If the work load got too much, people are happy to help out to reduce stress, it's a very helpful and friendly environment. Although I was less busy for some of the time, it was useful to get University documents and projects sorted out, standing me in far better stead going into final year than I would have been had I not been able to prepare. This University work was supported by EDF, there was an understanding that it was important for me to work on my personal work as well as company work.

I felt like I was given a good level of responsibility. Although all documents are checked and double checked before being approved, it is still the document originator that gets the praise or discipline. This made me more confident when writing documents as I knew if a mistake was made, there would be detailed checking and re checking after I had sent it out. I'm glad I had this buffer, it helped me progress and with the feedback from checks it was easy to improve and make other people's lives easier in the process.

This experience gave me a far more professional outlook on how to approach my degree. I was mentored into writing down activities in a diary every day that I was asked to complete them rather than trying to remember everything, I found my productivity improved drastically after that. I was also able to relate the things I'd studied at uni into a real-life engineering environment, this will help me understand WHY things are how they are and will help me visualise the things I learn in my final year as opposed to simply accepting that things happen the way they do.

It was generally a very happy and friendly office, there were often fall outs when people disagreed with eachother but again, this will happen in every work place at one level or another. I was expecting it to be a far stricter environment than it was, this is not a negative! Although it wasn't a strict working environment, productivity was still very high. I think the relaxed atmosphere takes pressure off people meaning they can work their time how they want so long as tasks are completed.

There didn't seem to be a set structure in my department for a placement student. I started off researching and reading about the reactors and the station in general, although this was slightly irritating as I wasn't helping or working, it did help in the long run as it gave me a far better station understanding and respect for why each project was necessary and how they were to be implemented on site. After that, i moved on to work on projects of various sizes and impact, all very interesting and engaging in their own ways, this movement helped my personal progression greatly.

The training structure at EDF is excellent. There's a set amount of training that is mandatory for new starters and all staff but there is also scope for you to self-enroll on courses for a wide variety of skills like working at height, confined spaces, all the way down to how to arrange your desk properly.All of these skills are highly transferable to any industry and any job you apply for in the future.

There is a very direct path into a graduate position with EDF. Although this isn't completely guaranteed, i feel it would be hard to miss out on the opportunity of a graduate job if you apply yourself in your position and push for more to do if you have done your work. At this point, I am in the process of applying for sponsorship which includes a small bursary when in final year at uni. Once sponsorship is achieved, you will essentially be on a shortlist for the graduate positions that become available and if you're on the list, you will be the first people approached for relevant positions. Once graduate job is secured, you are found a permanent position at the start of the graduate job you are trained up for the permanent position straight away, meaning that at the end of the graduate position there will be no need for applying for a position if you intend to stay at EDF.

I personally lived with three other placement students for the year so my social life was better than it would have been had I lived on my own. This was organised by us, EDF didn't facilitate this. There was a semi regular team night out/sport social which were very good when they were organised. There didn't seem to be a very big social scene across station though, the teams seemed to rotate quite often as there were a lot of external contractors on site making the teams up so there wasn't a social hub of people.

The cost of living was very cheap, I organised to live in student accommodation which was ideal as bills were included in the cheap rent. Socialising in town wasn't cheap but wasn't expensive, there were a number of nice bars and pubs where you'd expect to pay a bit more and then there were other places where you'd expect to pay less (2 wetherspoons). There were plenty of supermarkets including asda, sainsburys and aldi meaning you could choose how much you wanted to spend.

Nightlife was okay, Lancaster is a student city but it's a very small city and there doesn't feel like much of a student scene. But there are nice pubs and bars and restaurants so when working, going out on a friday or saturday night is always going to be busy wherever you are. The pubs are always full as they're a very high standard, a lot of quiz nights and live music as well in the week if that's what you're into.

There was a monday night football social but other than that there wasn't much. My department did a monthly (not really monthly) sport night where the loser of the previous event would choose the next event for the team to compete against eachother in. This was a good social but there are a finite number of sports you can compete against a big team in so it dried up quite quickly.