NPD Student Technologist Review

Overall it was good and gave a lot of factory based experience (unique to a lot of placements). A very friendly place and the student placement programme gave opportunities to visit other sites around the country as well as grasp an insight into other job roles in the food industry. However there seemed little opportunity to grow as a person and employee.

A very friendly atmosphere, with colleagues treating you as part of the team and not just an intern. More responsibility could have been given by managers to let the placement student have more control of their work. A lot of communication building occurred as I had to talk to many different departments and between the sites.

As well as a lot of communication with managers, I had a 'mentor'. They were in charge of 'one to ones' which gave me guidance of how I was doing, this happened every three months. Managers could have been more encouraging of extra responsibilties I wanted to take on in order to enhance my experience and skills.

The placement was very fast paced with many different tasks needing to be done each day. Extra hours were often required in order to get the tasks done. There were definitely periods throughout the year which were far more busy than others. The site had many different products it produced therefore it kept the day varied and busy.

Responsibility and ownership of projects was lacking in this placement. The busy periods often meant as a placement student, tasks which were practical were given e.g. sample making. More teaching is needed for the paperwork side of things. I would have liked whole projects to be in charge of, however bits of projects were given.

A lot of skills gained were in multitasking which will be good for managing modules at university. Also there has been a lot of communication skills learnt including presenting skills. Some baking science and engineering learnt from seeing how different factories work as well as in depth knowledge of HACCP and food safety/ hygiene.

Everyone was very friendly. However you can only get to the office by walking through the factory which took a lot of time to walk through (and get kitted up) every day and every break time. Because of the location, the office felt a bit shut off to the other departments

Cohort days were organised which were opportuniries for all the students to visit the other sites, students each took it in turns to host the days (6 in total). As well as this I had the opportunity to go to other universities during employability fairs. Overall the placement was well organised with extra activities anabled to enhance the year.

Very little training was given in terms of personal development (e.g. communication/team building skills). Shadowing was not available and some supplier visits were missed for me due to the amount of work the team had. Also further learning/ development was not encouraged due to the placement being so busy. Although the cohort days meant that some insight into other job roles were available as well as seeing how the wider business operated.

The opportunities across all the sites sounds interesting, as Premier Foods as a company is very varied and holds a lot of different opportunities. The prospects of further developing and progressing in a career as an emlployee at the site however seem very hard. Overall however due to the office being very friendly and the work being varied, I would consider coming back to this job

There was good communication between the placement students between the sites as we were allowed to get into contact before the placement started which meant a few of us lived together (made the placement more fun)! There was many social events between colleagues (including a Christmas party). There is also a social comittee for the whole office.

Transport (including buses and trains) were very cheap. The areas around the site, in Barnsley, have very cheap accommodation. My location during my placement was Sheffield which was also very cheap for city accommodation and good value for money in restaurants and bars. Many colleagues lived in Leeds which was more expensive for housing and living.

The site was in residential outskirts of Barnsley so there was very little around it (apart from a few pubs). Many social events were in Sheffield and Leeds (and these places obviously have a good reputation for nightlife). Because most people lived in these two cities it meant social events required travelling and happened less spontaneously.

As I have mentioned before there is a social committee for the whole office, and I managed to organise an event which was food related. Some trips were available including the opportunity to go to Food matters Live in London. However there are no sports teams/ activities or things like that.