Nuclear, Science and Engineering Industrial Placement Review

I had thoroughly enjoyed my placement year with EDF Energy, the amount of encouragement and support that had been given to me was really great. I get to work on a number of projects within and outside of my role, which was a bonus. EDF really promotes and values its employees to learn as much as we can, and provides external and internal training where required.

I have received tremendous recognition from my line manager and my department group head. I think one of the biggest achievement that I had was that the management process that I had pushed had received recognition from the fleet level manager. Even my dissertation project had been recommended as one of the best and was planned for a fleet rollout.

My supervisor had given me adequate amount of support and guidance. This is not to an extent of 'spoon feeding' me as that way you wouldn't learn much. I was given some room for personal development. My supervisor also really trust me in what I do, I had even been given the chance to present to government regulators.

As for any work, sometimes it can get busy and sometimes not. I had to work on a dissertation project in collaboration with EDF Energy. So whenever I had the free time I work on my dissertation project. Although unrelated to the role itself, my supervisor and the management team has given me ample support to work on it, and it ended up being a win-win situation for both parties.

As I mentioned beforehand I was given a lot of responsibilities. From creating official documents to performing data analysis, I presented to the management team which included the plant manager and also regulators from the Office of Nuclear Regulations (ONR). For the most part, it requires initiative from the student itself. If you see that you could improve some processes, go ahead and take charge, otherwise you might not get any work to do at times.

I have received plenty of trainings. The company sponsors an induction for placement students and apprentices to go on their 'Campus' at Cannington Court. I had also obtained a certificate from an association with all expenses covered. I worked on a dissertation project during my time there, I had received plenty of experience in that regards which had helped my understanding towards the steam cycle.

Everybody was friendly, there will definitely be cakes 90% of the time. When required everyone can be serious, but on other times it was jokes and laughter. Although it might vary with different offices, I believe my office was very closely knitted, we even went on many outings together to have a drink and Christmas party.

I have to say that this placement does not have a set structure, everything is how the placement student and the line manager's plan. If you want to work on something, just speak up and your line manager will be happy to help out. Otherwise you would not gain as much from this placement. Overall there will be plenty to learn from the placement.

Mentioned before that they had provided me with training at Cannington Court, and helped me obtain a certificate from an association. Good quality training. However a room for improvement was to include a larger amount of sponsorship to your placement students, they only sponsor 2 students for my year in a specific degree (and for a very small amount of money).

There are ladders to climb and secondments. Of course with any large organisations you would have to please your superior and look for opportunities yourself. But definitely there would be high prospects for you to grow. My department group head is very young but set to be a high level management team because of his performance.

They have a programme called Young Energy Professionals where everyone that had experience in the nuclear industry of less than 10 years can be a part of. They have regular lunch and learn sessions and also opportunities for you to plan for a session yourself. Overall it was a really good organisation.

It was quite cheap, with Aldi nearby and I cycled to work.

No idea, never attended any night life. There were many bars and pubs though.

There are beach cleaning events and also YEP outings if you fancy. There are also plant tours for other sites, even to Sellafield to understand what happens to the nuclear waste after we have used up the fuel. You can also have two days of paid volunteering leave every year which was a bonus to those who likes to volunteer.