Placement Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my placement. The work was all new to me and I have learnt many new things that are very beneficial. The five weeks that I have been here have flown by and I would not hesitate to come back to do placement here again. Molly and Yve were extremely helpful despite the fact that they were also on a placement year and had their own tasks to carry out. Brian and Phil ensured that I was getting everything out of the placement that I wanted to and Emily helped me to learn a new part of conservation that I had never tried before which was the public engagement. Despite never having done this before it was my favorite part of the placement and I am grateful to Emily for taking the time to teach me.

Everybody that works at Hengistbury Head made me feel very welcome. I felt like I was able to help out whilst being here and did not feel like a burden. After some of the jobs that I did such as helping with engagement and also with Molly's bereavement session, I was made to feel like I had been a huge help. It was also nice to be able to help out Phil with his seemingly endless list of jobs.

Everybody was very helpful and went out of their way to make sure I knew what I was doing and felt comfortable with every aspect of the job. They took into account my course and also my personal interests and allowed me to have freedom with what I wanted to get out of this placement. Brian checked in with me half way through my placement here to make sure that I was enjoying myself. He stressed that I could essentially choose to do things that I felt would be helpful to me or things that I most enjoyed and they would work to ensure that I was able to do this.

Every day was filled and there was never really points where I sat around doing nothing or felt like I was getting in the way. Even on quiet days where there was little to do they would take this time to teach me things such as GIS and data inputting and ensure that I was learning new things where possible.

From start to finish I was given jobs to do throughout the day that were helping out on site and never had any pointless tasks to fill time. Jobs such as brush cutting which I had never done before and was taught allowed me to be a real help. One of my favorite parts was helping out with the engagement and education which involved helping Emily where needed and working with school groups or families. I believe this was a big responsibility as some of these were paid events.

The skills that I developed and the training that I received will hugely benefit me in my degree studies and beyond this. I have gained hands on experience which was invaluable. My degree is Ecology and Wildlife Conservation so everything that I have done whilst at Hengistbury has been hugely beneficial as this embodies my course. Brush cutting, doing the butterfly transect, daily moth trapping, reed bed management and even general maintenance of the site are just a few of the useful things that I have done whilst being here and are things that I may never have done otherwise.

The atmosphere at Hengistbury Head is amazing, everyone here is friendly and extremely welcoming. I was made to feel comfortable as soon as I arrived and the main reason I have enjoyed this placement so much is because of the people here and the fact that I was treated as an equal.

The work placement was very well organised. Every morning they would outline the tasks that we would be doing that day and it was clear that it had been planned out. I was never given too much or too little to do and this allowed me to fully engage in all my tasks.

In my opinion the people here went above and beyond to ensure I gained as much from this placement as I could. Before starting I was asked if there were particular things that I wanted to learn or work on and whilst being here I have gained skills that I didn't know I needed. Even when the weather prevented us from working outside I was shown how to use the computers to input data and Molly showed me how to use GIS for mapping out sites which was very helpful.

After being here for five weeks I can confidentially say that the thought of working here full time is very appealing. If I decide that this is the career path that I want to go to down after university then I would not hesitate to get in touch with Brian.

I got extremely well with the other placement students and the people working here and feel I made some good friends. This is a huge bonus to working and gaining experience for my course and makes any placement much more enjoyable. The people I have met here made my experience.

This placement was in Bournemouth where I am university so I already had accommodation. Since I didn't have to pay for parking my only expense was petrol and food which is expected with any placement I may go to. Hengistbury head is a beautiful area and so it was a nice way to spend five weeks of my summer.

The nightlife in Bournemouth is good. As previously stated, I go to university here so I am very familiar was the area and the nightlife.

Outside of work there were many things that I could get involved with. With regards to Hengistbury, I was informed if there were things happening at the weekend that I may want to get involved with such as the people from the British dragonfly society coming. Many of my friends from university stayed in Bournemouth over the summer which was nice so I was able to go to the beach with them at the weekends or in the evenings.