Industrial Placement Review

The placement was good and every one in the office was very easy to get along with. There were certain times that I found it difficult as there was not much work to do. A lot of the work as well took a long time to complete as in the nuclear industry there are a considerable amount of safety hurdles to get over.

I felt valued by my younger colleagues that had recently finished the grad scheme as they were aware of the lack of work that group heads would give me so they would try and engage me in as much work and meetings as possible. Since I arrived during an outage and everyone was quite busy it was difficult to get involved.

My manager was absolutely fantastic, any personal issues I had during the year I had all the support I needed. I also felt that if there were any issues in the office I could speak to my manager very easily. Also thought my well being was of importance as my manager would have monthly meetings with me to ensure everything was good.

Although everyone in the office was very nice the amount of work given to me was the main struggle during my time. I was not given any big projects while I was there so when I didn't have any day to day tasks I sat about and did admin work rather than engineering. I felt as if it could have been better planned with the amount of work I was given. I was busy for only small periods of time.

I was not given much responsibility during my placement. The only people that would give me responsibility where the younger members of staff who realised I did not have much to do. I got to lead some meetings/conference calls, and had some deadlines to work to. I was not expecting to be given a lot of responsibility but felt as iff I could have been given some more.

The skills obtained will not really help me academically but I do believe I have improved my soft skills. So perhaps when it comes to group work I will perform better. It will provide benefits when it comes to future employment as I have experience communicating in a professional environment. However if I got involved in more projects with deadlines I feel that this would have provided more benefits.

The atmosphere in the office was okay. A lot of the people had been working there for many years and were waiting for retirement. The mood of the group I worked in was good however which was good as they seemed to enjoy their work. My manager was also very interested in everyone in the group which was good.

The placement wasn't too well organised as I didn't have too much work to do. I thought that before I arrived a reasonably large project could have been assigned to me as I had completed 4 years of university and my average is greater than 70% so more than capable of having some responsibility. Instead a lot of the work I had to do was admin work.

The company did invest in me as they sent me to a 2 day training course which was interesting. During this course we also got a tour of the new nuclear power station Hinkley Point C was also enjoyable. I have also been given university sponsorship for my last year which is good. I feel as if I could have been given more training so then I could do more work for the team I was a part of.

The future employment prospects are quite appealing as there is a new power station being built and with the sponsorship scheme there is a good route to getting employed after university. If you get the sponsorship which you have to interview for, you get straight into the assessment centre and bypass the initial tests.

The social life was pretty good if you lived in Edinburgh as a lot of the younger staff also lived there. The company also organises a Christmas night out and they give you £35 to spend for the evening which isn't too bad. A lot of the groups as well have their own nights out as well.

I lived in Dunbar rather than edinburgh as it was only 6 miles or so from the station which meant a very short commute of less than 10 minutes. My rent plus bills was £300 a month which was pretty good. There were a few pubs that had decent prices too but there wasn't much to do in the local area so would recommend spending more and living in edinburgh.

The nightlife in Dunbar wasn't very good. However if you lived in Edinburgh the nightife is very good, especially during the fringe as there is a lot of events on.

There were some clubs that were in the local area but not too much. There was some things organised in work if you looked out for them, like golf away days and 5 a side football every friday but that was organised by individuals not the company. A good idea for the company to organise activities to help the morale.