Nuclear Science and Engineering Industrial Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my work placement at EDF Energy. I was based at the only Pressurised Water Reactor in the UK, which was exciting as I regularly got the chance to go out onto site to look at equipment involved in my projects. I was based in the Engineering department in a relatively small office that welcomed me from the start, and were extremely helpful whenever I had any questions. I was constantly provided with work to do, but if I ever had any specific projects that I wanted to work on my supervisor was happy for me to proceed.

My colleagues made me feel like an important part of the team from the first day. I was responsible for a number of day to day tasks that helped bigger projects going on in the office to run smoothly. Whenever a smaller new project would come up my supervisor would always suggest that I took it on. I was also responsible for representing the Engineering department at a weekly planning meeting which made me feel extremely valued.

My supervisor was always available if I had any questions about specific projects or the power plant in general. He would always be eager to look over my work whenever I asked and comment on the positives as well as suggesting ways in which it could be improved. My manager often called me into his office to have an informal catch-up about how my work was going and to suggest new project ideas if I was short on work.

I always had day to day tasks to carry out which included preparing for a couple of meetings. However, most of my time was spent working on bigger projects. Due to the nature of the power station everything took a long time to happen and each project involved a number of people's input. Because of this, on occasion I would have less work while I was waiting on responses but generally I would find other work to get on with.

The day to day tasks that I took on would have had to be carried out by someone else in the office if I wasn't there. Once I had figured out the routine in which projects were carried out, my supervisor let me get on with my work unless I had any questions.

Attending meetings and spending time in other departments, as well as with members of manegement, has improved my confidence and I will feel more comfortable entering professional environements in the future. My report writing skills have also greatly improved through writing concise and clear reports as part of my projects. My time management has also improved through having a number of different tasks to complete within a small time frame.

The atmosphere in my office was great. Everyone was friendly and got on well with each other, and we were all able to joke around at times. However when the workload was high people would get on with their work and no one was disruptive. Anyone could ask anyone for help.

On my first day I was greeted by my supervisor who remained my go to throughout my year. I had a two week handover period with the previous placement student which enabled me to get on with day to day tasks without much trouble on my first day without her. My supervisor had organised a number of training courses for me to complete before I had even arrived.

I completed a 3 day course learning about the reactor in detail. I also completed a 2 day course which taught me how we carry out work in our office and more importantly why we do it and how it affects the site. I also took the opportunity to take part in a residential course about EDF Energy outside of the generation sector, allowing me to meet other Industrial Placement students. I also regularly took part in refresher courses that everyone in the Engineering department had to attend.

In my last month at EDF Energy I was invited to an interview at their central office to gain sponorship for my last year of Univeristy, which I got. Gaining this sponsorship has given me a fast track to the EDF Energy Graduate Scheme assessment centre, which I will be attending.

There was only one other placement student whilst I was at EDF Energy, however we were given each others names before we started so that we could converse. There were also a number of recent graduates in the Engineering department that sat together at lunch and made me feel very welcome. We did stuff together at weekends and after work, and went to the gym together.

The cost of living was average I would say, I go to University in Guildford so anything is cheap compared to that. Everything was quite far apart, so the thing I spent the most money on was probably petrol. However, I did only live 5 minutes away from work which saved some money.

I went to the pub a couple of times but that was about it. Ipswich and Norwich were the closest biggest cities/towns to me (around an hour each) so going out wasn't really an option. This didn't bother me but if you are expecting lots of nights out it probably won't happen.

I joined a running club soon after starting at EDF Energy and after that joined a gym with on of the graduates. Other than this I mainly just spent time with my friends shopping/going to the cinema etc. If you wanted to get involved with more activites you could probably find them.