Undergraduate Engineer Review

I was given good guidance and was set clear achievable objectives to complete during my placement. My objectives and my progress towards them were frequently reviewed to ensure they were up to date with the work I had been able to experience and what I wanted to get out of my time. I do feel that sometimes I would have liked more feedback after completing a task to understand how i had performed and could improve going forward.

The majority of the time I had enough work responsibility to keep me busy for the length of the working day. Most of the time I had enough work set for me that I knew what I needed to work through for approximately a week. However, there were some occasions where I didn't have anything to work on, and nobody needed my help on anything so I could just be sat around with nothing to do for the day.

At the start I was supervised with my work or given responsibility for small tasks that were of low impact to the overall project, or were simple but repetitive. As my placement went on, I was given more trust and given larger and more important tasks including eventually managing a risk register and being responsible for writing a document part of the tender submission to the client.

I have made great strides in the development of my communication and interpersonal skills, both orally and in written communication. I have development my understanding of pre-construction and project management processes, and expanded my wider knowledge of the industry. While a lot o the skills I developed weren't directly applicable to my degree studies, they will still set me i good stead for the future.

Everyone in the office was friendly and approachable at all times, and the atmosphere was positive and humorous, but not distracting from work. The team regularly held social events which were a great way to connect outside of the work environment. When we were forced to begin working remotely due to the pandemic everyone stayed engaged though regular virtual 'pub quizzes'.

The placement was set up very well and was designed to be adapted and structured to my personal medical issues. The work plan was continuously modified when there were changes of circumstance both due to my medical situation and also due to the global pandemic.

The future employment prospects are appealing. I have the opportunity to return on the Excelerate graduate scheme on completion of my degree, which gives me comfort of my security post graduation.

I was the only placement student based in the Warrington Office, so the scene amongst fellow placement students was pretty limited, outside of a Whatsapp group with interns based at other sites. There was an apprentice and a graduate student who were around for a few months and it was fun having them around for the time that they were there.

The cost of living and commuting in Warrington was reasonable. There wasn't much to do in Warrington so most of the time I was socialising was in Manchester, which could be expensive sometimes but was alright on the whole.

Same as above.

The social club ran monthly events including a darts night, and there were pub quizzes during lockdown.