Business Undergraduate Review

Working within AgustaWestlands provided me with everything I was expecting from an industrial placement. AgustaWestland encourages working in more than one placement, usually two six month placements or even three four month placements. This provides a lot of scope to try a wide variety of placements but they all require the confidence to be proactive and confident in your own abilities.

I changed placement three times while working at AgustaWestland, to be expected, different placements provided me different experiences. The average age of offices at AgustaWestland is fairly high so changing from university to placement could be a difficult transition. I have had some amazing experiences with the people I work with and it definitely helped me to enjoy the placement more.

AgustaWestland is very well prepared to host placement students. The management I was initially placed under seemed to take a genuine interest in my personal development and would proactively find opportunities for me to take advantage of. After changing placements this support ebbed but this may have been due to my own growing confidence. From my experience I believe AgustaWestland will give you support if asked but may not be proactively aware if you are not confident enough to reach out.

Throughout my time at AgustaWestland I have experienced being perfectly occupied, streched with too much work and far too under utilised. This is due in part to the three different placements I have been in. I would stress that while I was too quiet the company was undergoing a restructuring which took precedent over my development. However I was able to change placements very quickly to rectify my problems thanks to the undergrad placement coordinators who were very helpful.

Over my time at AgustaWestland I have slowly been given more and more responsibility. While this wasn't planned I believe that as I grew in confidence people recognise that I could be trusted with more responsbility. I have been given loads of autonomy to approach tasks as I see fit. Despite all the responsibility I was trusted with there was always support available from the management in the departments if I needed it.

Many of the skills I have leanred at AgustaWestland should equip me well for future employment. The ammount of trust and responsibility placed on you is a great example for the future, especially as one of my placements was taking over responsibilities directly from one of the graduate employees. I have expeienced little official training as the majority has been on-the-job but everything I have learned I feel has been of value for the future.

When I accepted my placement at AgustaWestland I thought that it might be a dry place to work. However I have had some of the funniest conversations and interesting debates with the people I have worked with. Considering that I was much younger than most of my colleagues I always felt respected and was always included. I have had a great time in the offices working at AgustaWestland and would recommend it to anyone.

The Undergrad placement scheme begins with a fairly structured first placement which allows for a gentle introduction to the company. This is helpful because the complicated nature of aviation engineering can be intimidating. I really enojoyed that the scheme allowed me to find my second placement independantly but feel that there could have been more support in making that decision.

Most of the training I recieved while working at AgustaWestland was on the job. There wasn't much structured training although the training I did receive was very useful.

The Graduate scheme at AgustaWestland is well established and I would definitely reapply based on my experiences from my undergraduate year. There seems to be a good scope for developing a career at AgustaWestland especially with parent company, Finmeccanica, being involved in a wide variety of other industries.

This year has been one my the busiest years socially. The group of undergraduates from my intake have been absolutely amazing. We have all gotten on very well and it has completely enhanced the time I have spent in Yeovil.

Cost of living in Yeovil is very reasonable especially with the decent salary from AgustaWestland. Socialising costs are a little higher than I am used to paying but I have never been short of money to go out.

The nightlife in Yeovil is what you would expect from a town. There are plenty of pubs and a few bars which are nice enough. The club is nothing to get excited about but with the right people in the right situation I have had some of the best nights out.

AgustaWestland Undergraduates and Students are asked each year to volunteer to run a social committee which is subsidised by the company to organise charity and social events. There is also another commitee ran by the Graduates to encourage networking around the company. Both of these groups organised socials for anyone who was interested and I had a good time on all of them.