Placement Systems Engineer Review

I would definitely recommend working at NATS to any student looking to have a year in industry. It's an exciting time to be at NATS particularly with the changes going on within the company (Single European Sky programme, Free Route airspace etc.) and I personally feel that as a result of this placement I have become a more confident individual.

The Early Careers Scheme members (placement students and direct entry graduates) are seen as an integral part of the company, with high level managers (General Manager, Engineering director etc.) maintaining a keen interest in the scheme activities. The colleagues I worked with always seemed to value my input and I always felt like an integral part of the teams I got the chance to work in.

The managers I was allocated throughout my placement year spent adequate time getting me up to speed with the projects I was involved with. A lot of emphasis was given on what I wanted to achieve in this year and the objectives for this placement were tailored accordingly.

I was definitely given quite a few tasks all throughout my placement to complete, which kept me busy on a day-to-day basis! Once piece of advice that I can give is to keep a look-out for any potential opportunities within the team or even around the business which you would like to be involved with.

I was given tasks which involved testing out a new analysis software, determining the feasibility of a particular technology and also to lead the verification and validation activities for a new software build in the test and development facility. Some of the reports I prepared were reviewed by more than 30 people, so you can definitely expect to be given high responsibility tasks!

The systems engineering knowledge that I have acquired as a result of this placement (requirements management, verification and validation etc.) will stand me in good stead for the future. Besides being given training on topics such as ATC familiarisation, surveillance,voice communication systems and NAVaids the training given on developing presentation and report writing skills will definitely help me in the future!

NATS is a great place to work in! As mentioned previously, everyone is always up for a chat, be it informal or formal. It was really nice to see the rapport between employees.

The placement year was very well organised, with the year being divided into two placements of 6 months each. This provides an opportunity to see and work in different parts of the business. Progress reviews on the objectives set at the start of each placement are held at regular intervals, which give a chance to discuss and suitably modify them if needed.

The company spends a lot of effort to give the new intake the training that is required, be it on technical topics or on soft skills, I was given the opportunity to provide my feedback on the training I was given and also to give recommendations on how the placement year can be improved for the future intake.

Placement students are often offered the opportunity after graduation to come back to the company as a direct entry graduate.

I'm pleased to say that my fellow placement students were very sociable! Various activities like paintball, Friday pub lunches, FIFA/poker nights etc. were arranged all throughout the year.

There is plenty of cheap accommodation available in Southampton or Portsmouth. There is the obvious option to stay in Whiteley (where the NATS Corporate and technical centre is based) as well, although none of the students in my intake decided to take this option up..

The less said about the Whiteley nightlife the better!! However, there are plenty of options in Southampton or Portsmouth.

The Early Careers Scheme is highly encouraged to get involved with activities outside of work ranging from taking part in volunteering to representing NATS at different events throughout the country (Careers fairs, air shows etc.). A really nice project given to the graduates this year was to refresh the Bletchley park ATC exhibit.