Quality Management Industrial Placement Review

In hindsight it was highly beneficial to my career path, although at the time it seemed un related. Although I’m an Engineer, the role I undertook was more of a general company overview with a main focus in the Quality Management, Industrial Safety department. As I’m aiming to become a manager in the future, this placement gave me a great understanding on the importance of safety within the workplace, as well as the different job roles and how they interconnect with each other.

It was only a small group in the office, four of us in total with 10 year age gaps. But there was a really good dynamic within the team and they really appreciated me being there. They were always looking out for opportunities for me to get involved in – this played a big part in my knowledge diversity.

My manager was really good. I always felt that I could walk into his office and have a chat to him about anything. He was keen for me to get a good experience out of my year so made sure I was able to do training courses and enjoy my placement.

Like with most companies, when you start it is a slow process to be granted access into systems and get your face known. But I soon became a vital part of the team able to take work load off of the others. But being based on a Nuclear Power station within the Safety team, if you’ve got any free time it is good to be out on site making sure there aren’t any hazards and that working teams are following all procedures.

Towards the end of the placement I had a lot of responsibility, not only leading engineering projects but also managing key safety management processes. All responsibility is quietly overlooked by the rest of the team however, this gives you comfort in the fact that nothing bad should happen as they’d intervene if you go “go off track”.

Within the degree itself, minimal. I did very little engineering within the placement, touching on it towards the last couple of months. Towards my future career, a great deal. As I’m aiming for a management position, having a broad overview of the whole company, how it operated and its structures was very insightful.

Really good, friendly and inclusive atmosphere. With only four in the office, we were able to get to know each other really well.

Very poorly. The application process was slow with little contact “we’ll let you know in two weeks”, six weeks later and they’d respond with “we are still very busy”. The actual placement – I felt like I had just been dropped into the office/company with little preparation made for my arrival. My office colleagues were the ones that salvaged it all for me and made sure that I had lots of opportunities and things to do.

There was a high level of investment in me – including multiple training courses (including an IOSH managers four day course) and allowing me to attend offsite meetings and visits. However I feel that this was more through my colleagues than pre-arranged before my arrival. As it should be within companies, PPE allowance was very generous with an online catalogue that allows ordering or personalised well-fitting and appropriate PPE (including PPE prescription glasses if required)

High – this is mainly due to the very large and generous salaries within the Energy industries as opposed to the company itself. In saying that, it is a very good company to work for with lots of staff benefits and a great working environment.

No – being a Nuclear Power station, it is located in remote areas. This means that the majority of staff live between 30 – 60+ minute drive away from the site in multiple directions. This means that meeting up after work would be a big commitment, and as I was only there for a year, not building a social life wasn’t an issue for me.

The accommodation I lived in I thought was a very reasonable price of £325pm inc. bills. HOWEVER – as it is about a £30min drive to work, you have to add around £100 a month on for fuel costs, and obvious you’ll need a car with is also more money. I lived close to supermarkets, shops and town (easily walk to all of them). Including “the outlet” which was a great shopping centre. You can live closer to the site, but then it is very remote and around £400pm on accommodation.

An appropriate option on the sliding scale “what nightlife?” . As mentioned before, being on a nuclear power station in a very remote location….. you can imagine that there isn’t much of a nightlife. However where I lived had more action to it, but going back to uni at the weekends gave me my nightlife.

Well this depends on how motivated you are really. I joined the local cycling club through finding them on google/facebook. But I wasn’t really looking for any other activates to do.