Power Academy Scholar - Policy (Electrical Network Investment) Review

It was very insightful as we were provided with many technical presentations and lots of worthwhile site visits. It was amazing seeing the depth of engineering involved within the industry and really made me appreciate what I learnt in university was genuinely valuable for my future.

My colleagues were brilliant, my line manager in particular having been on the same scheme as us was quite understanding that being new we may have been nervous etc and really set up with a strong foundation for our project. If not for his initial support and pushing us, we would not have performed our tasks anywhere near the level we currently are. In addition, we meet many technical experts around us who have an amazing wealth of information to offer, and it was surprising how approachable they were and how willing they were to give up time to talk to and present their areas of work to us.

As mentioned previously, a lot of support was given to us by our line manager. It was great having someone to support us along the way and to regularly meet up with. Particularly when we seemed fairly lost at first and didn't really know what to do with our project, it really helped having someone who could recommend the right people to talk to.

Everyday was a busy day at National Grid. Alongside our project, we had many technical presentations that we'd asked for and experts had kindly agreed to see us for. These presentations were very insightful and left us with a lot of questions to ask afterwards and generally we recieved answers! In addition, we had plenty of site visits to substations, live natural gas sites, control centres and many more. These would usually take up a day due to driving and sometimes even involved an overnight stay in the area, but it was well worth it, the hands on involvement and seeing the kit being used out in industry is amazing. The project itself kept us very busy as well as it required us to be very involved with the people we talk to and keeping our meetings and ideas documented efficiently.

We were given complete responsibility of our project. There was no indication of what to do except for the objective sheet we were given in the first week. Even in meetings, all our seniors said to do whatever we thought would achieve it and were given complete freedom in what to investigate, what to research etc. It was incredibly lucky to have a placement where one could do the entire project with no real constraints on the imagination and creativity that could be used.

I had to learn many skills quickly to cope with the project and working in a professional engineering environment, but I believe the skills I learned will be skills I use for life. These skills included becoming a better communicator, being able to read body language and expressions on the spot and reacting appropriately, but most importantly, organisation of work and working efficiently were the key ones that I managed to get by being on this placement and will benefit me in the future definitely.

Atmosphere in the office was fantastic, the place was always buzzing with engineers calling up people saying we needed these parts or these tests and everything I could overhear was just so interesting. And then of course, people discussing things with other colleagues and picking up ideas/terms you learnt at university and thinking 'wow they actually use this stuff that bored me for a whole term?!?' The people are always enthusiastic about their work and always willing to say hello and talk to you if you so wish to. It's amazing that everyone is so eager to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.

The original project that our group was supposed to be on was changed into 2 smaller projects so our group split into 2 pairs to take a project each. Other than this one small detail, the projects themselves were very well thought out and the organisation of the placement generally was very good. The option to have 2 projects to choose from was actually really interesting and a benefit to us, as it made us talk to experts in several fields and just get a feel of how to set up meetings and talks to get information from people which was vital for our project.

The company has invested in the interns heavily, especially on our power academy scheme. Aside from scholarships, bursaries and other material incentives, we have been given much personal traning and inspiring development sessions and talks with leading experts about how we are going to have to carry on the work left behind by the previous generation and it will be a revolutionary time for the industry. Incredibly motivating stuff.

Future employment prospects within National Grid are great. They are at the forefront of changing the electricity industry for a greener future. As transmission operators, they are the key to every other electricity industry player and there always jobs available as they need to be available for the country to have an electricity industry!!

Definitely. Considering most of us were living in groups in houses around the Leamington Spa area, it was inevitable that we all ended up seeing each other both inside and outside of work. Furthermore, we managed to organise many events such as alton towers, go karting, poker and film nights to keep ourselves occupied and to remind ourselves while this is a placement, it is still our summer holiday =D

It was fairly cheap to socialise within this area as it was a local town. It was cheap especially to go out and get a few drinks with people, and the restaurants were a bit pricier than I'd have liked but the quality of food and service usually recieved more than made up for it.

The place was always buzzing at night. But after long days at work and going to the gym, it really was too much effort for me personally to go out a lot. But i had friends working with me who would go out regularly every weekend and even some weekdays and have a blast, being told that many clubs are within walking distance of each other and the people tend to be quite friendly and fun.

The number of activities available outside of work was endless. It was incredible that there was so much sport and dance and other social classes available. Even at the local gym near our place, the classes were included with our membership to the gym so incredible opportunities like muay thai lessons were on offer literally for free since we were unaware this was included with just our standard gym membership. There really is no end to how much one can do outside of work when living near local communities and even when the workplace itself can be considered a community =)