Power Academy Intern Review

I realy enjoyed my placement. We were kept busy with work to do, and also taken on many site visits which were relevant to what we were working on which meant we could see exactly what the work in the office was based on. As there were 20 of us all on the same scholarship scheme working for NG we were able to organise lots of activities out of work also.

Our colleages always had time to answer any questions we had, and were always happy to sit down and explain to us about their fields of expertiese what they do for the company.

Our line manager was great at giving us advice on what we needed to do, and in telling us who we would need to speak to to get more information of different subjects.

We had lots of data to sort through which kept us busy, but this was broken up with several case studies on the side and visits to sites which meant it did not get boring.

We did not have a huge amount of responsibility but this is to be expected as we are only here for 8 weeks, a large portion of which we spend learning about what we were to be working on. However we were given a small case study to look at to determine whether the company needed to buy any strategic spares to cover a new cable installation or if it already had the necessary stock to cover it.

The actual technical knowledge I have picked up is very specialised to our project, however the data analysis skills and experience in working within a large office environment and meeting many leading industry experts will help hugely.

The office is large and open plan with a relatively relaxed environment so it is easy to go and speak to anyone you need advice from, as well as making it easy to talk to colleagues.

The placement was well set up, and our manager emailed us the week before we were due to arrive and start so that we would know what the final details of our project were going to be and what we would be doing in our first week.

The company puts on a Summer Seminar with all the other companies that are part of the Power Academy Scheme which is a seminar with industry experts on a particular power topic, this year it was renewables, as well as this we are given book allowances to aid in our studies at Uni.

Employment prospect are quite good, as we are guaranteed an interview for their graduate program, and so long as we perform well in our placements with them now, it should be easier to get a job with them than without the scholarship.

There was a great social scene, both with Power academy, year in industry and summer placement students. We organised several trips to karting and paintballing, as well as getting together on the weekends and evenings.

We managed to find accomodation for only £55 a week, and found several student bars with relatively cheap drinks, there are plenty supermarkets around with cheap food if you cook at home.

There were plenty bars and pubs in town as well as a couple of clubs

We organised paintballing and karting, day out to warwick castle, as well as volunteering to take part in Imagineering event through work