Ergonomics Placement Student Review

The days at work go really quickly, every day is different learning more about the work and getting better at it as well as meeting new people through the tasks you're given which makes it really enjoyable.

As time went on I was given my own work to do which made me feel more valued by my colleagues, I feel as if the work I've been doing is relevant to the business and helpful to my colleagues and to other members of the business. The staff around me in the office made me feel very welcome and would always help whenever possible such as help with my inductions by taking me on tours of the site.

My mangers spent a lot of time helping me settle in and slowly gave me more responsibility as I became more comfortable with my daily work. I was given advice and support on living arrangements and social opportunities in terms of settling in personally as well as a thorough induction to the main sites I would be involved with.

I would always have something to do at work, I would never feel as though sitting at my desk doing nothing was an option but I would never feel that the workload was too much or that it was too much responsibility for a placement student. The work I did on a daily basis would vary from providing ergonomic support to group leaders, writing reports, researching documents for the Ergonomics website, assisting my managers with virtual builds or providing ergonomic support during the development of new builds. Throughout any of the work I did I would always have support from my managers to ensure that I was staying on the right track and that I'm not getting stuck.

I was given pieces of work to do that were used by the ergonomics department and by other departments meaning the work being had to be correct and to a certain standard. Before any piece of work was sent out it would be checked by my managers meaning any issues or adjustments required would be completed by my managers and I before being sent. There is a good amount of responsibility that makes you feel that the work you're doing is important but not so much that you feel any mistake made will be found out as your colleagues know you are on placement but expect you to produce work to a certain standard that is useful to the business.

Being around ergonomics every day means my understanding of the subject in an applied environment has improved, doing assessments, dealing with people in a professional manner, the ergonomic resources I've gained, IT skills and organizing myself are all skills I feel have improved over the time I've been on placement.

The atmosphere in the office is open and friendly; people from different departments share information and chat all the time either about work or socially. During breaks people would just chat openly about whatever they wanted the office was never quiet and office nights out such were organised regularly and events such as the Christmas night out.

The placement was well organised as I got all the training I needed to get me to a standard where I was able to work independently, as I became more confident with the work I was given more tasks and responsibility. I always had work to do and always had support around me if I was stuck on any task.

My first month at JLR was a month of training I was expected to learn about the different aspects of the work and shown to what standard I was expected to work at. The second month was a month of training but I was expected to work more on my own at times, the third month I felt that most of my formal training was complete but I would still receive training or help on any new task I was given. I received training on how to use analysis tools, a formal induction, tours of all the sites I would be involved with, a formal risk assessment course and experience on the virtual reality equipment. JLR also offers an Employee Learning Scheme where employees are given £200 to do a training course of their choice, I did an advanced driving day course.

The opportunities at JLR are some of the most appealing around in my opinion, from doing my placement and seeing some of the work other people were doing while I was on placement it has definitely made me want to work for the organisation in the future whether in the Ergonomics department or similar.

As the department I worked in was so small I was the only placement student there, on the whole site of Solihull there were only 9 students on a 12 month placement so I never really made contact with them. Because of the site I worked on it was difficult to socialise with other placement students but once I had settled in I would socialise with colleagues during work and managed to find a house with people of similar interests as me in Solihull after a couple of months.

Solihull is an expensive place to live in terms of rent because it is a nice area, finding an affordable house that isn't far from work and quite nice can be a struggle so it did take me some time to find the right place. Living costs otherwise are the same as anywhere else, a night out isn't as cheap as being at uni but there are some night clubs that are reasonable and nice cocktail bars if you have some money to spare.

Again it isn't like uni where lots of people will be out most nights of the week and there will be a wide variety of places to go, Solihull is an okay place to have a night out with house mates sometimes but Birmingham isn't far which is where I'd probably take my friends, usually I'd go to a city in the Midlands or North West to see friends and go out at the weekend.

For anyone who wanted to get involved with anything there were opportunities, as I said people at the office would occasionally organise a night out and there is the Graduate Network where graduates at Solihull can join events or sports teams as well as discounts on things such as local gyms to get people involved there. JLR also offer prizes to employees who enter competitions, while I was there I won 2 tickets to see James Bond at a private screening in Liverpool, a colleague at the office won 2 tickets to the Rugby World Cup, the Employee Learning Scheme offers opportunities and courses, etc.