Industrial Placement Student, Manufacturing Technology Engineer - Product Group Review

I enjoyed my placement a lot. I have had a variety of different projects to take on, most of which have required me to work with people which I really enjoyed. Everyone that I have worked with has been happy to help should I ask for it. There's a nice camaraderie in the workplace that lived up to the 'great culture' that every company claims to have.

Everyone was very welcoming to me at first there is a very inclusive culture. People have shown genuine appreciation for my work (which is always nice). As an placement student I expected to be bottom of the pile so to speak, but as my placement has gone on and I have understood the work better I have been looked to more and more often for information/advice, and have been given more responsibility by my supervisors - always a good sign! Even when I was learning the ropes and felt a bit useless my supervisors were always quick to remind me that it's important to learn well to be able to contribute well.

I have been so well supported by my supervisor and managers all year. I work closely with my supervisor and she has always been quick to help me and answer any questions I have had (and I have had a lot, not all of which were intelligent yet still met with patience!). I've never been left to do a task unprepared. My supervisor had fortnightly meetings with me to make sure my workload was appropriate and keep up to date with my tasks (but like I said we work closely so she was updated daily anyway). My manager met with me monthly to ensure I had enough support in my projects and make sure my projects were benefitting me as a student. This was just my experience of management, I don't know about other students in the company, but I couldn't sing their praises enough.

Every day is different, some days I have a lot to do with the pressure of deadlines, but most of my projects are longer term and have less time pressure (however are of a 'the sooner the better' nature). So even if there are no immediate deadlines I have plenty of things to work on day to day. There have been a couple of occasions were I have run low on things to do in the interim between a project ending and another starting, but my supervisor has always sorted me out for more to.

Not much at the start! But that's understandable in the pharmaceutical industry. It would be a bit scary (for the customer) if they gave me loads at the start! But as I learned how things work and the different processes and regulations that demand compliance I was given increasing amounts of responsibility throughout the year.

I was allowed to participate in the training scheme that the graduate engineers go through when they join the company. I found a lot of it to be beneficial, not only for the job this year, but could see the application to work I will do in my next two years of university. There was also a IP (industrial placement student) development scheme with the new graduate employees for the year, focused on developing us as people for our future careers.

Great! My time is split between two different areas on site, an office building and the factory, so there were two different working atmospheres in both. In my experience everyone is really friendly and there's a nice level of banter. I've had a lot of fun with my colleagues this year. It has been professional but still laid back too, there is a very healthy view on work/life balance.

It was well organised in terms of the work I was provided with. The organisational structure (for engineers at least) seems to suit having a placement student on the team very well. There is a rotation of graduate engineers among the manufacturing sites, so the company is well equipped to provide projects for short-term placements of people who have a lot to learn.

I asked if I could participate in the same training scheme as the graduate engineers and was welcomed to join. This involved a lot of training that is aimed at long-term improvements of a process, very useful in terms of my future career, and considering I am only there for one year with no promise of returning in the future, this was pretty great! The general IP/Grad development scheme is something that I was automatically enrolled in and was completely aimed at personal development.

Very appealing! There is a graduate engineer scheme which sees the grads rotating between different sites to give them exposure to different manufacturing sites in different sites before they apply for a permanent position. Within the company people can move/change their role every 2-3 years and so not get bored. After being a placement student I think you can get fast tracked through the application process when applying as a grad but I'm not 100% sure!

There is some casual socialising amongst colleagues outside of work. The students/grads always socialised whenever together for training/events.

I stayed in my university town (Loughborough) so lived in a student house with other students so my living/socialising cost was no higher than a normal year at university. I believe Loughborough is one of the cheapest university towns to live in so it wasn't bad at all! Rent is anywhere from about £250-400 a month (I paid £368 for a huge room in a 5 bed house with two bathrooms and new kitchen).

I lived in a university town in very close proximity to Loughborough University so there are plenty of clubs and bars around the town! Due to the university there is pretty much something going on every night if you fancy it and there's something for everyone. There are more pubs than I can even remember the names of.

Within work I had the opportunity to take part in volunteering day (a community day working in a foresty area and a day spent at the local care home) and STEM events, during working days and once on a weekend. Outside of work, due to having flexi time (which is amazing), I had plenty of time to do whatever I pleased. Such a nice difference to university - when you finish the working day you don't have to study!