Nuclear Science and Engineering Placement (summer) Review

EDF Energy is a great company to work for. They put a lot of effort into developing learning whilst undertaking a placement. The work is inherently interesting and, in my opinion, encourages you to thrive in the workplace. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and can see myself working there in the future!

As a whole, I felt very valued as a member of the team. The work I was undertaking had real world application and will be used in future safety cases. The justification of the work you are doing ensures you put your all into it. Unfortunately, the team I was placed with had a few unsavoury members and I felt personally victimised at times by said people. But on average, ignoring anomalous team members, I felt accepted.

Management within the company are generally not great. My line manager was by far the worst manager I have ever had to deal with. They had no people skills and often left people feeling inadequate even when they are excellent employees. However, my mentor was incredible! They always had time to help me develop my learning and was always more than willing to take time out of their day to teach me a little more!

The Barnwood office tends to work on a flexi-time system (at the discretion of line managers) so it was useful as some days I had a task to complete that required me to be ‘in the zone’, so I could work a long day, then ‘reclaim’ the hours back later in the week if there was less to be done. Generally there was always something to be getting on with. And as a placement student or intern there are deadlines, but they are always manageable. Challenging but manageable.

The project that I was completing work on had very clear real world impacts, and over the three months that I was there I saw my results being used in reports and during meetings to help harvest new ideas. I was also let loose with very expensive lab equipment, which I was not expecting! Daunting but satisfying.

Working for the company leaves you with very useful real world skills. Time management, team working and collaboration, project management and analytical skills were all skills which I feel I had practiced during the internship. I also practiced many technical skills like preparation of samples, examination of samples using microscopy and analysis and critical evaluation of results. Unfortunately as the sector is very niche, it didn't have many directly transferrable skills to my degree, but the skills learnt along the way I'm sure will come in handy in some aspect of my course.

Barnwood is a very professional office, with a huge emphasis placed on collaboration and team work. It is open plan and very dynamic, with people wandering around all day. There were often discussions at people’s desks where people freely joined if they felt like it was something they could contribute to.

The early careers team takes a VERY long time to get back to you with information on your placement and then expect you to complete a lot of admin in a very short time, so be prepared to be flexible once you get an offer! The actual bulk of the placement is down to the individual programmes or groups you will be working with, and this is extremely varied. I was lucky and had a great couple of projects to work on, but I know a lot of other placement students ended up with very boring and unrelated projects during their placements.

The company invests a lot of time and effort in all placement students. Obviously they are hoping that after investing this time and money in someone they will come back to the company and work for them in the future. They have very good training schemes that teach you most background knowledge that you need to know to get on in the company. As an undergraduate or pre university placement student, they also offer you sponsorship money for the rest of your studies (pending a supervisor reference and interview) which shows that they are invested in you and would like you back! There is also a scheme that offers money to pay for educational training in other sectors that are not directly important to the company but is important in personal development (i.e. French lessons or Piano lessons).

The company invests a lot of time in training students that come to them for a placement, and generally if you manage to make it to the placement stage you are likely to get a permanent job there (the most competive thing I dealt with was getting the placement in the first place). As I said previously they invest a lot of time and money in you and would ideally like to see you back at the company. Currently EDF have the go ahead to start building Hinkley point C so, even though the older stations will be closing down soon, there will be job prospects at hinkley, possibly at bradwell and in decommissioning and the likes. There are also job opportunities in france, with EDF SA.

The social scene is what you make of it. There is a young professional network (set up when I was completing my placement) however, you have to be proactive in seeking the other placement students and social opportunities out, as they are not actively advertised. There are a few mailing lists you can join within the office to keep you updated with what is going on.

Gloucester is not extortionate to live in, Cheltenham is a little more expensive. They are both your typical cities, lots of chain restaurants and pubs but there are also a lot of free opportunities (i.e. Gloucester has the cathedral, art exhibitions, festivals, country walks). Again, you can make it as expensive or cheap as you like, if you are creative enough!

Gloucester doesn't have that many places to go out at night, a few clubs, but the pub scene is excellent, and there are a lot of nice places to go in Gloucester quays and dockyard. Cheltenham has a much better nightlife and is only about a 10 minute drive from work.

There are plenty! Numerous rugby teams (even a work 5 a side!) and lots of other sporting activities. Gloucester guildhall runs an open mic night every fortnight and there are 3 or 4 other pubs around Gloucester that run an open mic every week. The guildhall is a great venue and often has many comedy and music shows. There are lots of good places to cycle in Gloucester.