Civil Industrial Trainee Review

I've really enjoyed my placement year so far, the work has been varied despite the limited industry that MMB works in. There haven't particularly been any drawbacks apart from the location of the office I work in, in Newport. This is only because it is a little bit out of the way from town

The colleagues around me have been really great, and the fact that I was on placement with another student around my age from the same Uni made things easy. The way that tasks are delegated meant that I was gradually eased into independent working by colleagues, going from simply being shown what to do, to simply being assigned a task and getting on with it.

At MMB they do a 4 week and 4 month review for new employees, and I was made to feel like a proper full time employee rather than a student who would be gone in a year. my manager made sure that I was able to handle to workload I was given and was able to help with planning for tasks, and provided info on things I was encountering for the first time.

Throughout the placement I have been consistently busy with a variety of tasks, but it has never felt like there was no time for a break or that I was going to fall behind with work. There were a few times when I felt like there was very little to do in the day, but usually by letting a manager or colleague know, they were able to find a task on a project to keep me busy.

At the start of the placement there was very little responsibility as it was mostly about settling into work and learning new skills, as well as the culture of the workplace. As the placement has gone on however, responsibility has steadily increased, with more complex tasks being assigned to me, where I'm expected to research past projects and work on solutions myself. As for responsibility like project management, there has been very little, due to the fact that its only a year placement

I feel in terms of completing the degree I'm on and carrying technical skills over to Uni, there is very little opportunity. However, project management skills, and planning methods that I have learnt here will definitely carry over well to university projects. Other soft skills like communication and collaboration will be very useful as well.

There is a friendly atmosphere in the office, and as it is an Alliance office with a range of companies working under welsh water there are plenty of varied people and a variety of knowledge backgrounds. Collaboration was encouraged, and if there was an issue that no one in the team had experience with, I felt comfortable asking people from across the office.

Very well organised. I was assigned a buddy before I arrived at the placement, and was able to cha with them to get to know each other so that arriving at the placement was less daunting. The managers and my buddy had a set plan to follow for the first few weeks to get me into working here before I was properly comfortable working independently on tasks.

The company paid for me to take my citb test and get a CSCS card for site visits, as they felt not only is it useful for them in that I would have better knowledge of my projects if I see them first hand, but also because it would provide a good overview of the whole lifespan of a project for when I'm back at uni, or for in the future wherever I work.

They are very appealing, even though it is not a necessity that I come back after graduation, I feel that based on my experiences here its the best place for me to start my career. Also by having done a placement here, I have an advantage on the graduate scheme, which means I progress faster if I come back.

There were regular events organised within the office, and a weekly badminton session that people within our team, as well as a few people from the wider MMB group attended. There were also out of office events such as a game night and Christmas party for MMB employees.

Newport is very cheap especially compared to Cardiff, and the price of my accommodation was equivalent to the cost of student homes that some of my friends lived in in other cities and towns. Socially Newport is not particularly vibrant, but because its only 10 minutes from Cardiff y train and a day return ticket costs £3.95, this isn't really an issue.

The nightlife was fairly non existent in Newport, and I lived in the opposite direction from all of my colleagues so there wasn't much opportunity to go out. However there is a buzzing student nightlife in Cardiff and there were plenty of company social events arranged

Yeah there are plenty of local sports teams to get involved in, many of which advertised in the office.