Mechanical Engineer Industrial Placement Review

Involvement in a range of engineering projects looking into current and future ship capability. Also project involvement into the development of BAE Naval Ship’s engineering capability to meet future customer demands.

Gained a fairly in depth multidisciplinary knowledge surrounding a number of ship systems with opportunities to attend in-company lectures and training sessions. Development of soft skills as a result of working in a number of teams for different projects. Development of engineering skills i.e. CAD, programming, calculations and report writing.

I was given responsibility during my placement on multiple occasions, however no great pressure was ever placed on me being a placement student. Whilst this allowed me to work free to make mistakes, sometimes a little pressure can be beneficial which I would have liked to experienced a bit more during the extent of my placement.

Provided with a Line manager, placement manager and a great support network of fellow early careers cohort and early careers staff. Due to the nature of my department I was given freedom of what projects to work in, again this has both benefits and drawbacks as I had the opportunity to be involved in some really interesting projects but also struggled to get involved in the first few months.

Excellent company culture, everyone is really keen to help you at any point. I have never felt ignored at any point when asking for help during my placement.

I enjoyed it a lot, I have had the opportunity to be involved in cutting edge research projects which I found incredibly interesting. I have been able to gain a great network during my time working as a placement student and hope to maintain this going foreword. As any placement student can experience at certain points I could have been given more task to work on but I understand this can be tricky in early stages from a line manager perspective.

Yes

Make good use of the extensive number of experts working at the company to improve your own knowledge. Make good use of your time and don’t hesitate to ask for further project involvement. Take advantage of all of the training opportunities available and always record these to keep a track of your professional development. Build a good working relationship with your manager and be open with them, professional development reviews are great opportunities to discuss your development with your manager.