E3 Academy Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed the placement. I found the project I was given interesting and challenging. As part of the project I had to learn and use VBA for Excel, this is a powerful tool that I will likely now use as part of other work at university and beyond.

I found that all the staff at CGT were friendly and helpful. Importantly they were very approachable when I had a problem and willing to give up some of their time to help.

I shared an office with the main supervisor for my project and this gave me instant access for support and guidance from him. We regularly chatted about the project and he encouraged me to ask him if I had any problems or wanted to run ideas by him. I also had a second supervisor who was able to provide guidance on the project while the main supervisor was on holiday.

I found the project challenging and this meant it was able to keep me busy each day working on the different problems it involved. There was the occasional slow day but these were filled with documenting my project progress and working on a presentation to give at the end of the placement.

This is a difficult question to answer. I was given full responsibility over my project and was able to approach the problems how I wished. My supervisor was there to give guidance and point out the pro's and con's to my solutions but the final decision was mine. Apart from the project I was given little other responsibility but you can't expect a company to give management responsibility to someone that's only there on a 9 week placement!

I have learnt a lot during my placement and these skills will help with university studies over the next two years. That said the project I was given only required me to use simple problem solving skills and learn VBA for Excel.

The office atmosphere was usually fairly quiet but people would regularly chat to each other about their work or other topics. Sometimes there was even cake!

Exact details on the placement were on a bit short notice but once started everything had been arranged including key-cards and project work. Although there were some technical difficulties with the laptop I was given but these were quickly solved in the first couple of days. The placement is run each summer and organisation is improving each year.

There was no formal training given for the placement apart from a factory tour with a talk on safety. However the project was chosen so that any information or institution could be given by my supervisor. Being a 9 week placement this was very important as it meant I could quickly find out what I needed without going on training courses.

The placement is run as part of a sponsorship scheme through the E3 Academy. At the end of my university course CGT has the option of offering me a job which I can accept if I want. I think I would enjoy working there, although it is not in my preferred field. That said there are job there that have a greater focus on my interests. I believe my future prospects with CGT are good as this year they gave me the option of applying for a year long placement.

This is another difficult question to answer as it depends on your definition of a good social scene. Stamford (where I was based) only has one club but it does have lots of restaurants and pubs. The other placement students and I would occasionally meet up at night for a meal or to do a pub quiz. There is a good social connection with the other placement students during working hours as well and we would meet up each lunch at the canteen to discuss our project and chat.

Unfortunately one thing that Stamford isn't is cheap. Accommodation during the placement can be quite expensive because it is for a short period (9 weeks) and the help from CGT to find accommodation is quite small. To give you a standard measure of cost a pint is about £3-4 from most of the pubs.

Again this depends on what you want from the night-life. There are a number of pubs and restaurants but not much else. That said when your working 8:30 to 5 staying up till 2am isn't recommended.

There are a good selection of groups at CGT for a range of activities (such as bike riding). There are also plenty of facilities in Stamford for swimming, football, gym, etc. As part of the placement (and CGT) there is also a community involvement scheme where you spend some of your work time helping the community. For example this year we are preparing an allotment to be used by local children to grow vegetables.