Student Design Engineer Review

Triumph Motorcycles offered a wide range of different projects to get involved in. Each required a variety of engineering and profesional skills. A great placement for those who are insterested in motorcycles, engineering or design.

Colleagues would rely on you to produce work to Triumph's high standards, and to critical deadlines. There were many opportunities to socialise with the team, including; go karting, brewery visits, airsoft, rugby, motorcycle ride outs, and other sports events.

Weekly meetings were held with your supervisor to check progress of work, outstanding tasks and to assign new projects. Help and guidance was given by an individual mentor (each student gets one) who would take time from their work to help.

Kept very busy throughout the year, working on new product designs in CAD, creating prototype and production drawings, part fitment, component testing and report writing. Other tasks included working on fitting instructions, talking to test riders for feedback and liasing with external suppliers via email or video conference.

All students were treated as full time staff from day one. Later through the year, tasks requiring more organisition were given.

I felt not much of the core engineering skills I developed at university were used on my placement. Other skills such as time management, communication and initiative were required in much greater quantities. The placement will help me to better organise work in my final year and future employment, as well as help me to work under pressure.

The accessories department had a really friendly atmosphere. Everyone was approachable and like minded. Most were interested in motorcycles so conversations of bikes were not uncommon.

The placement was well organised. Projects were set out at the start of the year for the student to complete, although I was not made aware of the complete list until the end. Due to the nature of engineering, tasks would come up unexpectedly (e.g. A component redesign as a result of testing) so could not be planned for. I feel that more time should have been given for certain projects (working past 5 pm was common)

The company trained me to use Pro Engineers / Creo CAD software to model parts as solids and surfaces, as well as produce enigneering drawings. These will help me in my final year studies.

The company is always looking for engineers.

Many placement students lived together in shared accomodation. However, there are very few bars/pubs/clubs in Hinckley.

I chose a 1 hour commute from home as there was a lack of services in the hinckley area. However, as I understand it, accomodation was a little cheaper because of this.

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Some opportunites to socialise with colleagues at arranged events. However, the local area didn't offer much. Being able to drive/ride is a must to get to activities in other cities.