We’re all about encouraging the future generation of transport developers, engineers and placemakers and sharing our passion for what we do.
One way we do that is through offering work experience placements to interested students to learn about us and some of the things we do. We make these as interactive and wide ranging as possible across the project teams so students get the opportunity to try a variety of disciplines.
Lewis Pardoe recently joined us for one of these work experience placements. Here is his diary of the four days he spent with us:
Monday
“On Monday I had a day mostly spent doing water team related stuff with Charlotte (Charlotte Turner: Graduate Flood Risk & Drainage Engineer) which included completing a Flood Risk Assessment along with a general site risk assessment (including health and safety related risks).
“Out of everything I did I probably found the flood risk assessment the most challenging as there was a lot of cross referencing between websites and local authorities. However, I didn’t find the site risk assessment too hard. Whilst the people on the water team were amazing and kind I wasn’t as passionate about it compared to other departments. I also had a talk with Lucy (Lucy Small: HR Assistant on Monday about the company in general which was nice to have.
Tuesday
“On Tuesday I started by doing research related to the ground team with Dan (Dan Evans: Geo Environmental Engineer) which I found interesting and found out stuff about soil and bedrock I would have never know about before. I did enjoy the ground team work as it involves history and the effect past events have on future developments. I then had a session with Matt (Matt Wykes: Consultant) from the transport team which was probably my favourite throughout the week. I enjoyed learning about the impact that traffic flows and types have on future developments that are built.
Thursday
“On Thursday I spent the day with Jack (Jack Lynk: Assistant Engineer) doing civils sector work. We covered a large amount throughout the day which was all very informative and interesting. The day also massively broadened my CAD knowledge which helped on Friday and I’m sure will help me in the future. Road signs were also something I learnt about on Thursday and I’m sure I will never look at a road sign the same way again. It was also interesting to see a meeting on Thursday which helped me understand what sort of things happen during meetings.
Friday
“On Friday I spent the day with Eugenio (Eugenio Toichoa: Civil Engineer) from the infrastructure team. We did a lot of work on CAD today along with him talking me through the kind of stuff the infrastructure team do. We focused in on storm water and foul water sewage for a large part of the day which broadened my knowledge in that sector and taught me about things that are relevant to me (for example the sewage pipes around my street). I found the day quite interesting actually as we basically went through each stage of how sewage is carried through pipes through an estate.
Summary
“Everybody who I spoke to throughout the week (which was basically the entire office) was great. Everyone made me feel welcome, was kind and was good at explaining what it is they do. I also appreciate the time people have taken out of their own work to help me throughout the week, whether that be setting up my software or explaining their job roles to me.
“The general things that I’d take away from this week is that I’d definitely like to work in a place like this and the job role is what I expected it to be like (which is positive). I’m sure there is more stuff that PJA doesn’t cover that I may learn about during uni but so far everything is looking good and I am excited for my future career.”
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