Motivating Tomorrow’s Engineers through Student Placements

Motivating Tomorrow’s Engineers through Student Placements

November 22nd, 2016

Wilde’s engineers recently welcomed two work placement students into our technical offices to provide them with an exciting insight into real-life design challenges. Their week with us proved a great success, and helped to boost their motivation by clearly demonstrating the link between study and its practical outcomes.

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Tim Wright, a Mechanical Engineering student at Leicester University, describes his work experience at Wilde as ‘fantastic’ and feels more motivated in his studies as a result.

Tim Wright, a mechanical engineering student now in his second year at the University of Leicester, and Benjy Wilson, currently studying for his A-levels, both spent a week here at Wilde learning about what our engineers do, how they do it and the advanced software that they use.

Tim describes his experience:

“During my time, I was split between Wilde Analysis and Wilde Consulting Engineers. I was given my own tasks to gain an understanding of both the software they used as well as the processes and stages of projects and problems they have dealt with. I was also lucky enough to go out on a site visit, carrying out an inspection and writing up the report of the bridges condition.”

“These experiences allowed me to put my theoretical knowledge into practice and see it applied to real-life problems, motivating me with my studies at University as it is all relevant and applicable. Being exposed to new types of software was especially interesting and gave me an insight into another side of engineering with lots of new possibilities for a career.”

As a result, Tim is now considering a career with a heavy influence towards software, including FEA programs. He summed up:

“It has been super-helpful, interesting as well as thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone was so friendly and helpful, making me feel part of the whole team. The experience I gained using the different software, as well as seeing an engineering company in practice and how it runs, was fantastic.”

Benjy, who spent his week within the FEA department at Wilde Analysis, was similarly enthusiastic about his time here and the benefits it provided, commenting:

“Unlike some of my friends who ended up mostly making the tea on their work placements, I found my experience at Wilde interesting and stimulating, both in terms of the work I did and the engineers who supervised me. Most importantly, this has given me some real insight into the importance of what I’ve been learning in my physics A-Level. Now that I can see a practical purpose, I feel a lot more motivated to continue with my studies in this subject.”

Shakeel Chaudry, Wilde’s Technical Director – Structural Mechanics, observed:

“For those of us already enjoying a career in engineering, it is extremely rewarding to encourage the engineers of tomorrow. Although Tim and Benjy only spent a short time with us, they gained a very good understanding of how our engineers have used their education to forge a successful career.”

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