My experience has helped gain so much invaluable experience particularly when COVID started.

Why did you choose to do a Placement?

• I wanted relevant work experience for my degree
• I didn't know what career I wanted at the end of my studies, so wanted to gain experience
• I thought it would improve my graduate prospects
• I wanted to develop on-the-job skills to help the rest of my degree
• I wanted to put my skills I had already learnt into day-to-day use

How did you find your role?

https://careerconnect.sheffield.ac.uk/

What was the highlight of your Placement?

I spent my placement working on a new £100m automated aseptic facility in which I helped deploy the main control system. My experience has helped gain so much invaluable experience particularly when COVID started especially since I worked at a pharmaceutical company. The highlight of my placement is when I got classified as a key worker and our project got put on an accelerated schedule, this has given me the opportunity to complete a lot of additional projects and extended my placement by an additional 2 months.

What did you gain from your Placement?

• A greater awareness of which sector you want to work in
• Developed technical skills
• Developed professional skills
• A wider professional network
• Increased motivation for your studies
• Friends through your workplace/ other Placement students
• Awareness of the roles I do/do not want to do in the future
• Experience of living somewhere different
• International experience (through working abroad or travelling for work)

What did GSK think?

"During his year with GSK Barnard Castle, Ahmed has been a key part of our mission to deliver the companies first truly paperless Aseptic filling facility which will deliver life changing medicines to our patients from 2021. He has taken the facility from first power on to a fully validated state, delivering a plant wide SCADA package which is fully integrated into all systems in the facility. This has built on his learnings from university and put them into practice in the real world, Tuning PID loops and fault finding complex electrical and computer system issues along the way."

One piece of advice would you give to students who are considering taking a Placement?

Do it, the experience is invaluable!