Thomas has just completed his week of work experience at our head office in Ruislip. He writes:
While I have been at VGC this week I have helped in most of the departments in the company, such as IT, Health and Safety, Labour, Recruitment, Projects and even went on site to see HS2 in Maple Cross.
I chose to do my work experience here because I am interested in engineering and construction, but while I was here, I did things that I didn’t expect to do. However, shadowing Patrick Alexander in the IT department has confirmed that this is an area I am still extremely interested in.
Kimberley McGinty, VGC’s CSR Manager kindly organised and helped me find this placement, and allowed me to visit for the week, after I had expressed my interest in engineering, and wanted experience in the company.
My supervisor for the week was Christina Donaghey, VGC’s Marketing and Communications Executive. They co-ordinated my placements around the company, allowing me to see so many departments in a week.
During my week here I have learnt how VGC manage major infrastructure projects from a labour supply, recruitment and sub-contracting point of view.
- With the resourcing team (labour supply), I
- placed adverts for available jobs vacancies.
- learned how to use Salesforce to cross check rates of pay with an existing spreadsheet.
- used Facebook to find groups to advertise job vacancies in the areas where the work is taking place.
- With the VGC Personnel team (technical and professional recruitment), I
- reviewed the clients that they work with as well as helping to format CVs to make them look more professional before sending to the client.
- With the marketing team, I
- helped to gather information using VGC’s LinkedIn posts from the past three months, so that I could assist the marketing department with creating a blog post celebrating achievements across the company.
- assisted with completing communications with one of their clients and reviewing contracts.
- With the health and safety team, I
- learned about doing site inspections. I was able to see the control measures that are in place to help keep people safe such as briefings, barriers, posters, and contracts.
- With the IT team, I
- helped to set up a company phone for a new starter and linked it to their laptop.
- learned about process automation that has been set up to create efficiencies.
- I then visited a HS2 site with Christina, Kimberley, and labour manager Conor McKeon to engage with students from a local SEN (special educational needs) school. After the school’s engagement session the team gave me a site tour and I was able to see the type of work that VGC staff are delivering. I saw the entrance to the tunnels and a diagram of the tunnel boring machine. I also saw the tunnel segments and they explained to me how the huge concrete segments are made. I also saw the bridge that is being built over a road and a lake, known as a jetty.
Thank you to all the departments that let me shadow them throughout the week. It was great to see what it is really like to work in lots of different departments, and to meet so many interesting people.
I have had a lot of new experiences, but a highlight was experiencing a construction project first hand. I really enjoyed joining Conor on a live client call with the labour desk team to see how VGC and other companies work together on HS2.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my time at VGC, and it has given me a great insight into the world of work.
As part of our corporate social responsibility strategy, VGC provide lots of opportunities for people to start their careers within the construction industry. From placements through to apprenticeship opportunities, there are lots of pathways for people to join VGC. Please see Supporting people to join our industry – VGC Group for further information.
