Maddy writes:
I have just finished a week of work experience at VGC’s head office in Ruislip.
I go to Bishop Ramsey School and am in year 10. Everyone in my year group had to complete work experience and I was struggling to find a placement. VGC reached out to my school and after I visited the careers advisor, she recommended me the place at VGC. I was very excited as I knew I would find VGC and civil engineering very interesting.
Kimberley McGinty was my supervisor and kindly organised this week which I have really enjoyed. I have been lucky enough to visit nearly all departments and learnt lots about what is involved in various jobs.
Before this week, I knew very little about the construction industry, but I now understand all of the work that takes place behind the scenes. For example, managing the resources and quantity of resources needed, employing and keeping track of those on site and marketing the company in order to receive more work in the future.
I also knew very little about working in an office and potential jobs however this week has shown me how many different jobs there are available and how important they all are to a company.
This week has not only been very interesting but very useful; by learning about different jobs, I have more of an idea of what I may do in the future. Also, I think this experience has helped me to become more independent, more confident and more responsible. I have learnt and practiced new skills that I will definitely need in the future.
What I did
Across my week I have:
- Helped to write and publish blogs and a case study. I helped to gather the information needed for a staff case study on Hayley Morris as well as information for Kim’s blog on a recent visit to Brixton prison. As well as writing, editing and publishing this blog.
- Taken photos of different members of staff
- Completed a health and safety office inspection. We went around the building with a list of everything that needed to be checked and in place and made sure everything was safe and the records were up to date.
- Helped with data entry and updating records, spreadsheets and reports in HSQE and rail. At the same time, I was learning about the jobs involved in these departments.
- Visited the Tideway site with Kim on my last day. The Tideway project is working on solving the problem of overflowing, Victorian sewers through new tunnels and new machinery, TBMs (tunnel boring machines). The TBMs are named after famous, influential London women. Hopefully the project will result in a cleaner, less polluted river. We travelled to the site in London and I attended a meeting about women in construction. I also saw the site and was talked through the current site and the progress they are hoping to make. It was very interesting to see the project that I have seen a lot of people working towards this week.
- Finally, across my time I met and worked with lots of people in rail, construction, personnel and recruitment, reception, payroll and HR.
I am very grateful to Kim for organising this week and also to everyone I spoke to and worked with. This has been a wonderful experience.
