My sandwich-year placement in building services engineering
8.00 am I catch the bus to Sheffield city centre every morning; the journey generally takes 30 minutes followed by a short walk to the office where I’m based. I started my placement four weeks ago in the energy team of the building services department and have already worked on several different projects.
8.45 am On arriving at the office I talk to my colleagues in the energy team to gather information about on-going projects and what’s coming up in the near future. This week I went to Manchester for the day to attend a training course on renewable energy, so we talk about how it went. We also have regular more formal team meetings and I write up the minutes for everyone.
9.15 am I go through the project I’ve been working on, a young offenders institute, which helps me plan my work for the rest of the day. Using specialist computer software I have created a model from the architect’s drawings. I’m in the process of calculating the annual carbon emissions for the building to determine whether they pass the minimum regulations. I’ve also been carrying out tasks on a range of construction projects in the residential, commercial and retail sectors and my workload changes from day to day depending on the projects that come in.
I’m not treated as a student – I’m given responsibility and independence as a member of the team.
12.30 pm I tend to walk into town to get a sandwich in my lunch hour, but on Fridays the department usually go to the local pub for lunch and a catch up.
1.30 pm After lunch I pick up where I left off. With the model completed, I go through the process of allocating internal conditions to it, such as occupancy gains and temperatures, as well as assigning thermal performance to the roof, external walls, and other structural elements of the building.
3.30 pm Something I do for every project I work on is generate a report displaying the data gathered from my analysis. This report consists of a brief description of the project and the design parameters that have been input into the software in order to achieve a pass. If the design parameters I’ve entered into the model mean that a building doesn’t pass the minimum carbon emissions regulations, I suggest changes to the architect.
4.30 pm On a weekly basis I have the responsibility of gathering the office’s gas and electric meter readings and inputting them into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in order to monitor our yearly energy consumption. I fit this into the afternoon.
5.15 pm I start heading home. The best part about my placement is that I’m not treated as a student – I’m given responsibility and independence as a member of the team. My colleagues understand that I’m new to the software and the routines, though, and are always there to help. It’s a sociable office, and we arrange football matches and nights out at the weekend.
Garry Kay had a sandwich-year placement with Capita Symonds, while studying for a BEng mechanical engineering at Sheffield University (2010)