Substation ETP Review

I am expected to study electrical power and protection engineering for a foundation degree at aston uni, attend training courses generally regarding health and safety and occupational training. I am also expected to join working parties on site to complete my logbooks which are used to prove I have the relevant experience to become qualified.

I have become more knowledgeable about switchgear and power engineering. I feel that some of my previous experience in 4 years of engineering lessons at school and college is not used, however I have learnt new things that are more relevant to the electrical supply industry and national grid such as the types of switchgear, nomenclature, and safety distances.

I very much enjoy being on site and getting involved, I also enjoy learning at eakring training centre however I do not find aston Uni enjoyable, particularly due to certain lecturers incompetence. The company has decided that we are not allowed to drive in the first year due to the risk which induces extra stress as we are often expected to cover several hundred miles a week with a weeks worth of clothing as well as PPE, which often weighs over the 25kg manual handling limit. Doing this twice a week severely reduces my enjoyment of the programme

The programme is well planned for a good few months in advance, however as the company stipulates that we are only allowed to book holiday while we are on site, it would be useful if they could plan further ahead such that we are able to book holidays further in advance. The job can be very full on and I would be very glad for some time off. My mentor is an advanced commisioning engineer, one of only 3 on my team, he is incredibly busy and I am only on site for a limited amount of time so I have not been able to properly talk to him about my progression.

There is a good support network in the company and we are able to access the same employee assistance programme that full employees of the company have access to. I do sometimes feel that our concerns may not be listened to such as full employees, such as the difficulties of travelling by train with a large amount of kit. We are supposed to hit 20% of our logbooks within six months of being in the company. I think this target has been set high to keep us motivated, however in reality it is quite de-motivational as it is borderline unachievable unless various circumstances line up in one's favour. Some of us have voiced concern about this however we have been told it will not be changed

I am severely disappointed with Aston university. We have had one Lecturer who was possibly the best educator I have ever known and one lecturer who was better than average. However certain lecturers have confused us, avoided properly answering our questions, not known what formulas would be given to us, failed to upload their slides within a month after the lecture, or blatantly plagiarized slides from lecturers that have left.

I feel that having a proper understanding of what happens electrically in the systems we will eventually work with could be useful if we were to become Advanced commissioning engineers in the long term. I do however wonder why we learn some units such as thermodynamics which is useful in generation, not transmission when the company is not involved in generation or Business environment which is likely more useful to office staff or finanical officers than those of us who will be out in the field keeping the system running.

I have been invited by my New Talent Development Specialist to an engineering club at our training centre. At our training centre a fishing lake and five a side football pitch are available to us after 17:00. Due to the nature of Electricitry Transmission Operations working in small teams across the country there is limited scope for social clubs to form.

Yes

Despite some areas for improvement , I enjoy working here and particularly on site and understand that every job has downsides and that if the downside of a job is going to uni to get a foundation degree for free, the job is pretty good. I am currently 19 and should be qualified at 21 and will then be on a wage above the national average. I have a good team both of apprentices and full time workers on site.

When they say the Job is full on at the interview day, they really mean it. I've had 5 days holiday in six months which I had to use to catch up to uni work. One's organisation must be very good or you will have to stay up late regularly to stay on top of the workload. Despite this we are well compensated for our work, and do not have to pay for travel, hotels or food while at uni. On the Interview day it is a good idea to have gone over basic electrical theory the day before, and at least read the wikipedia page on substations. They will ask you about previous experiences in various skill areas they are looking for such as problem solving and teamwork. They aren't looking for the candidate that knows the most about their industry, they're looking for someone who displays intelligence, a cool head under pressure, and the ability to think critically