Undergraduate Engineer Review

The role involves studying two days a week and working in the company three days a week. Study days are an entire day of lectures and a day of self study. We rotate through different departments in the company, with each rotation lasting 3-4 months and are given real engineering projects to work on. Employees at Dyson are so encouraging of learning and are always keen to help when we need it and enable us to grow and develop our competencies in engineering as well as personally.

I've developed many skills. Personally, the most valuable skills I've developed are professionalism and the ability to work on projects that aren't defined specifically for learning (as those at uni are) - the hands on experience means learning to adapt quickly, solve real world problems, use initiative, communicate with working professionals which can be very different to peers especially when they are employees you don't often work directly with, learning to present work and the course overall has help me build a lot of workplace confidence.

I love the workplace side of things and would give it a 10/10, as I can see immediate value to what I learn and often real world output to my work and learning feels more rewarding than learning for the sake of an exam, assignment and grades. I enjoy the university side of things less, especially because being in the workplace, I can often tell whether something I am learning will actually be useful or not.

The Dyson Institute team work incredibly hard to deliver a unique experience, part of which means matching the fast pace here at Dyson and because the course is quite new, a lot of adapting has had to take place. Naturally, this means organisation isn't always seamless, however the program is really well structured, and the team are continuing to improve this structure from experience.

Support is incredible. This includes support for learning on the university side as the Dyson Institute have hired specialists in different fields to support learning. Further to this, support for learning in the workplace can also be received from the same staff, but support in teams in the workplace from line managers and other employees is always good too, and any difficulties are always addressed quickly by student support advisors (SSA) or other Dyson Institute staff. Mental health support and coaching from SSAs is also really good and there are services available to receive further mental health support. Staff benefits include the option to have private healthcare, which is good for any health issues, physical or mental.

A structure is in place to make sure we gain the apprenticeship competencies and we routinely (every few months) have sessions and a day out of work to track these and assess what we've picked up and what we need. Support for academic learning to receive our degree is also good.

I don't see use in a lot of the degree content and a lot of the time, exercises and assignments seem pointless even in terms of learning fundamentals for working in the real world. Once specialising, the university content seems a lot more relevant although again, it is easy to see what is pointless because our roles in the workplace utilise theory in a very different way to what's presented.

There are lots of societies for all sorts of things, and because we get paid and most people drive, it is really easy to do things without financial restriction. There's a social team who regularly organise social events with things like days out to London, go karting or nights out in Bristol. There's just not really enough time to always do things.

Yes

The skills gained are invaluable and the experience is almost always positive. Working within the company is fun and not having any student debt is a huge advantage. The Dyson Institute team are always working hard to support us and improve the course, and create an experience to develop the best engineers possible from the course.

Work hard and be confident throughout the application process. Do reading around different engineering topics and real world applications and around Dyson too. Linkedin is great for reaching out to undergrads and employees - don't be shy, just drop a message, networking is a great skill to develop regardless of if you end up here or not.