PR&D Apprentice Review

Safety assessment for practical work Equipment set up for practical work Completion of the practical work (reactions, isolation and purifications) Plant support (trouble shooting and root cause analysis for plant based problems) Equipment management and upkeep Recording and reporting all practical work conducted Sample planning and communication between a multi discipline team Completion of all university assignments.

yes loads most of my new skills are as a result of conducting practical work and learning lab techniques that vastly applicable across all the work that i do. Analytical techniques - TLC, HPLC, NMR, Kf, LOD and GC interpretation Practical - Filtration, liquid liquid splits, chromatography, crystallization, Schlenk conditions, wipe film distillation, normal distillation, reaction set up and more standard procedures.

I enjoy all the practical work and the wide range of process and chemistry that it covers at the work place. Overall I'm very happy with the work i do at my work place The university work is interesting but at time can be laborious especially as its expected to be completed in an 8 hour day and at time there is so much going on that the information i have to split it across days other wise it wont be retained. Enjoyable, intresting but can sometimes be draining.

At work it is very clear what is expected of me and there is plenty of support for my work. University can be hit and miss due to the lecturers having their own styles of teaching some of which is perfect for distance learning but others can be difficult as they lecture for a live audience and use visual ques which aren't recorded by the screen capture making it hard to know what they are talking about. The Moodle page is also subject to how the lectures organize their files, some Moodle pages are flawless having perfectly sign posted areas and what is covered in each area and some are dump piles of lectures and notes that have no clearly allocated location for resources.

My project chemist at the time of writing this is faultless he is always asking whether aspects f my practical work need clarifying and if there are any particularly dangerous steps he is on hand to support me with that step. My manager at the time of is also really good in handling my needs as we have a weekly one to one to outline any issues i am having or if i need any support with my practical or academic work. Employees at the company are also very understanding of the capabilities of the apprentices and offer help with both academic and practical work. I will note that this hasn't always been the case and i have had difficult times. however this was due to a member of the company that no longer is employed and my life has been alot happier and easier since he left and hasn't fallen back into those conditions.

I don't usually ask for their help with anything as the members of my department are more easily accessible and know me better and can explain concepts to me much easier. when i have had to talk to university they have always be quick to respond to emails and phone calls and have been helpful with my enquiry's

I would find it considerable more difficult to do a job in chemistry if I was being educated in chemistry as every aspect of my job can be linked back to some aspect of the course that I am on. The information I learn isn't necessarily directly applicable to the work I do but the theories can be built upon and adapted to my work.

we have had social nights ( bowling and the Christmas party) along with some member playing football together in the summer. however since covid these have now be few and far between with most social activities being planned by the members of the department and as a result have gone trampolining and bouldering

Yes

because it is a good place to work and has a very varied day to day experience. i will say that i would only recommend carbogen to a friend who i knew could cope with the constant workload deadlines and be able to hop between projects and keep up other wise it wouldnt be an unenjoyable job for them and they would be better off some where else

brush up on all chemistry that has been studied in the past as our project tend to draw from a lot of basic principles and always thinking of the future is important as there is no point developing a process that cant be scaled if the client requires tonnes of material