These case studies give you an idea of what it's like to be a Graduate at AWE...
Edward - Graduate Mechanical Engineer (Joined October 2005)
"There aren’t many companies that can offer the possibility of learning something new every day for the duration of your career. This, combined with a commitment to your professional and personal development, is what makes AWE a unique place to work.
As a graduate mechanical engineer, I’ve been lucky enough to go on placements all over AWE. The work varies enormously with each placement – one was a design and manufacturing placement where I was able to see a product through from initial designs right through to implementation and testing. On other placements I’ve been looking through various databases to research why certain processes occur. Whatever I’m doing, it tends to involve work that has never been done before. That’s what makes this job so fascinating for me."
Jude - Materials Scientist (Joined July 2004)
"In my current job I’m responsible for planning, executing and reporting scientific research projects. I love the challenge of being involved in so much work and it’s an important job to share our findings with others in similar fields. As well as reports, we present our work verbally and also produce posters. I’ve presented at international conferences and travelled to the US for an exchange with our peers there.
The work we do at AWE is unique and it’s such a multi-disciplinary organisation that you’re always meeting new people and developing a huge breadth of experience. Outside of my day-to-day job, I’ve been involved in quite a bit of development work. As well as helping to implement a behavioural-based safety programme, I’ve also recently completed the green belt training of the Lean Six Sigma programme which is being rolled out at AWE."
Paul - Graduate Manufacturing Engineer (Joined January 2005)
"I joined AWE because I knew it was leading the way in areas such as plasma physics and it would be a great place to develop my career. My job involves a lot of producing process specifications and working across a number of projects. It’s interesting because I get to see the process through from beginning to end and you’re always stretching yourself and learning new things. I get to travel quite regularly, too, and have just got back from a conference in Germany.
On the training side I’m currently studying for an MSc in Operations Excellence at Cranfield University and working towards to Chartered status. There are also plenty of in-house courses and I’ve been on quite of few of those, developing things like project management skills."