MORE THAN JUST WORK EXPERIENCE


Global heat transfer (GHT) is a small engineering company based outside of Eccleshall in rural Staffordshire. The company works with a large number of well-known manufactures that need a stable heat source to produce everyday products such as crisps and sausages. In November 2012, GHT was growing its operation in the UK and an advert on the company website simply stated, “We’re recruiting!” This advert was picked-up by a French undergraduate looking for work experience in the UK. Eole Picot was in his first year of study at the engineering school of CESI in Paris France and was seeking a summer placement in the UK to get work experience in the sector of heat transfer engineering and also to get cultural experience of working in the UK. This article outlines some of the experiences on offer to those brave enough to venture abroad on a student placement.


Student placements had been considered, but international student placements were off the radar at GHT. That is why Eole’s initial expression of interest was so intriguing. Bringing a bit of France to rural Staffordshire sounded exciting. Initial contact with GHT had occurred in November 2012. This was a speculative email sent to the Managing Director of GHT expressing interest in working in the area of heat transfer engineering for 10 weeks in the summer of 2013. Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that relates to the transfer of thermal energy from one physical system to another. Upon receiving an expression of interest, it was not clear if Eole would really follow through with the expression of interest, but he showed that he was keen and kept contact with GHT on an almost weekly basis. In hindsight, this is not surprising as Eole is not your stereotypical undergraduate. He was very driven and this was clear once he explained that he was a National judo champion. He was also prepared, giving himself 8 months to sort out the placement. He also knew what he also knew what he wanted from the 10-week placement – cultural experience of working in the UK.


Eole joined GHT in July 2013 and chose to do one of his work-based modules abroad instead of staying put in France. This combination of industry and academia meant he had already gained experience at SNCF, the French National railway company. SNCF is the company that operates the


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