Gradcracker hosts webinars with guest speakers from a range of our employers to explore graduate careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
Find out more about WSP on their Gradcracker Company Hub – https://www.gradcracker.com/hub/408/wsp
Hi everybody and welcome to today’s webinar with with wsp so we are jam-packed with this webinar today as we’re hearing from students who have gone through the degree apprenticeships placements internships and also the graduate program so we’ve Lots got lots and lots and lots to fit in and but we’re going
To hear some about some really fantastic experiences and so joined by Katie senior recruitment specialist and placement students Eloise and Martina degree apprenticeship Sam assistant engineer Phoebe and exg graduate an and deta so welcome everybody for you know thank you for joining us on this webinar
Today we also be hearing from the panel and all about the recruitment process the different projects theyve worked on and much more so Katie we’ve worked together it seems like forever and so could you introduce yourself to the audience please and tell everybody about who you are what you do okay so thank
You Carla so hello everyone so I am Katie so I’m the senior recruitment specialist for wsp so I’m part of the early career team and recruit I personally recruit Advanced and degree apprentices across the UK business so wsp so we’re a multidisciplinary engineering design and Professional Services consultancy so we are civil
Engineers that’s the structure of a building to the facades we’re building to highways to Bridges to rail station design we’re also Building Services so that’s the services of a building so mechanical electrical heating ventilating lifts escalators we’re also rail design so that can be track design signaling um platforms um trans planners
Environmental practitioners strategic advisors project managements many many others so that’s just to say a few so that just shows the multi-disciplinary sort of areas that we do um so sizewise so we’re a community of over 9,000 employees here in the UK we’ve got more than 50 offices in the UK and we’re over
66,000 globally so we plan design and deliver projects both locally and internationally so it inspires us to stay curious so for example just some of the projects that we’ve worked on and been involved in is we’re currently involved with trench du Bishop Gates um so WP has put the tallest city of London
Tower on the road to Net Zero which is very exciting um we are also creating the UK’s first Hydrogen Village the Eden Project North which is in Mor um which Titan Fury lives which I think is quite a fun fact um with the plan to create a
21st century seaside resort and the ones I believe were most famous for is we were involved with the project of The Shard um so we recruit early career professionals so that’s degree apprentices graduates year in industry and summer placement students across all the disciplines that I’ve um spoken
About at many many more and that’s each year right across the UK um applications are now open um and as an early career professional you will have the opportunity to work on real life projects from day one but with a tailored development program put in place to help support you throughout
Your journey here at wsp and we want you to feel a real sense of belonging in an environment where everyone feels respect and valued so if you want to like the sound of what I’ve said and you’d like to work um with the best and brightest Minds in the industry with us you
Can absolutely there there isn’t much case that you do not do as a company is and and I know you’ve done um you know you’ve went to early careers for quite some time now so why are early careers so important to wsp so there’re so important because they bring lots of different
Perspectives so they bring fresh ideas to things which maybe we’ve not originally thought of um they’ve just bring lots of great ideas along with them as well as experience as well from that they’ve that they experienced throughout University throughout school and if they’ve worked parttime as well
On a job they can bring those experiences with them as well and they have the foundation to then go on throughout the business as well and grow within the business and there’s lots of opportunities to move around and lots of opportunities to progress as well so they can become the real backbone to
Wsp perfect thank you very much Katie so like Katie mentioned there are open to Opportunities so right now on the Ws p hub on grad cracker applications are open to degree apprenticeships internships and graduates um all open to multiple candidates and across all stem disciplines so the internships and
Graduate opportunities um cover prog programs like environmental engineering Finance property infrastructure advisory water and energy so lots of different options there and the placements like K mentioned there a bit of a mixture between your year- long placements and your summer placements and now have a deadline of the 31st of December so
You’ve got a little bit of time to get your applications in for those The Graduate opportunities have a deadline of the 26th of November so time is pressing slightly on those so make sure you watch this webinar and then get your applications in and excitingly especially for Katie and we went live
With the degree apprenticeships on grad cracker yesterday and so these cover disciplines such as Civil Engineering Building Services rail design and transport planning all with the deadline of the 29th of February so again little bit more time but it’s going to soon be Christmas and then it’ll be February so
Don’t don’t miss out on these amazing opportunities so let’s now meet the panel in a little bit more detail and all you know use grad cracker University to fly research and apply to their positions so we’re going to find out a little bit more about you
So Eloise I’m going to start with you so you’re currently on placement at wsp and so tell everybody about what you are currently studying and at which university um so I’m Eloise and I study at laf University uh I’m currently doing the architecture engineering program uh the Master’s Degree super and how long
Have you been at wsp uh so I started in September this year uh for a placement fantastic so a couple of months so we’ve got getting some insight into what you’ve been up to so far A little bit later on and Martina did I come to you so where are you
Currently studying at University and what are you studying hi everyone so I’m doing civil engineering at the University of war I’ve done three years so far and um yeah started working at wsp in this September and next September I’m going back to UNI to complete my
Fourth and final year which is yeah the Master’s year so yeah yeah perfect thanks Martina so Sam you’re a little bit different so you’re currently on your degree appren and so which university are you affiliated with and what is your degree friendship in hello everyone um so I’m
Doing a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering um at London South Bank University um and I’m currently about Midway through yeah lovely perect thanks Sam and Phoebe so many different stars going on here so Phoebe you’ve completed your degree apprentiship um and you’re now an assistant engineer so well done congrat
Congratulations and but cast your mind back so what did you um study when you were doing your degree friendship and which university so I studied the civil engineering design apprenticeship and that was through London South Bank University Cara might have Frozen on us and I’ll come to you next Sim kind of question if you could tell us a bit about your current role and where you studied uh hi everyone my name is an and I’m an assistant transport planner so I sit within the transport planning team
Uh in the Birmingham office of WSB I joined the graduate um program in October 2021 in the transport planning team and prior to that so I’m uh by training I am an urban planner so I studied Urban and Regional planning uh both bachelor’s and masters from uh Center for environment planning and
Technology in India and uh I graduated in 20 2017 so I worked for three years in India and then moved to the UK in 2020 and then I’ve been with wsp for almost two years now fantastic T’s back I’m back it’s all right my heart my heart St beating them
For at least 20 seconds but I am back sorry Jess that put you on the spot a little bit so I’m guessing you introduced Anita so thank you for that and so what we’re going to do now is scoot around the r and find out a fantastic fascinating fact about wsp and
And Eloise we’re going to come back to you so tell us about your fact um so my random fact about wsp is that uh the name wsp stands for Williams sales partnership just a little random one I like more random and we’ve got a bit of variety as well going on today and
Martina on you what’s your top fact um so something I learned when I joined the company is that you can take days off to volunteer that are outside of your annual you leave so you can organize your own charity event you can run a marathon you know like anything so
Yeah it’s really nice that you’re encourage to volunteer and contribute to society in a way that you want absolutely if you have you had your volunteer day yet or uh no not yet but there are a couple so I’m currently applying to become a stem Ambassador as well so I’m doing the
Basically the passport checks so um yeah it’s so yeah there are so many opportunities definitely fantastic thank you Mar Sam on to you uh so my one is back in 2014 Red Bull wanted to complete a a world record uh base jump and wsp designed the little platform structure that was assembled on
Top of the bur Khalifa wow thanks and phbe uh so wsp has 68,000 employees globally which is the same capacity is the marfield stadium in Edinburgh perfect thank you he was bless Googling about the size of stadiums oh mfield thank you phe andita on to you yeah I was gonna talk about volunteering
But Martinez said that so I’m just going to talk about uh the star awards scheme in WSB so basically star awards is uh you can nominate anyone in your team be senior or Junior for um exceptional Project work contribution or um just team building contribution whichever way
They can and they’re rewarded with a 75 pound voucher which you can use in different retail outlets I’ve got two so far so it’s um I think it’s a very Innovative way to reward team members and uh really make them feel valued and appreciated within the team so yeah
Interesting it just it just goes to show how good you are as well Andy doesn’t it so well done what we’re going to do now is hand over to Jessica and we’re going to find out a little bit more about your roles Fab thanks KLA so don’t disappear on me I’m here
Love a little bit later on I’ve got you sweeter Eloise you’re top of my list so I’m gonna keep coming to you first if that’s okay my love yeah so if you could just tell us all a bit about um your placement so far so I know obviously you
Only started in September but what your current role is at wsp and what life is for you um yeah so I’m obviously on my placement here um my role is um that I’m part of I’m a year an industry Bridge engineer um so I’m working with the civil and bridges uh engineering team
For the rest of my year uh until August okay and what have you been doing since September what’s the kind of process been like have you been working on any projects just yet or what have you been up to uh so the first first week they
Normally give you like a whole lot of trading videos um to sort of get you up to standard or like caught up with everything that you need to know about the company um and I’m currently working on a project called sappa um We’re employed by nric rail to analyze uh rail
Networks rail Bridges um throughout the country uh checking their defects checking that they’re still standing fine um we will write reports uh do drawings and send that back to nric rail to basically tell them that we’re happy with the bridge um or if not then they
Have to fix the bridge um yeah so that’s pretty much what I’m currently doing there are a few other options that I will potentially move into um but I I don’t know what those will be yet exciting really interesting so we’re going to come back to you a little bit
Later on to find out a bit more about those rotation and projects that you have worked on since September so that was really good intro so thanks Louise Martina I’m going to come to you similar kind of question um tell us a bit what
Life is like for you at wsp so far uh yeah thank you so I’m a yeah so my role is called a placement student uh I’m working within the highway team in cardi so I am involved in couple of projects so uh they’re for transport for Wells so
They’re more involved with active active travel route um I’ve done some very minor um tasks for AG to and uh yeah I’m I started in September so it’s yeah it’s I’m yet to do uh I’m wait I’m yet to um get involved in more projects but yeah I’m not sure yet uh my
First week was just training and then I gradually started to get you know like uh you know like first some smaller task and then you know it pro progressed to actually doing you know whole design uh options for like our our projects so yeah and matina what’s the team like then that you’ve
Been working is it the same team you’ve been working um in since September or have you managed to experience uh yeah so um so the project uh so when I joined uh the company uh the project uh had just had just started so basically I’m still involved in the same project and I’ve
Been working with the same team um but yeah we’ll see for the future maybe that will change um yeah but so far um I’ve been working with the same people fantastic yeah we’re GNA come back to you a little bit later on to find out bit more DET about the projects but
Again great intro Sam Phoebe I’m GNA come to you next so it’s slightly different with degree apprenticeship o opportunities um Sam I’m going to come to you first and tell us a bit how you know what life is like for you how it works and how’s the split between University and wsp
Um yes so I’ve I’ve been with wsp for about four years now so my my role has kind of developed in that time um joining as an apprentice there’s you you’re absolutely you don’t feel like an apprentice in any sense you very much go to university one day a week the rest of
The time you’re very much involved in Project work um towards the start of my time with wsp I was more assisting um some of the engineers and the senior Engineers with tasks but that has now progressed and I’m now in a position where I’m leading the design for two
Schemes in Bournemouth um it’s it’s it’s just excellent lot lots of variety um lots of cliently A’s on but really really good team to work with as well on a day-to-day basis yeah Sam if you don’t mind me asking them Fe I’ll probably ask you the similar question you know the
Kind of degree appren ships are still quite new really aren’t they you know in terms of you know how popular they’re getting and things like that so what inspired you to do this um kind of opportunity rather than going say down the traditional more route of doing say
A full-time uh bachelor’s course at University what what excited you about wsp um for me I’ve I’ve always been more of a a visual and a practical learner um and the idea of just sitting in a lecture hall five days a week for me for
Me is isn’t my style of learning I think as we as we move forward we appreciate that people do learn in different ways and so for me being able to go one day learn the theory but then come into the real world and see okay this is how I
Apply it and the the reason behind why you learn it for me that was the that was the key driver and it’s just it’s good to feel like you’re developing um life skills as well as just your academic studies so the the combination of the two was just ideal
For me yeah definitely it’s really really good and in terms of that balance then how would you find doing your kind of your day to-day you dop tasks as well as as doing your academical studies the wsp are really supportive to be fair of um of the time that you need for it
So you’re assigned one day a week for purely for your university studies um I found when university has got slightly more demanding so around the time of doing exams they are more lenient with giving you a bit of extra time if you request it um I think the main thing is
That they as long as you ask they they really do listen and they do take that on board so it’s there there’s times where it is intense won’t deny that but it’s it’s really rewarding and you’ve got all the support you need yeah definitely so when will you finish your
Degree appr ship sorry I will finish in so sorry halfway now it’s another you’ve got another four years then have you two I’ve got two and a half years left so yeah it’ll be 20 2026 that I finish yeah fantastic and that will that come out will you come out with the Bachelors
Then or and Masters as Bachelor yeah Bachelors fantastic good stuff Phoebe come to you similar kind of question you know what’s life like for you you know why did you pick this route and um yeah how’s it going yeah it’s going really well um I think the main reason I
Chose an apprenticeship was because I just a bit like Sam said I wanted a bit more of a Hands-On approach to learning so to do an apprenticeship where you actually get a degree at the end of it but you still have a full-time really involved job was the ideal route for me
Um so yeah was it was perfect really yeah I can imagine and then how do you um divide your time is it quite bit like Sam you just one day a week as well or do you have a different split yeah so mine was one day a week as well um only
In term times like you just you work Normal University terms um one day a week and again as Sam said if you need extra time for assignments or at exams we get like study leave so we can we can have take time off to study um it’s really flexible and there’s there’s
Really they do really listen if you need a bit of extra time it’s really good like that yeah well done and Phoebe tell us a bit about your current role so what are you up to um kind of on day-to-day stuff at wsp um so I when I finished I
Got promoted to assistant engineer so I’m now an assistant in the liver places team so we do like local government roads and like public realm spaces um and stuff like that and I work on a contract with Westminster city council so all of my projects are like within
Central London um which has a lot of challenges don’t get me wrong but it’s it’s really interesting and really really fun um I get a lot of site visits as well because I’m based in London so if I want to visit a site I can just pop out and there it
Is yeah it’s really well you finished your degree appr friendship so sorry those questions before were implying that you you haven’t finished but you’ve finished now haven’t you how was the transition then coming off from your degree appr friendship now being kind of full-time graduate you know not having
To go to university how have you found that it was a bit weird in September to not go back to like one day a week that was a bit of a wake up call having to work five days but um the work essentially is is the
Same as what I was doing I’ve stayed in the same team and the same place so I didn’t have to sort of relearn anything was just my day today yeah yeah all good stuff and what is your team like then is it quite a big team quite a small team
Uh my team is relatively small so about 10 people and then we’re in a wider team of about 50 people um but we’re like really close nit so good it’s just it’s lovely it’s like a little family yeah oh that’s nice because I think that’s the thing sometimes is it when students are
Looking at different companies on grad cracker deciding do I want to work for a larger organization or do I want for a small one and I’ve learned myself doing these webinars that quite often you can have these really quite relative quite big companies but it’s quite often you’d
Be working in quite a small team and has that family feel like what you’ve just said Phoebe so that’s really a nice point to make um so thanks for that phoe and and D I’m going to come to you next last but not least um what is life
Like for you at wsp and K tell B about your current role please so my current role is um an assistant an assistant transport planner and I basically sit within the transport planning team in Birmingham but I also closely work with the development planning team uh based
In Manchester so we have uh we work for a lot of uh government uh as well as private clients so transport for West Midlands transport for great Manchester um councils Birmingham city council private developers so broad range of clients and um so we basically do a lot of um transport assessment
Documents which is basically a technical document that sort of assesses Transport implications on um the networks due to uh upcoming development schemes so it’s um it’s quite interesting and so far uh I’ve worked on a lot of uh a variety of um projects like transport schemes uh bypass development projects strategic
Projects business cases uh mixed use developments Town Center regeneration Logistics warehousing and uh on active travel side of things we also work on a lot of um local um cycling walking and infrastructure plans which is commonly called as LC webs so which is currently quite uh in the market and yeah it’s
It’s been a very interesting Journey um starting as a graduate um and then moving on to um these roles so uh yeah I think it’s been a very rewarding Journey so far I can imagine would you say The Graduate um program that you did with
Wsp helped to kind of guide you in the directions that you are now and did it help to kind of shape your career in terms of making that final decision of you know once you’ve come off what project what area of the business you wanted to work in definitely I think
Because uh once you start as a graduate in wsp you you it’s you’re not treated as a graduate but you you’re working on real life projects and I think that gives a lot of exposure there’s also exposure to the ECP Network which is the early career professionals Network so
You interact with a lot of other uh colleagues who are doing different things so it gives you an idea of where you want to go then there is also the professional development review process that goes on which um you can work with your line manager to understand what
Areas you want to work on uh what kind of exposure you have there are rotation schemes so you have the opportunity to work in other different teams as well so I’ve had the opport Unity to work with the development planning team as well so who work on a lot of mixed use uh
Development projects um apart from transport schemes so that’s been a really good blend for me to understand where I want to go so I think there are a lot of opportunities at WSB yeah the program yeah definitely thank you very much um for that introduction and AD
Deta and Eloise I’m gonna come to you a bit about projects so you kind of you started talking about them and I wanted to stop you because I don’t want you to go into too much detail um so yeah I’m going to come back to you if that’s okay
And if you could just tell a bit um tell us all a bit about um the projects that you’ve been working on and uh your potential rotations in in the future um yeah so again um I’m currently working on a project called sappa so it stands for civil assessment framework
Agreement um where we’re employed by netri rail to go out uh on the site and assess um pedestrian Bridges Road Bridges um so foot Bridges and all of that and then we come back to the office um and we have to formulate a report on basically all of the defects that we
Found um do calculations I haven’t uh got to the calculations yet um but hopefully I’ll be able to work my way up to um starting that uh so yeah so once we we finished with that then we send it off to netor rail where they will uh either confirm that they’re happy with
The bridge or they send it back to us and ask for a next level assessment um where we’ll do further calculations um to confirm that the bridge is safe and stuff uh there are a couple of other so I am in bridges so everything that I do
Will sort of head in that direction um so there’s East West and rail that um is another project that I’m potentially starting on um so I think that’s building a rail connection from Cambridge down uh South London somewhere um yeah I haven’t been able to start on that just
Yet um so that’s for the future so Eloise to say you’re two months in yeah it seems as you’ve done quite a lot in the last two months surprised you kind of the rate that you know wsp have got you involved in things and the responsibility that you’ve been given um
Yeah I definitely say that I wasn’t expecting to be this in depth in projects but I wouldn’t say that it’s an overwhelming amount of work like I don’t feel like I’m struggling and um within your first week uh you have people coming up to you and saying like don’t
Be afraid to ask questions like it’s a very safe environment and they would rather you ask questions than to sit at your desk and like stress and worry and all of that um because we most employees are able to work at home uh three days a
Week they did require that I started um my first couple of weeks a full five days in the office just so that I’m around people to ask them questions sort of get get to know everybody and then as I progress progress through the months um they allowed me to take more days at
Home um so there’s that integrated working uh opportunity as well that’s really good and in terms of you know you mentioned obviously you’re G to stay within the certain area of bridges then but the different projects that you potentially can work on um is that
Driven by by you as well do you have to almost kind of find that next project or find that that next bit of work or you kind of guided into you know you know potentially said about the one in Cambridge London area or is it kind of
Handed to to you if that Mak sense um so these obviously these are massive projects um that are sort of subdivided uh for the different teams uh within the bridges uh Team Network so these are uh Pro projects that are given to me um right so wouldn’t necessarily go out and
Find them but there is an opportunity like if I’m wanting to go in a different direction sort of move away from Bridges and rails and all that then they said that that is an opportunity for me so because I’m in the civil and bridges um Team I have quite a variety of different
Projects to move on to if I really wanted to sort of expand um what I’m working on that’s really good actually and that’s good to make the point um because you know the the benefit of getting a placement isn’t it to gain that experience because you know you
Could couldn’t you you could start doing the placement start working on a certain thing I think actually now I’m doing this I’m not sure if this is the right direction for me so it’s good that wsp have you know offered that that there could be other different Avenues after
Which is fantastic and in terms of your day-to-day um Eloise what’s kind of the team that you work what work with what what’s it like are you getting are you working from home today or are you in the office uh so today I’m in the office
Um but I’ll be able to be working from home tomorrow oh that’s so my my team is my my sub team is made up of about six or seven people um and then in the office I’m in Birmingham um in that scale we’re about 50 people and then
Globally I think we’re about 400 500 people um so it’s it’s quite a a big division of wsp uh that I that I work in yeah definitely and ktie I’m gonna come to you quickly just with Eloise saying Global just SPS my interest is there any potential opportunity for placement
Students or graduates to get experience internationally with wsp or do you tend to try and keep them in the UK whilst they doing those kind of training periods there is always the opportunities depending on the requirements of the business the requirements of the teams um we can’t
Say that is a certainty it’s a case-by casee basis but potentially there could be the opportunities um for them yeah yeah good so if anyone was applying it’s probably good to maybe mention on the CV they’ve got interest to travel interest to work abroad yeah I mean by all means
I mean we wouldn’t if those opportunities did come about we we would want them to sort of feel comfortable in the business first and and have that sort of touch base with their team and the touch base with them you know their line manager and have their bud and feel
Really settled in their role and in the business before those OPP opportunities sorry will would come to fish yeah absolutely that makes perfect sense but yeah good to know for future and potentially even after the graduate program where your um career could go with wsp so it’s good to know and
Brilliant thank you very much Louise Martina gonna come to you a bit more about the projects and if that’s okay what you’ve been involved in so far and a bit more detail if that’s okay um yeah so I’m currently involved with quite a lot of design work um I did say when I
Was applying that I really like design uh being involved D in design so um basically my biggest task so far has been to design in autocut civil 3D um two of um the three proposals for active travel route uh that we are going to propose to our client which is transport
For wealth uh so um I’m yet to complete this task like in the next couple of days and then uh this will be sent to another team that will basically improve on that so you know we can complete the package and then discuss with the
Client um yeah I in the future I’m not sure I’m yet to actually speak with the the current the the project manager uh for that project what uh how I’ll be involved in with the project in the next couple of months and whether I’ll be you know involved with other project so I’m
Yet to learn about that um so yeah but I’ve been also doing some other minor tasks for example um I W had to go through some of the financial sheets for um a section of the hs2 that we’ve been designing um so um my work covers uh both design and um sometimes
Project management um so yeah it’s um there is a quite a lot of variety so it’s nice you never get bored yeah yeah imagine you won’t so can you almost if you kind of cashed your mind back almost like 12 months ago from you know from
Then to now um it sounds well all of you sound like you’re doing some amazing stuff but you know for Martina for you does it feel as though you come a long way already just within a couple of months been doing your placement can you see a huge shift in your ability your
Skills your knowledge um and you kind of do you feel a bit excited now that you’re on the places where where you know your future could take you um yeah so before starting uh I remember I was really scared to you know come here in industry and you know be actually
Exposed to real life project so um but now um I’m way more confident especially when I design especially or you know when I collaborate with PE with my teammates like you know going asking question discussing being you know critical about you know my you know my ideas making decisions and it’s just um
Also where when you’re in Industry like I remember when I was going to interviews and I was talking about you know like uh Team working skills communication but now I’m realizing that in Industry this is on a whole new level like industrial project they involve hundreds of people so the logistics
Behind it are just enormous so uh being being involved in um you know with this from an early stage of my education because I’m still with uni is just you know like amazing I’m really appreciating this fact because yeah it’s just invaluable it is 100% And you know
So me and Kylie are so lucky enough to as well and K you can probably H back this up as well but so lucky to see you know students that like yourself that have got this experience and how you know when you start off to how you end it you’re almost two completely
Different people because are those soft skills you know be more confident be able to you know have those conversations ask those questions you know it you’ve got a really exciting journey ahead of you um but yeah ktie I’m sure you can probably add to that in
Terms of what a placement can bring to to a student oh yeah it’s fantastic I mean especially um because I do Apprentice recruitment some of the apprentices that we’ve recruited into the business start at the business age of 16 some of them start 18 um some of
Them are still here in in the business and they’ve just finished um their bet level three and their degree apprenticeship so they’re aged 23 25 um and to see them grow from sort of such a you know 16 to 18 to the age are now and the projects they’ve been involved in in
The awards that they’ve won as well throughout their apprenticeship so some of them win Apprentice of the year so that’s you know that’s really lovely to see um to see that growth and and yeah it’s fantastic I love it yeah it is good it is nice and it’s it’s exciting Martin
Because and Eloise where you’re going to be this time next year yeah it’s gonna be really ex to watch your journey so carrying on Sam Fe we going to come back to you next if that’s okay if you could tell us because you’ve got a lot of experience now um you know kind
Of that you’ve gone through you you worked on a lot of projects but say if you could pick a favorite project that you’ve worked on so far or anything for you that’s really stood out kind of come to you first Sam H what’s what’s kind of
A a standout project you’ve worked on so far um there’s been there’s been a couple I think the first one was when I first got involved with with wsp and we um essentially we’re tasked by woking and Bar Council to go out and assess a lot of um vehicle restraint systems so a
Lot of the crash barriers at the side of the roads um essentially determine whether they’re fit for purpose so whether to be replaced or removed um and that involved a lot of a lot of site work um kind of accessing barriers through um a lot of vegetation and it
Was just it was interesting to get outside the office as well um and then one particular memory was there was one barrier in the middle of the um the motorway we needed to access and we got a um we kind of got a call last minute saying there’s an emergency road closure
If you need access to it you can come and come and do it in a few days um so me and the team kind of put a put a risk assessment together and yeah two days later we’re there in the middle of the night walking down the middle of the um
Yeah the mot both assessing the barrier at the same time you’re kind of doing that you’ve got surfacing teams going on you’ve got teams digging up the road and it’s just you realize how much goes goes into roads and I think before certainly before working here you just assume all
They just slap the tat down and off your drive so I think having done that it’s it gives you a really good perspective um but then in more recent times I’ve kind of been given two projects where it’s been a case of B Bournemouth Council and the safe roots to school
Team have gone we identified this is a bit of a hazard area near a school we want we want a Crossing or something put in here and it’s almost like there you go there’s your brief go go and see what you can come up with so you’ve got that
Responsibility to take a blank slate and put your own ideas to it and at some point further down the line hopefully in Spring next year um you’ll be on site actually seeing your your designs being constructed so it’s really yeah it’s a it’s a really rewarding feeling especially when you’re making an
Environment you know more safe for people you know you’re working in an environment which you know that other people are going to appreciate you could even eventually potentially save lives it must be super rewarding so when you absolutely when you’re working on these projects you know you said that you’ve
Got to be quite agile and kind of spontaneous with you kind of get a call or you get you know you’ve got to kind of act quite quickly then and I suppose that I never assumed that that would be part of your role but I suppose you have you’ve got to react to
Situations if something comes in you’ve got to do it I guess yeah I mean you’ve there’s there’s different deadlines for different stages of the project um and this that example in particular most of the barriers are at the side of the road so you can access them um while the
Roads are open but given the barrier we were looking at was about four miles long they weren’t going to close the motorway just for the sake of three three people going and having having a look but obviously if there’s lots of other work going on it’s a case if
You’ve got to rep prioritize what what you’ve been asked to do um but it’s all it’s all exciting to kind of feel like youve got to drop one thing get on something else and then when it’s all done you’re like oh I’ll go and pick
Pick that back up again so it’s um it’s it’s exciting and especially in those incidents where you you don’t you’re somewh you don’t expect to be and it’s it’s just a weird feeling thinking I’m walking on the uh in the middle of the way M way in the middle of the night so
It’s it’s sounds a bit surreal but it sounds as though um kind of every day is different then you know you’re getting different experience different you know project projects coming your way again it must be again that makes it more exciting it’s not B you know what’s the word
Laborious yeah there’s always there’s always new stuff to do and even if it’s similar similar tasks working with different people everyone’s got a different way of working everyone’s got different opinions mindsets so it’s just it’s good fun and there’s challenges where as a team you’re not although you’re trying to work for
The same goal someone’s got one idea you’ve got the other and you’re obviously negotiating between the two of you what’s best but still trying to come to the same conclusion so it’s not just the design but the people skills and working with other people is is a real
Real good fun part of it as well yeah absolutely yeah let’s get that you know W of people that you’re working with across different experiences like you say really really good so thanks Sam Phoebe going to come to you that’s okay similar question uh favorite project that you’ve worked on so far or
Particular thing that stood out to you uh so I’ve got a project at the moment which is on palmal so really felt like i’ finally made it when I got into the monoply B I’d say the particular highlight for me is probably the safety schemes that I
Do so we have local safety schemes where we look at Collision data and then we basically design to try and eliminate the collisions so we look at the the similar collisions and we see the patterns and then we design out the cause of that Collision so that’s it’s
Really interesting and it really feels like you’re actually making an impact which is nice get any collisions on palel uh quite a few actually be surprised yeah there was a um a right turn so it’s quite a busy road and there’s not a sort of filter for right
Turning so people just seem to right turn and then those that are coming straight ahead maybe they don’t stop or there’s there’s not enough time to stop whatever and there’s there’s quite a few collisions so we’ve added in like a right turning arrow in a box for people
To sit in and then we’re going to look at the traffic signals to give more of a green phase for those that are coming straight through so they can filter through a bit easier cool do you know again it’s it’s exciting to think that you’re working on projects that you know
If you think how many how many people would you say go down power mile on an average day thousands and thousands yeah affect all these lives every day be really excited to work on those kind of projects yeah it really is um and the good thing about doing the sort of local
Schemes is that you’ll design it and then like a year later it’ll be built like it’s a really quick turn around so having been here for five years I’ve seen quite a few of my designs get built and then just out and about in London
And you can see people sort of using it every day and it’s just yeah it’s a really good feeling that’s good as well that’s a really good point to make because I can imagine that’ be quite frustrating if you know get put on projects and then you never see the end
Of it I think did it even happen so that’s quite good would you say that’s a reflection of wsp as a business as well you know that they like to make change they’ll implement it quickly if they see there is a problem yeah definitely um safety
Is a massive thing on a lot of our particularly highways schemes so we’re always doing a lot of a lot of that to try and get to Vision zero which is like the zero Road collisions by 2040 I think it is um so we’re working yeah we’ve got
A whole team here that does uh specifically like road safety stuff to get to Vision zero wow that again a fantastic project to be working on so yeah well done Phoebe and the team for doing it and putting that arrow on pal Mal um and and DET gonna come to you
Again last but not least um you talk a bit earlier about all the different kind of projects and experiences you’ve had um but I’m going to ask you a slightly different question um what’s the future looking like for you you know you’ve kind of finished your grad program um
You know you’re thinking what’s life like as a graduate that’s maybe just come off the program like yourself thinking what are the next steps so um basically um so yeah I’ve talked about the different projects that I’ve worked on and uh this year I’m focusing a little bit more on the
Commercial side of things so I’m assisting my superiors with uh preparing bids bid proposals for work winning so that’s been a new thing that’s uh happening this year uh other than that I have also enrolled into a chartership program so basically it’s for a systematic uh Career Development so
Chartership is a formal qualification that’s awarded to uh professional for their high level of Competency within the industry so for instance um within our transport planning team two of the most common uh qualifications for chartership are um Charter transport planning professional which is ctpp and it’s offered by uh transport planning
Society TPS so I’ve enrolled for that and um I’m doing it through the professional development scheme and what this basically means for me is that is it’s like a four to five year commitment to gain relevant competent skills experiences knowledge within the industry and what my plan is now to
Align it with my PDR goals which is professional development review that happens uh at WSB that happens twice a year so you set yearly goals and then uh whatever your chartership goals are you can align it to get relevant experience and uh to basically chart out your own
Career path at wsp and I really think that this uh sort of helps me to understand where I’m going and uh what kind of experiences I need to gain and then I can sort it out with my land manager to make sure that I’m getting those
Experiences um I think this is really a a good way to go in terms of career development at WSB yeah did you know that that was always going to be a drive if you wanting to become chartered or is this something that W SPS kind of
Encourage you to do or how did you kind of go decide that this was what you wanted to do definitely I think there are a lot of training and webinars that wsp does to uh make you aware about what exists out there for you so I attended this professional qualification uh
Webinar which talked about all these different chartership roots and then uh the kind of projects that I’m working on the kind of projects that I’ve been interested in and also aligns well with uh what my line manager has followed so that kind of helped me understand where
I can go so there are resources available there is help available there’s uh there are dedicated people working for it and uh you can ask them you can ask any anyone um within your team outside your team uh to understand how it is that you need to get there and
What is what kind of help is or resources are available to you there’s a dedicated page on the SharePoint uh at the WSB internet as well which has a lot of resources so yeah fantastic great stuff and I’m conscious the time so a couple of things I’m going to do I’m
Gonna kind of split the next questions if that’s okay so Eloise and Martina um I want to um see so far in your placement have you had any additional experiences kind of away from the day job that you want to tell the audience about because like I say still only two
Months in um what else have you been up to so Eloise I’m going to come to you with that one first um right so there’s definitely a lot of opportunities at wsp um still sort of connected to my work um they focused a lot on training and stuff and
Um one of the things that I had to get was my TV P license which is a track visitors permit um so that I could actually go onto site onto the railway um and sort of assist in site analysis and stuff um so that was an opportunity
That I I took hold of um which is quite cool I managed to go on site last weekend um in the middle of the night which was freezing cold but it was really really cool um and then the wsp on the other side of things they also offer a lot of Socials
Uh so up here in Birmingham um they have sports socials uh early development program where um all the the new starters uh early careers students um they arrange social so that everybody kind of gets to know each other um that are more people that are like sort of in
Your age range and stuff um so yeah so there’s definitely a lot of things externally that uh they make available to um placement students and graduates and everybody fantastic yeah good way to network and create those friendships as well Martina you kind of spoke a bit
That about that um you know your your intro about a fun fact about wsp about you know volunteering and things like that but do you have anything like an additional experience um on top of Louise’s comment um yeah so um I’ve done trainings both online and I have also
Traveled to other cities as well for the day so for example my online trainings would uh include learning of software such as civil 3D I’ve traveled to Birmingham for a business management clean workshop and I’ve also met with the institution of civil engineers officers to discuss the process of becoming a chartered engineer
And um yeah the officers come in our office almost um every month um to track the progress of you know like everyone that’s currently on their way to you know get a charter chip so I I also went to Bristol to attend an induction event for our graduate development program and
Um yeah um quite a lot uh has happened for such a a short period of time uh I remember when I like the first week I I joined I like because like my my land manager has set up my maail even before I came to the office for my first day so
I opened my email and there was already like invitation for a trip to Birmingham and I was like okay that was fast um yeah so uh yeah there um there is many more events coming up in the up the upcoming months uh we’re also having a Christmas party in December so yeah it’s
Quite exciting there are so many socials trainings and so many opportunities for development amazing and what a perfect way to kind of end it and hand it back to kala because can I apply please k no does everyone put an application in we accept all applications so yes no you
Don’t not from Jessica she’s staying with me she’s m so thanks guys you’ve been absolutely amazing so ktie we’re going to go on now and find out about the recruitment process and what’s involved in that so initially like we said at the beginning of the webinar all
Of the opportunities are on the wsp Hub so go there do your research rewatch this webinar watch the Snippets there’s lots of information on there um what’s the next step Katie when a student do does click on the apply link yes so once they’ve clicked on it it will go through
To our online application form so they’ll add for a few questions regarding their preferences for location their preferences for disciplines what they’re interested in there’ll be a few questions about y wsp for example and then once they’ve completed that and submitted their details and if they’re successfully matched to opportunities
That we have within the business they’ll be invited to complete a behavior-based assessment um with the opportuni to do a practice run as well um and then the next step if they’re successful and again again if we have opportunities that match um their preferences it would either be a interview day or a
Face-to-face um interview so that would be the the recruitment process oh Carla she’s gone again on me aren’t she she was looking very intently there so in terms of um the application process um have you got any hints and tips Katie that you would give to any
Students that you know that are about to go through the process watch you like to see in a good application okay so here at wsp we want to see your true authentic self um so when you are answering any questions on the application please stay away from
Sort of copying and pasting or writing what you think you we want to hear um so have a little bit of a think about what how you would answer those questions to your family or your peers um and how you would answer that so we want to hear
About your passions and your interests for the industry tailored to you um so that would be my my biggest um advice um secondly um it’s an obvious one take your time there’s no rush read over your answers and be confident and proud in your application um that is my advice to
You 100% it sounds like a a very very good lot of advice that was um in terms of um I want to do a bit more as well at K I’m gonna stick with you on the application process is there anything you know when it just made me think
Actually before I left you because a lot of sessions with students over the last couple of weeks and sometimes when students are applying to these graduate opportunities when they’re applying to these placement roles they don’t know how to research and they don’t know how to show off that they’ve got the right
Skills and so you know we talk a lot about here at grad cracker being involved in extracurricular activities being involved in students St Society is that something that you encourage um kaate do you look out for in applications so you look for the degree yes but what other the things is that
Student doing to you know really create those skills and qualities that you know really make them unique yeah absolutely so everything that you do um at University school at College um you you gain skills doing that whether that is extracurricular activities if that’s sporting or if that’s working in teams
Or if that’s um a project that you’ve worked on through University your are learning skills whether that’s communication skills whether that’s um project management skills you can bring those and tailor that into your application as well as if you do work experience obviously you can bring that
In as well so you’ve got that um you know work experience um and also if you don’t have the industry experience um if you work part-time in retail you also learn skills that you can bring and add that the application so yeah we welcome um all sort of experiences that you
Learn again really good point because I think students think oh does it have to be relevant to that industry relevant to that employer but any experience is really really great to mention Absolut so next we’re going to finish off with a quick fire round if that’s okay so your
Kind of favorite memory so far at WS P so Eloise I’m going to come to you if that’s okay and could you share with the group what has been your favorite me memory so far in the last two months at wsp um so I’m going to be repeating
Myself here but it would definitely be this week the last weekend that I’ve had um getting onto getting the opportunity to go on track um and actually experience like that sort of I wouldn’t say like grownup environment but having the opportunity to sort of be involved in that way
Yeah definitely sounds like a great one Martina G to come to you so my favorite memory so far has been my trip to Bristol because like after the workshop you know like uh um you know like placement and graduate apprenticeship we all went and explored the city as well
So it was so fun and Bristol was lovely so um yeah I think that’s been my favorite uh memory so far sounds like a good one Sam G to come to you I think it was the first time be being on site and watching watching the
Construction of one of the one of the projects I developed um just brilliant feeling now all the contractors are chatting about what your drawings turn them to do and but the Christmas party is always a memorable leing as well coming up that’s good it’s on the horizon next couple of weeks good one
Phoebe could continue um so my favorite was actually a couple of weeks ago we did like a landmark race it was like a scavenger hunt around London but we had to go to specific landmarks um and the first team to get there like you took a
Picture of yourself with it you sent the photo to the group chat and then you won the point so actually a really fun um a fun evening that we did as a team oh that’s nice again it’s all fun experiences isn’t it it sounds as though that you you know working across some
Fantastic groups working hard but you know playing hard as well which is great and and indeed to come come to you again last but not least yeah so I’m going to Echo what uh everyone else has said about the Christmas party last year we had it at
Panical Gardens in Birmingham so lots of food lots of chatting dancing and I can’t remember the time I got back home it’s probably 1 a.m. that was really fun and equally competing is uh so we went for a corporate day out at clay pigeon shooting at herfordshire
And uh it was a whole day event and we reached early morning we had a good breakfast we had some trainings at shooting and then I think we totally fired some hundred shots I still remember that pain I had from The Recoil but it was absolutely worth it it
Was fun to go out and spend time with colleagues from different teams uh because it was office wide so yeah that was really fun and of course all the team socials that we have at Social darting um lunch dinners yeah it’s lot of fun outside work as well I think
That’s a lot of fun a lovely way to end it as well um car I don’t know if you it sounds feels like you’re back are you back I I’m I’m back every time I come to speak my internet just crashes it’s internet gods are against me today so
Sorry guys but Jessica well done you’ve massively held the thought today so and thank you everybody you’ve been an inspiration thank you Katies it’s lovely for you to have joined us today and me and Jess are taking a break next week so we’re not having a webinar next Thursday
But we’re back the following Thursday is the 23rd of November where we’re joined by Cambridge Consultants but don’t forget the deadlines we’ve said them all um already a couple of times during this webinar so make sure you applied to The Graduate roles the degree friendships
And the placements and be part of wsp so I’ve been here at the beginning and here at the end see you all soon everybody application I enjoyed it bye