blog: Career Ready with ITP and SEGRO!
Tuesday 8th August 2023
ITP has recently joined forces with SEGRO to offer a placement to Will, a sixth form student. Now that Will has come to the end of his placement, we thought it would be good to catch up with him, read on to see what he learnt and what advice he'd give others in a similar position.
How long have you been here and where did you find the placement?
I joined ITP for two weeks as part of a programme called Career Ready. This is run with my school and the aim is to help 16 and 17 year-olds explore career pathways they might not have known about. Part of the scheme involves a summer work experience placement. I had a mentor as part of the scheme who helped me refine my CV and practice interview skills.
What have you mainly been working on?
I worked on two projects, one on East Midlands Gateway and one on Coventry Gateway, both are SEGRO sites. For East Midlands Gateway, I used a case study of an existing car-share scheme to create technical notes.
I then used this information to find out how we could improve the existing scheme at East Midlands Gateway and encourage more people to sign up, which we will do using a loyalty scheme. People will earn points for car sharing and this will entitle them to discounts in the canteen. For Coventry, I looked at how we can extend or divert bus routes from the SEGRO site to areas with a high job seeker population to encourage public transport use to generate employment.
What has been your favourite activity whilst working at ITP?
I was surprised by how much Excel is used in the industry. I used it to model how a development of new housing would generate traffic on a road network. This showed how mathematical and data skills are used alongside critical thinking in Transport Planning.
What was your perception of transport planning before starting and how has this changed since working at ITP?
I only thought that the industry worked on a town-wide scale, I was surprised to see how ITP work on all kinds of projects from single-purpose developments to emissions modelling for entire countries.
What is your biggest takeaway/lesson from working here?
I developed my soft skills, my most improved was critical thinking. At East Midlands Gateway, the site is hard to get to because it is in a rural location. This means that for many employees it is inconvenient to get to by public transport. We chose a car-share scheme to make getting to EMG more sustainable and employees already have the ability to take part in this.
What are your next steps e.g. uni/year abroad?
I am currently halfway through my A-levels (Maths, Physics and Business) and am planning on studying Accounting at university. My placement has given me the confidence to make career decisions that are right for me and boosted my confidence, and I'd consider transport planning as a future career path.
Do you think it’s been a useful experience (both technically and soft skills wise)?
I think it has been a useful experience more soft-skills wise. The things I have learnt about managing my workload cannot be taught in a classroom and my internship has given me a way to show my soft skills on my CV. My education has focused much more on technical skills like using Excel but not so much on employability.
What advice would you give other interns considering doing a placement in transport planning?
The staff will be super supportive and explain everything really clearly, so it is an experience you should look forward to.
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