Science and Engineering Year in Industry Awards 2023

Posted on: 26 February 2023 by Samantha Riella in Events & News

Staff from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering gathered on Wednesday 22nd February for the annual celebration of Year in Industry Placement Students.

A group of students who completed an industrial placement during the academic year 2021/22 attended the University of Liverpool Year in Industry Awards last week.

Each student reflected on their individual experiences during the placement year, explaining how their contributions had a positive impact on the business, the skills they had developed and also the challenges they faced during the placement year and how they overcame them.

Fourth year MChem Chemistry student Sophie, completed a year-long industrial placement at INOVYN Vinyls Technologies. Her placement primarily focused on the development of additives for PVC and upon graduating in 2023, she hopes to remain within the chemical industry as a research scientist.

Everyone has taken [the event] seriously which was nice, it was a great celebration event. It is great to hear about what the other departments have done. It was really professional and so much fun.

Fourth year MChem Chemistry student James, completed an industrial placement in the analytical chemistry team at Akzonobel, Slough. His interests are in pharmaceutical and analytical chemistry. 

I think it was a really valuable experience to demonstrate what I had done during my year in industry, it helped cement some of the skills I gained through it. It was also nice to see what other people had done - the similarities and differences of their year in industry’s compared to mine.

Final year student Luke completed an industrial placement at IBM.

It was a very welcome and opening space where we were able to be vulnerable about our placements. It was wonderful to hear the experiences of others and to see how people had different experiences. It was enlightening to hear their stories.  

Final Year Electrical Engineering Student Oliver, recently completed a placement at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains where he worked as an Electrical Engineer with the Facilities Engineering team working on the sites own renewables projects. He is interested in energy generation and the underlying economics behind it.  

I was a little bit nervous before presenting but I felt really comfortable when showcasing my year in industry. It was nice to see what everyone has been up to and I had a really wonderful evening.

Final-year BSc (Hons) Physics Undergraduate Daisy, worked as a Data Engineer Intern at The Very Group for her Year in Industry.  

I was pleased to have been shortlisted for the Science and Engineering Year in Industry awards and grateful to have the opportunity to give a talk on my time at The Very Group. Congratulations to Sophie for achieving the award, I really enjoyed listening to everyone's presentations. Many thanks to Jennifer Callaghan for organising the evening.

Iwan Williams, Director of Careers & Employability, University of Liverpool said...

“The quality of the work, presentations, skills, and confidence were spectacular. The resilience and grit to keep going through every instance we heard was brilliant. It was great to hear how the students adapted to different workplaces and hearing these stories that captured staying positive and being proactive in problem solving. What a thrill and pleasure it was to be involved; five inspirational students with fantastic stories of resilience, high performance and a lasting legacy in each organisation (Mercedes, Very Group, Innovyn, IBM & Dulux). Well done to them all!” 

Jennifer Callaghan, Employability Officer said...

 “I am always blown away by the confidence, tenacity and work ethic of students who have completed a Year in Industry and the students who presented last night showed exactly that. I was particularly impressed by how they all answered questions from our panel of judges so confidently, clearly showing their technical knowledge, commercial awareness and heaps of transferable skills.  Thank you to our brilliant judging panel for supporting the event and taking on the impossible task of selecting a winner.” 

Congratulations to all of the students who presented and to the winner of the night Sophie Ashley!

You can watch all the presentations on our Youtube Channel.

If you are interested in completing a Year in Industry placement you can visit the Career Studio located on University Square to speak to one of our Career Coaches. The Career Studio is open Monday to Friday 10am till 5pm – no appointment needed!

Handshake is our designated Careers Platform and allows you to find relevant opportunities, work experience, connect with employers and attend events. You can look at what is currently available here.