MATHS1

``miscrostructure''

``elementary''

For more details about this scheme, please contact Dr Andreas Artemiou (ArtemiouA@cardiff.ac.uk) or Dr Jonathan Thompson (ThompsonJM1@cardiff.ac.uk)

Holly Robinson - Lloyds Banking Group June 2009 to June 2010 In June 2009, after passing a one day assessment centre and a follow up interview, I started my Industrial Placement with Lloyds Banking Group based in Bristol. Having banked with and researched the organisation, I was excited to know I would be joining the UK's largest retail bank at a critical time following the acquisition of HBOS just 6 months prior. I was initially nervous with starting, but over the 14 months I spent in the Business Analysis team, I feel I really grew as a person and became an integral part of the team. My role involved using my newly learnt data mining and analyst skills to answer real business questions from all different areas. I worked primarily on supporting the Savings business, although I was given many opportunities outside my normal role to project manage, lead a team, network and deliver some high profile work for senior managers. Overall for my placement I achieved a 'Strong Performer' rating and won a Gold Award for "outstanding behaviour". Some of the feedback I received includes being described as "invaluable member of the team, comfortably exceeding (my) expectations for an Industrial Placement" having done a "fantastic job this year!" The main benefits I will take away include motivation for my final year, guidance on future jobs, relevant experience and business understanding that will aid me interviews, both technical and soft skills training and most of all confidence in my own ability. During my placement I feel that I not only made real contribution but gained a lot that will hopefully make me a more attractive candidate for graduate jobs. I think what sums up my time most at Lloyds Banking Group is having cried during my leaving speech. The only thing I was able to manage to say, was that "I never thought I would enjoy working so much."

Abbey Fuller - Amgen June 2009 to June 2010 I had always wanted to study maths, so when initially applying for university, I only chose courses with an opportunity to do a placement year. When choosing my placement I felt that the atmosphere and my work colleagues were the most important factors. When I went for my interview at Amgen, I felt that everyone I met during my interview day was very friendly, and I left genuinely hoping that I would end up working at Amgen for my placement year. Naturally, when I received the phone call offering me the job, I was both excited and nervous for my first day in June 2009. I've always been told that doing a placement year is so important for finding a job after graduating and giving you an introduction to working life. For me, my placement year has justified this. Having never worked in an office before, the skills that I have gained this year have been invaluable. Attending, speaking up, and even presenting in meetings has boosted my confidence and greatly improved my communication skills, and participating in student interviews has given me an insight into what qualities are essential for securing a job. Although I had no preference on the type of company I worked for I am glad that I ended up working in a pharmaceutical company. I found the experience rewarding as, although only in a small way, you are helping contribute towards improving patient's quality of life. I was nervous at first as I had no previous experience in statistical programming or using SAS and I had no idea what to expect. However, being given the opportunity to attend an offsite SAS course and having a wealth of experience readily available from my co-workers settling into Amgen and statistical programming became much easier than I expected.

One of the best advantages of my placement year is all the training I received from Amgen. Attending inhouse and offsite training has given me an in depth knowledge of SAS as well as both the pharmaceutical industry and clinical trials. This included an in-house Statistics course and the online SAS certification program from the SAS institute. This included 23 modules and a final exam. Having the opportunity to complete the SAS Base Certification Programmer exam has given me a professional qualification that I can include on my CV. I found the work that I was given at Amgen to be both interesting and challenging and therefore more satisfying to complete. Having a role of the Statistical Industrial Placement Student I have been able to work closely with both programmers and statisticians and have had the opportunity to work on general programming study work, some exploratory analyses and even had the opportunity to create my own macro to simulate oncology clinical trials. Having such a broad variety of work, I learnt a lot. Performing the exploratory analyses, I enjoyed broadening my medical statistics knowledge and gaining confidence in producing Kaplan-Meier curves and hazard ratios using SAS. My varied work meant that as well as working on smaller projects I have also had the opportunity to work on larger, more time consuming projects. One of my proudest accomplishments was creating the macro to simulate oncology trials. It was a unique area that hadn't been studied at Amgen before and having the opportunity to present the simulation project at an international biostatistics meeting made me feel like a valued member of the biostats team.

Overall, I feel that my year has been a complete success as I have had such a fantastic time. I have met a wealth of really nice people and have gained confidence in my statistical knowledge and communication skills. This year will not only aid me in my final year, but also after graduating. My experience has helped me decide on my future career, hopefully moving forward to work in the pharmaceutical industry again after completing university. To anyone that is considering doing a placement year, I would say that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Stuart MacGregor - EADS Defence and Security Systems Ltd July 2009 to August 2010 In three words, my industrial placement experience with EADS Defence & Security Systems has been, exciting, motivating and insightful. The placement has presented me with a wealth of experience in the work place, opening my eyes to the real world of work and allowed me to develop my key personal and transferable skills which have undoubtedly improved my chances of potential future employment after graduation. I have been lucky enough to work on many exciting projects, and with two separate departments of the EADS business, one of which is the area of the business which acts as the company's research arm developing future technologies. This made my time with EADS very exciting. All of my work with the company has been interesting, tailored to my development and has always furthered my knowledge and experience. I was able to utilise academic skills gained at University, both in simulation work I completed with the Systems Design Centre, and in analytical/mathematical work that was undergone with the research department. This is what made my time with EADS insightful.

During my placement with EADS I had opportunities to travel abroad to Germany, firstly for an innovation challenge workshop in Münich and secondly with a recruitment initiative that I have been selected for called the EADS Juniors Programme. As the first ever British EADS Junior, I was invited to the Berlin International Air Show where I attended VIP tours around the exhibition stands and had the opportunity to meet executive EADS HR representatives, alongside watching the fantastic air displays. Similarly, I was taken away to a German island with the rest of the Juniors for a week long intensive personal development and adventure training experience. As a Junior, EADS will maintain contact with me throughout the rest of my studies, inviting me to special Juniors events allowing me to further develop my relationship with the company and further increase my chances of employment. This side of working with EADS is what made my placement motivating. Besides furthering my personal development, and securing a position with the Juniors programme, my placement year with EADS has given me much more. I have made some very good friends out of colleagues that I will keep in touch with, hopefully, into the foreseeable future. I have developed a keen interest in the aerospace and defence industry which I never had before. This placement has confirmed my interest in the field of simulation whilst also demonstrating its importance in industry. For these reasons, I consider my placement year to not only have been a fantastic experience but also a great success. Finally, the success of my training period means, that simply by keeping in touch and maintaining contact with the company throughout my final year, I can look forward to a graduate position with EADS upon completing my studies!

Details of other accepted qualifications can be found here.

Residencies

Residencies