Students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Civil Engineering based on the Medway Campus in Chatham Maritime, Kent, are developing their practical skills and gaining insight into the working world.
Out of the classroom and into the field
Final year undergraduate student Destiny Ojo partnered with a demolition contractor, gaining work experience and a working knowledge of the site, as well as valuable real world information for her final year project on how the construction industry is being made more sustainable. In another opportunity for final year students, Kashmalai Amjad visited the River Lea as part of a field trip organised by her project supervisor, obtaining sediments to take back to the lab and analysing them for evidence of microplastics.
Meanwhile, as part of the Construction Management and Technology module, second year Civil Engineering students found a site to visit and assess as if they are carrying out a Considerate Constructors’ Scheme assessment. This year one team contacted the Project Lead of the 8build team working at Stratford Waterfront. Impressing him with their drive and ambition, the Project Lead welcomed the students to the site, giving them a tour and talking to them about 8build and the industry at large.
It was a great opportunity for us to get familiar with construction and management as a whole and how life on a site works on a daily basis. We can’t wait to graduate and start working in the field.
Walid Haida, second year BEng Civil Engineering student.
The students valued being able to apply their theoretical learning to a practical ‘real-world’ experience, while 8build praised the students for taking the initiative to seek out opportunities, and praised their professionalism and enthusiasm, writing about them and the visit for their social media.
Contribute to real projects
There are even opportunities close to home. A recent #GreHacks event at the university led to MSc Civil Engineering student Aleena Mathew being offered an internship with construction and engineering business Kilnbridge, while Rasheed Ojikutu, also studying an MSc Civil Engineering, gained valuable work experience in May 2022 when, following a site visit arranged as part of the Highway Engineering module, he reached out to the Estates and Facilities Team at the university to enquire about opportunities to support them. He was recruited as a work experience student to assist with delivering a major project on the university’s Medway Campus to renew the gas pipe that feeds the university’s iconic Pembroke building and full reconstruction of the road above it.
As an international student, Rasheed chose to study his postgraduate degree at the University of Greenwich due to the course content and the location of the Medway Campus, which allows him to commute to and from the university from his family in the UK.
