"I was made to feel very welcome at AWP from the start, and was invited to numerous socials which was a great way to meet other people within the company. I am very grateful for my placement. I have come away with so much knowledge and experience, and am hoping to keep in contact with them looking forward."

Olivia ClarkeUndergraduate Engineer

Work Placement

We were fortunate to have Olivia Clarke with us for a summer work placement and here's what she had to say!

"Before going into my 3rd and final year at Exeter Uni studying BSc Geography with Applied GIS, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to undertake a summer work experience placement. AWP were the perfect opportunity to do this!

I was with the company for 12 weeks over the summer, working between their Transport and Drainage teams within Development Planning. There was always a good variety of tasks for me to undertake, which initially involved training associated with writing Flood Risk Assessments and Transport Statements. I worked on both the Transport and Drainage elements for some projects, which was great to see how the two combined together within AWP’s shared working environment. I was also involved in the use of computerised models, where I shadowed the use of Flow in determining drainage capacities, and PICADY to model road junctions with a changing traffic network. It was great to be involved with AWP’s use of GIS, starting from creating Flood Risk maps, Site Location Plans and Site Accessibility Plans. This evolved into helping update their usage of QGIS through exemplar maps and aiding in Best Practice Documents.

I was made to feel very welcome at AWP from the start, and was invited to numerous socials which was a great way to meet other people within the company. I am very grateful for my placement. I have come away with so much knowledge and experience, and am hoping to keep in contact with them looking forward."

After an impressive summer placement with us in 2023, Olivia joined our Transport Team on a permanent basis in September 2024 as a Graduate Transport Planner. “Originally from Poole in Dorset, I recently graduated from Exeter University with BSc Geography with Applied GIS, and after a really enjoyable spell with AWP on work experience last year it’s great to be back.”