Industrial Placement Student Review

Item: Industrial Placement Student at Sellafield Ltd
Rating: 4.2
Author: Anonymous

at Sellafield Ltd

Placement (10 Months+)

Chemical Engineering

Birchwood, Warrington WA3, UK

Review Submitted: May 2026

Overall Rating

4.2 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

4/5 - Overview of Role

4/5 - Skills Development

4.5/5 - Support and Guidance

4.3/5 - Company Culture

4.5/5 - Overall Experience

4/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.

I work the the SL Effluent Modelling Support team. I work with highly intelligent Chem Eng to model effluent treatment plants across site. I also do a lot of data science and data analytics. I use lots of different computing software to get my day-to-day work complete.

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

Yes - I was able to lead and direct my own projects and work pathways.

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

4/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?

Yes developed new and my existing skills this year. Now very confident with using a comp for data analysis.

How would you rate the training provided during your experience?

3/5

How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?

4/5

How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?

5/5

Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development

4/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?

Loads of support and guidance from my team and peers within the wider team and those I worked with on collaborative projects. In terms of capability and Grad Dev - not as much, but I never asked for it explicitly.

How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?

5/5

How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?

4/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?

Yes - all was good. Quite a laid back atmosphere - something I would prefer to be a bit more intense (pressure makes diamonds). Had a few disagreements with people (had one person criticise me in a sarcastic tone, given I'm an IP and still learning, I wasn't too happy about it)

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

5/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

4/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

4/5

How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

4/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I loved my placement. Was my first taste of an every day job and how it feels to work towards a bigger picture than just the task your working on. I love the routine of working during the day and relaxing in the evening. I really enjoyed working with my team, learning from them and developing my computational and soft skills. I also had some opportunities to develop leadership which I struggle to do at university.

Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship

4/5

Please rate how your experience met your expectations

5/5

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend Sellafield Ltd to a friend?

Yes

What advice would you give to others applying to Sellafield Ltd

If your looking for a great work - life balance and interesting work, but aren't that fussed about working for a competitive company, then SL is the place to be. I'd say especially as a young engineer, SL is a brilliant company to work for. They offer extensive training, great development opportunities, great pay and benefits and a good young careers cohort. However, personally I aspire to become a competitively working engineer in my future, and so I wouldn't stay at SL my entire career and I'd look to move toward a more competitive market (i.e Oil and Gas).