Vacation Employment Scheme Case Study

Rob Holland: 20 yrs old
Sheffield University
Degree in Aerospace Engineering

I spent the summer working as a plant operator on Gedling bypass. I was trained in July on articulated dump trucks and ride on rollers, which took 9 days in total.

On the first day of working I was a little apprehensive and tired after the long drive and early start. We had our site induction, which outlined all of the safety procedures, for example site speed limits and fire assembly points, as well as any other information we would need to ensure we could work safely. Afterwards we went straight to see the site manager who gave us our first tasks.

As I was new to the site, I was shown the routes and the loading and tipping areas by an experienced operator. Occasionally I found it difficult to know where I was supposed to be tipping but there was always someone around who was happy to help. Everyone on site knows you are new and they take that into consideration when working with you and after a week or two I found that I could work out what needed doing with much less instruction.
Our working day was 8am until 7pm with a breakfast break at 10.30 and an hour for lunch at 1. Although 8 till 7 sounds tough it wasn’t nearly as bad as you’d think. Time flies by when you’re working and the breaks divide the day up into easily manageable periods.

Any reservations I had about whether I was going to like the job had been put to rest by the end of the first day. I really enjoyed the work itself and got on well with everyone I spoke to on site. The tasks were varied and as the site developed, so my role changed. On occasions there were particularly challenging routes, through narrow gaps etc, which took all of my ability but I enjoyed the challenge. All in all it was a extremely interesting and fun experience and I’m very much looking forward to doing it again next summer.