A visit to the site of a flood prevention scheme in West Sussex provided a group of civil engineering students from the University of Brighton with a valuable glimpse of ‘what collaborative engineering work looks like’.
Taking place last Monday (24 Oct), around 45 students visited the Clay’s Lake site where flood prevention works are being carried out on by Mackley working as part of Team Van Oord and on behalf of the Environment Agency.
The visit formed part of Mackley’s ongoing commitment to providing aspiring civil engineers with real life experience, and was designed to help the students develop their understanding of how theoretical practice is applied in a working environment.
The visit was organised in partnership with Dr Maria Diakoumi, Principal Lecturer in Civil Engineering in the School of Environment & Technology at the University of Brighton.
The students praised the approachability of the site team, the detail covered during the visit and the way in which works are carried out so as to protect the local environment.
One of the students, Scott Sedon, said: “The visit gave me a good insight of what collaborative engineering work looked like, and also allowed me to question the professionals which increased my depth of understanding of the engineering world.”
Another, Lottie Ashcroft, added: “We learnt about all aspects of the project, including sustainability, planning and design, whilst gaining an insight into the various jobs and responsibilities of civil engineers.”
Elliot Batty gave “special thanks to Dan and his team who ran the visit well and gave the students a taste of what is expected on a construction site”, before adding, “everyone enjoyed it, and will have taken a lot from it”.
David Knapp, Mackley’s Business Development Manager, said: “This is the second group of students to visit Clay’s Lake and both parties have been a credit to the University of Brighton.
“Their collective appetite for learning and passion for civil engineering was very apparent, and it was a pleasure to spend time with them and explain the work we are carrying out.”
31 October 2016
