Placement Welcome Day 2024 – Huddersfield Site
This year, the Cummins Huddersfield site welcomed 37 incoming placements for the 2024 Placement Welcome Day ahead of their start date.
This event was created to give our next intake of placement students the best opportunity to network with their peers, meet their managers and learn more about the people, site and work we do here at Cummins. An important factor in our planning for the day was to allow the current placements and graduates to plan and lead the activities of the day whilst sharing their personal experiences.
The day began with a welcome from the team, followed by the first networking session, human bingo. Each student was asked to provide a fun fact in advance of the day allowing the students to get to know each other in a unique way. The group was then divided, with the engineering cohort enjoying ERG, Employee Resource Group, talks from WEN, Women in Engineering, and NSSN, New Starter Network, a talk from Engineering leadership, and a 30-minute session learning about VG & WG turbos as well as future technologies such as eCompressors. This session aimed to highlight some of the opportunities outside of day-to-day work, to teach the students more about how turbochargers operate and to meet fellow engineers. The second group were given three 20-minute manufacturing tours around Special Products, Lab Ops and Plant, giving them the opportunity to ask questions and could have informative discussions on each area with their tour leaders.
In the afternoon the 2 groups were swapped with the engineering cohort going on the tours around the site and the second group receiving the ERG talks, Leadership talk and a 30-minute technology deep dive to the appropriate engineering level for that group. Although not all students had engineering backgrounds, we felt it was essential for all students to see and understand what products Cummins manufactures. Not many people can see a turbocharger, test cell or machining in their day-to-day role, therefore we felt this was the best opportunity to show everyone the different elements to the Huddersfield site.
Figure 1 - Technical Presentation
Figure 2 - Taskmaster!
The second networking session of the day involved spaghetti, marshmallows, and a lot of creativity! A taskmaster inspired game was created to challenge the students to make 2 towers and a bridge. The team whose bridge could hold the heaviest weight would win. All students showed great creativity, competitiveness, and teamwork skills - a great way to network with your fellow peers.
The prospect of starting an industrial placement can feel extremely daunting. Communication prior to starting here at Cummins is a key aspect to help our placement students feel welcomed and relaxed. Therefore, as part of our event we invited each placement student manager (or department representative) to participate in a 30-minute drop-in session. We hope that having met their managers; the students will feel relaxed when they start their placements in July.
Figure 3 - Meeting the managers.
Figure 4 - The Placement Welcome Day Team
We cannot wait to welcome our next cohort of students in July.
We aim to continue this placement welcome day for each cycle of placements. All students will be able to share their feedback on the event and will hopefully participate in planning next year’s event for the 2025/26 cohort.
A massive thank you to all the employees who supported the event this year.