A placement year at an SME a Chemistry student enthuses!

A placement year at an SME a Chemistry student enthuses! Recently weve had several posts about working in the City, but today its the  turn of the scientists to take centre stage. You may  have the option as part of  your degrees to do a placement year and for some it may be  a requirement. Theres lots of research which suggests that such a placement can be really beneficial. Some studies suggest that it can increase your final marks by as much as 5% and it  certainly has a favourable impact on employability. Whats not to like? Diki Fundu is on a  MChem Chemistry degree here at Warwick and is currently undertaking a 12 month industrial placement at Reach Separations,  a  small business  within the chemical industry.  Diki is  becoming increasingly enthusiastic about her work and the opportunities the placement affords her. Here she shares some of her thoughts and experiences. Dont stop reading if youre not studying chemistry!  Diki says lots which is relevant to those studying other subjects and considering a placement. Heres Diki Choosing your placement When you start applying for internships you often think first  of the schemes run by large companies.  The application processes for them are usually  very competitive and theyre not for everyone! I initially applied to some of the  best known chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and found that I wasnt getting much success  in receiving offers.  I knew I needed to rethink my strategy and I attended the chemistry department’s careers fair. I had the opportunity to meet and network with representatives from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs); this encouraged me to search for and apply to SMEs for my year in industry. I was excited by the realisation that their  placement schemes were mainly project based laboratory work, designed to benefit them as well as me. I was much more interested in this, than in the  idea of working in a role specifically created for a placement student in a larger organisation. After a few weeks here at Reach I know I was right! Im so glad to be mak ing a real contribution to the business. Bio-Incubators Reach Separations specialises in the separation and purification of small molecules within the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical sectors. Its located in Nottingham’s Bio-Incubator, BioCity. Bio-Incubators are home to around half of the UK’s emerging bioscience companies and each houses between 5 and 50 different firms.  They offer flexible office and laboratory spaces which enable life science companies to enjoy  relatively inexpensive accommodation costs and to  conduct their research and business in the same area as other similar companies. Since being here at Reach my enthusiasm for SMEs has continued to grow. Bio-incubators like BioCity can be the perfect place for undertaking a placement and gaining lab experience. BioCity Nottingham contains over 50 companies which I hadnt previously known about.  Each of these has the potential to offer invaluable experience within its own sector. My placement is benefitting both me and my employer Placements in small companies often expose students to cutting-edge techniques, allowing them to work on emerging products such as innovative new drugs or analytical techniques. In an SME you have more chance to be closely involved in the employer’s whole business process and gain a real insight into how  it operates. As a laboratory team member I have gained knowledge about methods such as High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC). I have also been given significant duties within the team increasing my confidence in the work place and accelerating my learning  these are all things that will be very beneficial when searching for jobs after graduation Reach Separations often takes on placement students and values their contribution to the business. Phil Abbott, Technical Director  enthuses: “All of the placement students we take on contribute positively to the business in one way or another. By having access to students whilst they are still undergraduates we are essentially getting a preview of the best talent our universities are delivering.” In a smaller organisation a spare pair of hands can undertake tasks no-one else has time for. I am currently undertaking a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) research project based on achiral SFC; which will shed light on this chromatographic technique and will benefit the future of Reach Separations. I have been setting up the apparatus, troubleshooting the instrument and testing new columns and live samples.   My yearlong project will therefore be of  genuine value to the analytical chemistry sector as well as to me. I am also being granted the opportunity to attend a mass spectrometry conference in Manchester. I will be learning about advances in mass spectrometry and networking with current and potential clients for Reach Separations. I am in no doubt, my placement is providing me with many opportunities to enhance my abilities and preparing me for a bright career in the future. I would urge anyone considering a placement to look carefully at the opportunities in SMEs.