Nurturing young engineering talent
It is important to Cudd Bentley that we nurture the next generation of engineering talent and therefore we open our doors to students and offer placements as part of their engineering degree. For the last academic year 2023 to 2024, we were proud to welcome George Compton to the CBC team for his industrial placement year. His time with us comprised the third year of his four-year civil engineering degree that he was studying at Loughborough University.
Linking sustainability
Our sustainability team comprises three departments, energy, carbon and certification. We see these placements as a unique opportunity to show future talent how closely interlinked these departments are. George was quick to pick up the intersectionality of these departments and how we share information to achieve our client goals. Whilst working within the energy team, he helped to set up OpenBuildings models in collaboration with our team of mechanical and electrical engineers. For this experience to be as meaningful as possible for George, we made sure that he was involved in the whole life cycle of the project from start to finish. He contributed to the CAD plans and participated in writing out the final report.
Whole life carbon
It was important for us that any student placed with us understand the whole life cycle of carbon assessments and minimum required embodied carbon standards. George would receive a bill of materials from the project manager and then assess them to produce reports. This part of our sustainability engineering practice is crucial, and George was shown how these standards have evolved over the last decade and how critical they are for our ongoing support of planning and construction.
Collaborating and communicating effectively
Much of what we do in our practice hinges on effective collaboration and strong communication. George participated in project meetings as part of the BREEAM team and he found the structure of the meetings valuable in terms of his professional development. George was very much hands on as part of the sustainability team, and we shared with him how we collect HVAC data and calculate EPC assessments. He formed part of the team that conducted site visits and relayed to us the value of this experience in bringing projects to life. He relayed to us that this part of his placement was extremely beneficial and accelerated his knowledge, not just in terms of what he saw but the opportunities to interact with our highly qualified team as they talked him through the various parts of their data collection and assessment.
Nurturing young engineering talent
The team enjoyed this opportunity to interact with future engineering talent and have no hesitation in inviting George to return to Cudd Bentley Consulting in the future.
“The past year has passed very quickly and that has been due to working with such an interesting subject matter and with colleagues who could not have been more accommodating to me.”
– George Compton
Please do get in touch if you wish to carry out your industrial placement year with us.