UCLan students aim for the skies after EDM visit

26 February 2018

Future engineers visit one of world's leading providers of training simulators

Engineering students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) have enjoyed a visit to one of the world's leading providers of training simulators.

EDM is revered as one of the world's leading providers of training simulators to the civil aviation, defence and rail industries with its products being marketed all over the world.

The visit to EDM in Manchester allowed second year engineering students to find out more about industry-based opportunities, such as summer internships or year-long placements.

Students were shown around simulators designed to give pilots a representative experience of what to expect when in flight. There was also a tour of the company’s Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainers (CEET), which are sold for fees in excess of £1 million.

UCLan currently has two students, Oliver Forbes-Shaw and Sheena Jamieson, on year-long placements at EDM. Oliver has prioritised an electrical placement whilst Sheena has been taken on a mechanical placement.

Martin Varley, Principal Lecturer from the School of Engineering, encouraged the students to make the most of the visit and believes that EDM’s high-profile work has whet his students’ appreciate for success in the industry.

"We believe that undertaking a placement or internship helps the student to widen their perspective, and have a first-hand direct experience of working in engineering industries."

“Based on what I saw and some of the conversations I have had since, I believe the students enjoyed the visit and found out a lot about the company and its operations,” said Martin. “Many of them were inspired by the visit, and by the work our current students at EDM are doing.

“Several of the students have already sent me CVs to pass on to EDM, so they can be considered for placements there themselves. Such industrial visits help the students to appreciate and understand some of the exciting real-world applications of the subjects they are studying at UCLan.

“We believe that undertaking a placement or internship helps the student to widen their perspective, and have a first-hand direct experience of working in engineering industries. In many cases students have ideas for projects based on work they did whilst on placements, and are often taken on by the placement company following graduation.”

Robotics engineering student Joshua Pearson was one of those students to fire his application to EDM seeking a placement and was impressed by the facilities that the students were shown at the organisation.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to EDM, it was an interesting insight into a world which many people would never have thought existed,” said Joshua. “I was persuaded to apply at a placement to EDM because it's an interesting field to go into.

“I gained an insight on how things that I've learnt about on my course are used in the real world and how multiple facets of engineering are needed together to produce the finished products.”