Rethinking industrial placements

The first student that undertook a year-long industrial placement at Surrey NanoSystems created a material that was used at the winter Olympic games. To say the placement was a success might be an understatement. ‘It was a fantastic result,’ says Ben Jensen, chief technology officer and founder of the company.

The experience seemed to be positive all round. Taking on a placement student opened up the company to a fresh way of thinking. ‘They very often think of a 100 different ways to try and solve a problem and that’s really something to see,’ says Jensen. And the students had the chance to work on real-world problems, gaining a wealth of experience during the year. ‘It’s great to see people come in with very little understanding of what we do and of industrial chemistry and see how they grow. We’ve had a really, really great experience.’