Work Experience with JBA's Metocean Team

My name is Tom Wood and earlier this summer I did a work placement at JBA Consulting. I am a year 11 student and have just finished my GCSE’s at Woodhouse Grove School.

I was required to do a work placement this summer and I chose JBA Consulting based on the A levels I have chosen (Maths, Chemistry, Geography) and career paths which I might wish to go down in the future.

Throughout my time here at JBA, I have worked in various teams and on various projects, expanding my skill set and learning new things. I have spent the majority of my placement working with the Metocean Risk Management team on the ForeCoast® Marine project. The work has included computer software testing, market research and data and statistical analysis. This has been my favourite part of my time here as I have a passion for maths and computers so it has suited me down to the ground.

I have also spent my time on the “Flanders” project, looking at surface water flooding models in the north Belgium region. I have also enjoyed this experience as I like working with computers and learning about real life flood events and what JBA is doing to try and predict and prevent them. I have also spent some time doing some geo-referencing on floods in the past, looking at trends and locations where frequent flood events have occurred.

In addition to working with JBA Consulting, I spent a day working with the JBA Trust, an independent charity that supports research into environmental risk management in water environments. During this time, I worked on the promotion of a postgraduate degree in Flood and Coastal Risk Management that the Trust has set up with Lancaster University.

My experience at JBA has been helped so much by the people that I have worked with whilst I’ve been here. Everyone has shared their insight and been extremely helpful whenever I have had any questions on work I’ve been doing.

All the work I have done at JBA has been thoroughly enjoyable and highly interesting and educational and has helped me focus on the studies I wish to continue. It has also given me an insight in the working life of those involved in this field and I hope to possibly come back to JBA for another placement, internship or other.