To whom it may concern,
This is a statement regarding my student placement with Brett Lane & Associates Pty.
Ltd., from 05/08/13 to 18/10/13.
In terms of learning, it was really valuable to learn how to use filters and pivot tables
with Microsoft Excel. The project also helped to reinforce some data analysis skills
that I learned during the previous semester, and how to write a good report for the
industry partner.
It was sometimes challenging organising time for the work placement among my
university assignments and commitments. I think it would have been better to
complete the placement during the mid-year break as opposed to during semester, but
unfortunately the timing simply didn’t work out that way. I was never exactly sure
what standard the people at BL&A expected of me, but I maintained a good work
ethic and asked questions when I was not sure. I think that my supervisor and his
colleagues were happy with this. I enjoyed working with the team at BL&A: I learnt
more about the tasks of an ecological consultant, and the organizational structure of
an ecological consultant, than I could have elsewhere. I was also grateful for the
opportunity to help in the field.
The program was fairly well organised. Granted, at times, it seemed that BL&A did
not have a clear idea of what they wanted exactly from the project e.g. which
meteorological data was most important to analyse. It had not been assessed whether
or not the BOM data was available for the flight periods, and if a contact of Theo (the
placement coordinator) had not provided us with the data, then it would have been
quite problematic for me. Perhaps a bit more direction from the start may have been
useful. However, I think working out the problems in the analysis for myself, such as
the incongruity in sampling techniques between companies contributing to the
analysis, was also a valuable experience.
On one or two occasions, I was advised the day before I was supposed to come in for
placement that I could not come in that day due to training days, etc. This was not a
major problem, though it did mean that there was one week when I did not come in to
the industry partner’s office at all. But overall it was a worthwhile learning
experience, and I definitely recommend this placement program to my fellow
students.
Kelsey Tucker