Well, I’ve been at my new site for 2 weeks now and yeah it’s going alright, I’m enjoying it a lot more mainly due to the fact I have a specified role and am learning new skills. I’m working with CAD systems now, putting CAD drawings onto templates of steels sheets ready for laser, plasma and water jet cutting machines to cut different shapes of steel out for the customers. Apparently the number of mistakes down to the CAD system has been substantially high over the last few years and so I’ve been brought in to help reduce the number of mistakes so it should be quite a good experience. Also the staff at my new site are a lot younger and so I feel that I fit in better here, and lots of staff nights out might be on the cards which should be good. Work would be much better if I didn’t have to start at 8.30 every morning but hey at least I’ve not been made redundant from this job just yet.

Now I’ve never been partially lucky guy, recently a 17 year old girl won on the Euro Millions, that would never happen to me, but you know your luck is right down when you get made redundant on your placement year (How many placement students can brag about that!?!). Fortunately for me however Outokumpu Stainless have numerous sites within Sheffield and so they are shipping me off to one of them. I suppose this will look good on my CV; technically I will have done two jobs rather than just one!!

Strange working in a company that’s being made redundant, hardly any work to do, everyone worrying about their futures, it’s a great little picture of what our future lives could be like.

Oh and just to make the whole redundancy thing even better, I’ve just had to spend £350 to get my car though it’s MOT! But that’s not the thing that disappoints me the most, no, what saddens me more than anything is that I get no redundancy pay, bad times!!

Now that I’ve depressed you all I’ll try and shine a cheeky little bit of light on my experience, because it’s honestly not all doom and gloom! In fact morale is pretty high here still, it’s a pretty good place to be working even if there is a distinct lack of work to do.

Over the last week and a half I have been the big cheese down here. The Despatch Manager has been on holiday and I am the only person here who has been trained to do his job, which to me seems a little daft! Anyone else think that having only one person and a placement student trained up to do a pretty dam important job seems silly? But having said that this has been the best week I have had at Outokumpu, my work load has increased so the days are flying and I actually feel they are giving me responsibility and although I have probably sent all the steel to the wrong part of the world, I’m pretty impressed with how I’ve done this week. Steel has been sent to Germany, South Africa, France, Italy and also within our lovely home country the UK. Well hopefully it has anyway, but these are just a number of countries we operate in and sell steel to. Had no complaints so far about any steel not getting to the right place at the right time so we can only hope. Oh and its definitely going to get a cheeky mention on my CV that during my placement year I was the Despatch Manager (How good will that sound?!).

Looks like the CV could look pretty good after this year. Right well ladies and gentlemen, next time I write a blog on here I will be at my new site, and who knows I could ever love it or hate it. Better keep reading to find out, its gonna be one hell of a rollercoaster!

Michael Latham vital stats Company: Outokumpu Stainless Age: 20 University: Sheffield Hallam

“Well I’m Michael Latham, from Manchstesr originally but been studying in Sheffield, at Sheffield Hallam for 2 years and I am now in my 3rd year and out on placement. I decided to stay and do my placement in Sheffield because its a pretty awesome city. I may have made a mistake living with my uni mates, seeing as they will be out getting nice and drunk every night, but we will have to see how that goes, and I can tell you all how silly an idea it is to move in with drunken yobs!

Anyways in terms of my placement, I have been here at Outokumpu since the start of August and i’m really enjoying myself. Getting along really will with the staff here – Good Times, but we have recently found out that this specific site is being shut down and everyone being made redundant – Bad Times. Its going to be a strange experience the next few weeks, as I am expecting to move to a different site within Sheffield, but I have no idea where or when.

My role within the company is working in the logistics department, mainly dealing with shipping the steal to our lovely customers. There are around 3 Outokumpu sites situated in Sheffield, as well as sites across Finland, Sweden, Holland, & Germany. The specific site I am working at specialises in precision strips which involves cutting sheets of steel into very thin strips ready to be turned into such items as razors for companies such as Gillette. Hopefully the next few weeks shouldn’t be too traumatic but I invite you to come with me on a journey through time and space to the world of Outokumpu.”

Read Michael’s latest blog entries here.