As part of my BSc (Hons) Mathematics course, I undertook a year long placement at NATS (formerly known as the National Air Traffic Services) from July 2016 – July 2017. My main objectives for seeking this experience were to apply the knowledge and skills I had gained throughout my first two years of undergraduate study within a real-world environment. When initially applying for placements, my long-term ambition was to work within the aviation sector, so a placement with NATS provided me with the opportunity to develop my understanding of the industry and work alongside aviation professionals.
As an Assistant Research Analyst in the Analytics department with NATS, my primary role was to analyse data for both internal and external customers. This included performing robust analysis on a variety of tasks to aid in decision making. Much of my work was done with the Safety, Forecasting and Business Analysis and Environment and Airspace teams. This variety gave me an insight into how the different teams operate individually and collaboratively.
My placement with NATS was an insightful, challenging and rewarding experience which contributed to my growth and development, both personally and professionally. Many of the skills I acquired over the year, for example coding with R, positively impacted my final year of university. Alongside learning new skills my placement also allowed me to apply the knowledge and skills from my first two years of study, helping me to succeed at my role and accomplish any task set for me. I know that the technical skills I have developed, through using a range of professional and bespoke software, and the soft skills I have developed working both collaboratively with colleagues and acting independently within the team helped me in both my final year studies and in securing post graduate employment. Having now graduated from the University of Plymouth I have re-joined NATS as a Research Analyst within the Forecasting and Business Analysis team in the Analytics department.
