Sophie Williams
Sports Technology BEng Part C
Placements are not just about gaining work experience, but developing life skills too, something Sophie learnt during her time at Gymshark. Now back at Loughborough, Sophie discusses how her course and the University helped her secure a placement and how her placement will help her succeed in final year.
“I chose to study Sports Technology at Loughborough as there are few other universities that provide the unique combination of Sport and Engineering in one course, and definitely no other university that has the facilities and equipment that Loughborough can provide access to.
I wanted to experience a year in industry to get a better idea of potential job opportunities I may enjoy in the future. I also wanted to see how areas of my course are applied in a working environment. The University provided me with the knowledge of how to identify and approach potential companies that I may want to discuss a year in industry with.
On my placement, as well as technical knowledge, a main skill I have learnt and enhanced upon is my time management and organisational skills. I hope to use the structure I followed in my placement year and apply it to my time at university. I feel that this will make me more productive in my working hours, providing a better balance between study and personal life. I was unsure about what career opportunities I wanted to pursue, but I am now certain I want to go into the sportswear innovation industry working on projects for future technologies to enhance athlete performance.
I would say that a year in industry is a great idea to anyone studying Sports Technology as it will help them understand how the modules they are learning apply to future jobs they may be interested in. My greatest achievement during University has been securing my placement at Gymshark to work on fabrics in the Product Team.”