I did my work experience at Transport for London, with Ayoub, Nimet, Chahid and our British partner Mitchell. TFL is an English company which is like the RATP. We were based in an office at Albany House. It is near the St James’s Park station. So, we walked about 5 minutes to take the District line from the Mansion House station to St James’s Park station. It is around 15 minutes in the tube.
When we arrived, we filled a register with our name, phone number etc. and we took our badges. Then a woman named Marilyn took us at the 8th floor, where our desks were situated. We went to the “meeting room”, where we met Etly. She introduced TFL and the different areas and projects of the company and she gave us our IDs and passwords. After that we sat in front of our computers and logged in. We had our own professional emails. So on the first day, we did an assessment which is like a test about Health and Safety at work, to make sure that we were correctly seated on our chairs, in order to avoid any pain for example on the head, the back or the neck. In the afternoon, Etly gave us work to do on Excel. Nimet and I had to enter information in a database, such as the identity, date of birth etc. of the employees.
On the second day in the morning, we continued and finished the job. After the lunch time, we went on the construction site of Tottenham Court Road underground station. They explained us the project of renovation of the station, to make it bigger than it was.
On Thursday morning, Etly gave us another work, still on Excel. We had to fill in information about employees, to select which group and level they belong to. Finally, we went to the Transport Museum where we saw the evolution of the trains and the underground since the 18th century.
I think that working in an office is interesting but I’d like to work in a job where I meet and communicate with different people. To me, it can be interesting to study in London for a year, but I couldn’t work for a long time in London, because I really want to discover other countries as well.
Asma Harfi
JTFL is a company responsible for transport in London. TFL is a big company which delivers a reliable train service with high standards of customer care through their people and technology. The company is split into several departments which work together to develop the London Underground (LU) and other transport services in London.
We worked in LU, Crossrail and the Station department in the health and safety, and first aid service.LU Crossrail and station is also a project. This programme is responsible for ensuring that the new infrastructure (like lifts and escalators) is both compliant with LU's requirements and allows LU to efficiently operate and maintain the infrastructure throughout its life.
We met a few people from the company like Etly Combrinck who organises all the information about health & safety and first aid, Eleshia Potgieter the Fire Warden and First Aider and Marilyn Trim the Station Officer. We shadowed Etly Combrinck for 3 days.
The first day, Etly and Marilyn presented to us about the company in a meeting room. After that, we were awarded a certificate. We all successfully completed Workstation Safety Plus. This assessment demonstrates how to sit comfortably without a bad effect on your health. Moreover, we visited the development of Oxford Circus Station in the afternoon.
The second day we completed a spreadsheet with the programme Sentinel with Asma, my classmates and in the afternoon we visited St James's Park and saw Buckingham Palace with Etly.
In addition on the last day, we completed another spreadsheet. We had to come up with an event for the company in order to engage more women and young people. We thought that some engineers of the company could give awards and conferences to women and young students in universities. Besides, in the afternoon we visited the Transport Museum and we learnt the history of London transport.
I think this good experience will not influence the subjects that I choose to study next year because I will study scientific subjects. Finally, I will want to study in Paris but I will want to work in London because I reckon that there is more tolerance and freedom.
Nimet Ozuylasi