Derbyshire company Lubrizol is using high-tech mixed reality headsets and a host of other online communication tools to make sure that its student placement scheme can continue during the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.
The firm, based in Hazelwood, has put a whole host of measures to ensure that the 32 undergraduates who have joined for the coming year from universities all over the country do not miss out, despite starting out by working from home.
The company, which researches and develops additives for automotive engines, has run its successful student placement scheme for the last few years and has given 26 students roles in departments across its Hazelwood site this month, with a further six taking up positions at its site in Blackley, Manchester.
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Derbyshire-based company Lubrizol is using high-tech mixed reality headset technology to help train its new intake of placement students in order to ensure they can take up their roles despite the coronavirus social distancing measures.
But because the majority of its staff are working from home to ensure that they do not spread the coronavirus, most of the students have only been on site once or twice and are spending the rest of the time working online, taking part in virtual online meetings.
Four students who are working in the company’s laboratories are allowed to come into work more frequently, however when they are required to learn a new practical task, they are being taught remotely by instructors wearing mixed reality headsets.
The headsets work be generating videos which overlay virtual imagery onto the physical world that the instructor sees before them as they undertake the task in question, and these are then beamed live, or sent later as a recorded transmission, to the student sitting, watching and learning at home.
Jack Bowers, a student at Nottingham Trent University, has joined Derbyshire firm Lubrizol, based in Hazelwood, on one-year student placement, despite the restrictions placed on the company by the coronavirus.
Among the students who have taken up a position at Lubrizol this year is Jack Bowers from Ashbourne, who is mid-way through a degree in International Business at Nottingham Trent University and is now working in Lubrizol’s global communications department.
By coincidence, the previous student to hold the same role, Amy Turner, is also studying the same course at the same university, albeit a year above Jack.
Jack said: “Many of my friends on my course have had their work placements cancelled so I’m really grateful that Lubrizol has done so much to ensure that mine can go ahead.
“It won’t be the same working from home and doing everything online, but I’m sure I will still learn plenty of new skills and, fingers crossed, I’ve heard we might be back on site in January.
“Amy did a great job during her year at Lubrizol and she’s given me all the information I need to get me started. It’s really helped me that she’s studying the same course because she understands the knowledge that I’m bringing into the role with me and what I’ll need to get up to speed with.”
Mike Harding, global creative services manager at Lubrizol, said: “Our student placement scheme is extremely important to us because it’s a way for us to recruit new talent and also get a good understanding of the skills and abilities today’s graduates will bring with them into the working world.
“We have been using mixed reality headsets in other areas of the business and so it made perfect sense to use it to train our students without them having to come on site.
“That, plus the extensive use of Microsoft Teams and other online communication tools has been vital to us during the lockdown and we’re delighted to be able to apply it to ensure our students can take up their placement positions with us too.”
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For further information please contact Simon Burch on 07735 397888 or email [email protected]
