Download The Tamworth site is located adjacent to Drayton Manor Theme Park

PLACEMENT REPORT
Employer: Vesuvius - Foseco International Ltd.
Location: Tamworth, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Job Title: Marketing Assistant
Department/Functional Area: Business Information
Department / Marketing and Communications
Department
Contents
1. Organisational Background ................................................................................. 3
2. Corporate Social Responsibility ........................................................................... 4
3. Employment Experience ...................................................................................... 5
4. The Recruitment Process .................................................................................... 6
5. The Induction Process ......................................................................................... 7
6. Advice for Future Students .................................................................................. 8
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1. Organisational Background
Foseco International Ltd is the foundry division of the Vesuvius Group who are
leaders in the metal flow engineering industry. Vesuvius was part of the Cookson
Group which had split in December 2012. This left Vesuvius Plc as a stand-alone
company which appears on the London Stock Exchange.
Foseco is a global company, operating in Europe, North and South America and the
Asia Pacific. There are five sites in the United Kingdom, based in Tamworth,
Chesterfield, Barlborough and Newmilns (Scotland). The Headquarters of the
company is located in London.
Foseco’s business aims are to improve foundry performance by providing better
casting performance in foundries. Foseco offer products within the steel, iron and
non-ferrous market. These products include foam filters to filter metal and crucibles.
These products are provided to customers globally for uses, such as within the
automotive industries.
I have been working within the Business Information Department for nine months.
The Business Information Department are responsible for managing data and
providing spread sheets to all managers to facilitate decision making. Thereafter, I
have been working in the Marketing and Communications Department. The
Marketing and Communications Department are responsible for managing the brand
image, such as maintaining an up-to-date and modern website.
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2. Corporate Social Responsibility
Foseco are actively involved in promoting safety and protecting the environment.
They are committed to maintaining and improving their own health and safety
policies in their operations for a risk-free and safe working environment. This is
carried out by environmental practices such as reducing the waste of energy
consumption in the melting of liquid metal and minimising the level of non-productive
metal.
Every employee is responsible for raising Safety Improvement Opportunities.
Employees within both factories and offices are responsible for raising any concerns
or observations that they feel is a hazard at work which could potentially cause an
accident. For example, a trip hazard or if an electrical item has not been PAT tested.
It is logged in a database with details of the hazard, what was done and what needs
to be done. It will then be resolved as soon as possible.
An announcement called ‘The Red Stripe’ is sent out when there has been a serious
lost time injury at work, anywhere in Vesuvius. It explains what has happened and
how it could have been prevented. Foseco employees also receive safety
breakthrough bulletins which are a reminder of how they should be acting safely at
work to promote a responsible and safe working environment.
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3. Employment Experience
For my role as a Marketing Assistant I was placed in the Business Information
Department for the first nine months of my placement. My responsibilities included
managing spreadsheets and data entry. The tasks given were menial and tedious as
the majority of the tasks included manual data entry. The first project included
converting a 500 page finance document into the correct company format. This
included copying and pasting information into the new template and rearranging the
size of text boxes in a flow chart. The tasks given did not keep me busy for the nine
months and I was told to keep myself occupied frequently. This proved to be difficult
as the office was very quiet and there was minimal socialisation in the office. The
tasks required me to report only to my manager. Therefore, there was no team
working opportunities.
The final quarter of my placement I was moved to the Marketing and
Communications Department. I felt I should have initially been placed here as I was
recruited as a Marketing Assistant. In this department, I was given a little more
responsibility as I was asked to write two reports for management. The first report
was to summarise my research of the various video file formats available for the
company to create videos for internal and external use. The second report was to
write up the results of a survey conducted on employee’s satisfaction with the
intranet. Another project I was assisting with in this department included using a
content management database called ‘Typo 3’. My task was to attach all product
sheets to the relevant area on the website. The technique used to do this was
equivalent to attaching files to an e-mail. Therefore, the tasks given again were
menial and eliminated any room for progression. However, in this office, there was
more interaction between colleagues which created a better office atmosphere.
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4. The Recruitment Process
The recruitment process was very simple. The position was advertised on the Aston
Futures website. I had e-mailed my C.V and a short covering letter to the company in
December 2011. I then received an e-mail in May 2012 to attend a face-to-face
interview. There are no daunting psychometric tests involved or any exercises such
as group tasks or presentations.
The interview was more of an informal conversation with the UK HR Manager and
my manager during my placement. The interview questions were very basic and
included the following questions:
Why would you like to work for Foseco?
What do you know about Foseco?
What are you currently doing?
What can you offer for the Marketing Assistant role?
Do you have strong I.T skills?
Describe yourself with 3 words and please explain.
During the interview, the job role and expectations of the role were explained to me.
For example, I was asked if was happy with communicating with international
colleagues and if I was comfortable going to another country for business meetings.
However, the opportunities discussed during the interview were not offered during
the placement.
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5. The Induction Process
My starting date was on the 30th July 2012. However, on arrival, my manager was
not expecting me until the 1st August. Therefore, he had nothing prepared and
explained what my responsibilities will be which I had previously clarified via e-mail
prior to the acceptance of employment.
On the first day, I was asked to manually enter data from a paper source into
Microsoft Excel. In the afternoon, I then had a compulsory health and safety
induction. During this induction, there were no visuals used; thus, it was only me and
the trainer. The induction duration was approximately over an hour.
I was then contacted by HR 3 months into my placement with a date of when to
attend my induction. The induction was held at another Foseco site which allowed
me to meet employees from across the business. The induction included another talk
on health n safety which was in the form of a presentation. There was a presentation
from the I.T and HR departments. The induction was a general introduction into the
business. There was no training provided for the role as the tasks given did not
require any specific skills. However, during the placement I opted into attending
Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel training sessions which were held by an external
trainer, called AJ Services.
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6. Advice for Future Students
The Tamworth site is located adjacent to Drayton Manor Theme Park which is 5-10
minutes in a car from the M42:
Drayton Manor Business Park
Coleshill Road
Tamworth
Staffordshire
B78 3QX
From the East Midlands, the Tamworth train leaves from the Nuneaton station which
takes approximately 25 minutes. It takes approximately 10 minutes from the train
station to the Tamworth site in a taxi.
During lunch breaks there is Ventura Retail Park which has the mainstream stores
such as Marks and Spencer’s, Boots, New Look and Next. There are also fast food
places such as McDonalds and KFC for lunch. There are also supermarkets such as
Asda and Sainsbury’s with petrol stations.
The marketing placement did not provide the insight I required into a career within
marketing. For the majority of my placement, I was a general admin assistant.
Therefore, if you require an insight into marketing, consider applying for a Fast
Moving Consumer Goods company for a worthwhile year. I understand Foseco offer
I.T placements which are very insightful placements as the tasks involved in the
placement are equivalent to the tasks undertaken by permanent staff.
To summarise, if you require a quiet and easy placement year, this is the place for
you.
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