Two engineers from CGL consulting engineers have been brushing up on their contracting skills through secondments with Cognition. This follows a three month secondment by Jack Goddard with CGL at the beginning of 2022.
Zoe completed her six-week stint with us last month and her ‘tag team’ colleague, Elly, is coming to the end of her time with us. Most of their time has been spent on our Plumstead West Thamesmead project but they have also seen operations at Klondyke, Walton, Silvertown as well as spending time with our survey team. Feedback on both from the site management has been excellent and they are clearly two motivated and sharp young professionals that have contributed much in their short time with us. Judging from the feedback from Zoe below, they are gaining from the experience also! Thanks for all the time and support provided by the site teams in particular Conor Farrell who has taken both Zoe and Elly under his wing whilst with us.
Feedback from Zoe…
Over the past 6 weeks I’ve spent working at the Plumstead West Thamesmead site I’ve gained a huge amount of knowledge on how the contractual side of the industry works, from managing materials and ensuring the environmental quality of the site is being maintained/improved, to liaising with the client and generally gaining confidence working in the industry (particularly as a woman working full time on a construction site).
It was also really great to see the remedial technologies Cognition are known for in action, as well as their dedication to ensuring their sites are able to operate sustainably. Achieving net zero carbon emissions on site is also tied into the day to day management of each of Cognition’s sites, e.g. at Plumstead all plant used on site are hybrid vehicles as far as possible, and all run on Green D+ HVO diesel replacement fuel. As someone who has a strong interest in climate science and climate change, I really welcomed seeing this utilised-on site.
I was also lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to visit other sites which Cognition have been working on, including the Heathside School site in Walton-on-Thames and their Chichester site. Through visiting these sites I was exposed to a variety of ground/earthworks technologies, and was able to assist the engineers carrying out UVA surveys.
Overall working for Cognition has been a really enjoyable experience, and I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to work within such a supportive and enthusiastic team at Plumstead.