A profitable placement for student Jeff

An industrial placement has proved lucrative for student Jeff Bean.

Jeff, 27, from Middlesbrough, has just completed a one-year salaried placement as a Junior Project Engineer for Vopak Terminals UK’s Seal Sands operation.  

Vopak has now agreed to pay Jeff’s University tuition fees for the remaining two years of his BEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering degree. They have also offered Jeff a part-time post during this period, with the possibility of employment after completion of his course.  It’s the first time Vopak has made such an agreement with a placement student and are looking to continue taking future placement students based on this success.   BEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering Jeff, said: ‘I was over the moon when I found out.  Normally only second year students are picked for placement so they must be pretty pleased with what I’ve done.  It’s been a good experience to work for them, there’s a wide range of people to learn from and one of the Mechanical Engineers studied at the University of Teesside so the University is well represented!’

He has returned to full-time education after a gap of nearly ten years.  Jeff left Langbaurgh School aged 16 and started a retail career, progressing to management level.  When Jeff reached his early 20s, he sought a change of direction.  He said: ‘I thought I’d missed the boat when it came to education.  I wanted to do something more with my life and the best way was to go to university.  But I also needed to keep paying my mortgage.’

Jeff combined 11 hour days as a retail manager with a two-year part-time access course at Stockton Riverside College.  This led to the Chemical Engineering degree.  Jeff said: ‘Living on Teesside you can see so many cooling towers and process chimneys; I thought that’s an industry I want to work in, a good direction to be going in.  The University’s lecturers are all good guys who know their subjects.’    Jeff will return to the University in the autumn to start his second year.

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