Practicum Report Essay Example

Practicum Report

Practicum Report

1. INTRODUCTION

Engineering is a professional art that involves application of science to the optimum conversion of various resources of nature of nature for the benefit of man. The aim practicum project is to bridge the gap between the theory and practice and provide students with the required practical, field based, and real world experience while studying their program. Through the practicum, I was able to apply theoretical knowledge within the industry, acquire knowledge on various construction, teamwork, and project management stages, practical ethics and professional culture, and implementation of Health Safety Environment (HSE) practice within the work place (SALCO, 2015). In this report, I intend to highlight my experience while undertaking practicum in SAUDI SALCO Contracting Company that began in 1982 under the incorporation of the rules and laws of Saudi Arabia. In this report, I will focus on the experience I acquired from the company while constructing a building King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

1. COMPANY DESCRIPTION

2.1 The Organization’s Strategy

For the business to be leading contractor and contracting company within the Saudi Arabia Kingdom, the vision of SALCO include ensuring its success through meeting the needs of customers and partners. To achieve these factors, the business has experienced and skilled human resources to tackle most of the challenging construction issues under the most demanding schedule. This involves anticipating their needs and delivering each commitment its makes. The community considers the business as responsive and responsible through its record of careful planning, sound management, on-time performance, and safe work environments for the natural environment while reducing traffic disruptions and various inconveniences for the communities. Furthermore, SALCO aims to create opportunities for achieving extraordinary and rewarding success through empowering its employees to make decisions, seize the responsibility of delivering customer satisfaction, and ensure personal and professional growth.

2.2 Health, Safety, & Environmental (HS&E)

Throughout the years, SALCO has based its strength on the people. Furthermore, through training and professional development, the business has been especially proud of its long-standing record of safety. Besides, many organizations have honoured SALCO for its outstanding safety performance. According to the laws of the company, it has always hung on the placard in a place considered easily visible in which it writes its safety measures. It is the rule of SALCO to ensure that each employee is aware of the safety as outlined buy the site supervisor and engineer. The company understands that health and safety is not only import to the humans but also to the environmental condition. Health and safety in workplace assist to reduce or avoid the pains of workers, suffering, and injury. It ensures that the business is successful and sustainable. SALCO has ensured that its employees are safe which has guaranteed its brand image and value, which has assisted to increase the motivation and commitment of the employees. This has enabled the employees to meet the expectations of customers. Good image and high level of interest into the safety of the workers has assisted in reducing absences and increasing productivity level. In every construction site, the employees wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to enhance their safety. Every section of construction has its properly designed protective equipments that meet the suitability of each employee.

1. WORK EXPERIENCE

3.1 Experiences at Saudi SALCO Contracting Company

During my practicum experience, I was fortunate enough to experience firsthand and learned various factors associated with project management, the processes of planning, developing, and completing the project. Another important lesson I learnt were the amount of works that engineers have to perform in project management, which in turn provided me with adequate insight into various roles and responsibilities I could perform. Generally, my work experience was positive. During such period, I had an opportunity to acquire construction induction card to be allowed on site, which is an important aspect in engineering. In the site, my responsibility included locating the underground services and ensuring that each area that was to be excavated was free from the optic fiber cables, pipes, and networks. I noted that the workplace was relatively diverse from what I learnt in school as it included the surveyors, project managers, and engineers with different qualifications and strengths. Even with such diversity, the employees worked together and organized their sync with each other to ensure the work flows.

3.2 Interaction with contractors, project managers, and allocate workers schedule

The main aim of practicum is to ensure that students acquire practical experiences of the theories they acquire in schools. However, to achieved, interaction with qualified personal within the organization is inevitable. While in SALCO, I had the opportunity to interact with the contractors and project managers in which I learnt important issues. I came to realize that engineers do not work in isolation but in close connection with other profession to deliver a successful project. Through interaction, I learnt how to create rapport with people from different fields. Working with others made me develop confidence and support, as I understood my work and double-checked my activities for uncertainties. Through observation and learning from the observation, I picked up the tips and learnt various skills including communication.

3.3 Assuring all site workers abide by HS&E requirements

SALCO values the health and wellbeing of its employees; as a result, it ensures that all employees wear personal protective equipment when within the site. Through the experience I acquired from the organization, I was charged with the role of ensuring that employee had PPEs. I took stock of the available PPEs and ordered the deficit to ensure that each employee had access to the equipments they consider to suit their needs (Workplace Denmark, 2013). With increasing level of environmental consciousness, I had to ensure that the recommendations of environment impact assessment (EIA) were considered in each stage of the projects. In each construction phase, I ensured that employees wore the required health and safety protective materials, which were audited on regular basis to ensure that they met the required standards and needs of the users.

1. REFLECTIVE LEARNING WITH INSIGHTFUL REFLECTION

4.1 Communication

While in practicum, I learnt the significance of ensuring effective communication in project management especially in engineering field. Through effective communication, I ensured that each of my team members understood what was required of them (Arnaout & Slavin, 2013). The business had people from different social statuses and professional fields, which made it for me to develop communication skills, which enhanced my ability to manage the other team members. In the current employment environment, communication skills are becoming factors among the potential employers, which make it a critical factor for me to learn before graduation.

4.2 Culture of the company

The company’s culture is based on satisfying the needs of the customers through having in place-qualified team human resources. To achieve these aims, the business has in place strategies that guarantee maximum employee output through training and development, opportunity to make organizational decisions, and frequent adjustments of the activities to meet the current standards. In addition, the business has through the years, invested on the protective equipment that ensures the safety of the employees.

4.3 Desired work environment

The company has employed professionals from various fields that support every aspect of the business. The aim of the business is to be the leaders within the construction industry in Saudi Arabia through provision of quality services and construction works, diversification of its activities, and have a team of experienced personal to deliver these needs. This has been achieved through creation of conducive business environment that enable employee to take charge of their responsibilities and decisions to guarantee the required success.

1. ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE ENHANCEMENT

5.1 Personal development

The practicum offered me the opportunity to develop some of my skills including communication, presentation, project management, and professional ethics. Through interaction with professions from other disciplines, I enhanced my level of confidence, which I believe to be an important employability factor that most employers look for. With these experiences acquired, I believe a stand a chance for success within the engineering filed.

5.2 Technical knowledge

Engineering is an art of science that aims to improve the wellbeing of man through available resources. Within the company, I understood various methods of analyzing engineering drawings, planning and monitoring engineering projects, and understanding the existing relationship between engineering and other subjects. Furthermore, I had an opportunity to identify and note how to implement various health, safety, and environment within the environment profession.

5.3 Ethical practice

From the practicum, I learnt that to be a successful engineer, I have to comply with the required engineering standards and ethics at all time which needs to include uncompromising the level of integrity. Moreover, I may have to uphold honesty and fairness while undertaking various projects. I learnt that customer satisfaction depends of the quality of services offered to the customers.

1. FUTURE CAREERS

In the future, I intend to pursue various areas within the engineering profession especially those, which I never acquired, from the company including networking and engineering modeling which I consider important for my profession.

References

. Chicago: American Society of Civil Engineers. Pipelines 2013: Pipelines and Trenchless Construction and Renewals—A Global PerspectiveArnaout, S., & Slavin, L. M. (2013).

SALCO. (2015). Vision & Mission. Retrieved May 30, 2017, from http://www.salco-sa.com/vision—mission.html

Workplace Denmark. (2013). Safety in the building and construction industry. Retrieved May 30, 2017, from https://workplacedenmark.dk/en/health-and-safety/building-and-construction