Three weeks in, we wanted to find out what the MiTek Interns for 2024-25 have been discovering about their place of work. Ekene and Somto have been inducted into the Engineering department and are starting their programme about Automation. They have visited the Wolverhampton MiTek factory and have completed their first external visit to one of our component manufacturers, Engineered Timber Solutions, Shrewsbury.
At ETS, Ekene and Somto had hands-on experience creating Posi-Joists and the opportunity to explore the machinery and mechanics behind the process.
Leah Llewellyn, Operations Manager at ETS, says: “A big thanks to our teams for making this experience invaluable and, as ever, to MiTek for the opportunity to be involved in such a great programme. Here’s to the next generation of talent!”
Initial impressions
Ekene says of his first three weeks: “It has been very exciting, educative, and surprising to know about all the processes that go on before an end product or service is supplied to the customer. The visit to ETS Shrewsbury was fascinating and enlightening. It was interesting seeing how connector plates and Posi-Joists from MiTek were used in the building of trusses and joists for different types of buildings.”
One of the main aims of the MiTek internship is showing real-world manufacturing and how the processes link together.
Somto says: “It has been great, gaining experience, seeing what it’s like inside an actual engineering company instead of going on what you’ve heard or what someone’s told you. It’s been insightful to say the least and it’s opened up a lot of ideas so far. What I’ve found most surprising is how big the company actually is. For example, I didn’t know there were so many parts and aspects to the business as I have come to learn.”
ETS, one of MiTek’s partners that manufactures Posi-Joists for housebuilders around the UK, saw its turnover grow by over 50 per cent in six years after it started working with MiTek in 2017.
Somto found it a great experience: “The site visit was very eye-opening and educative. It’s progressing from seeing videos and pictures to actual real-life scenarios of how MiTek products are being used. Now I know for myself how they fit in and, again, not going on what someone has told me. It was great seeing that, although MiTek is its own company, it is in a web of interaction among other companies based on the product it sells and manufactures. For example, when MiTek business goes well, other interacting companies benefit from that and vice versa.”
SolidWorks
On the software side of MiTek’s business, Somto and Ekene have been learning about SolidWorks.
Both interns are studying T Levels at Dudley College of Technology. Their course, based in the Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Faculty, means studying both the practical side of engineering with latest computer software programmes to aid design.
Somto says: “We’ve been on SolidWorks tutorials and it’s been nice seeing how a lot of things can be drawn and tested on a computer system having the same effect in a real-life scenario. In school, they would teach us about the stress, forces, and just general physics and science of how different things interact with each other. Now, I can look at that and think to myself: ‘Oh, maybe that’s why a machine can fail, or maybe that’s why a truss or roof can fail, maybe the forces are too much for the type of material or the environmental factors’. So, when I’m being taught in school, I’ll go back and it will get my brain running in different directions and I think that’s a good thing.”
Ekene adds: “The SolidWorks tutorials have been helpful in understanding drawings and how to design them. Also seeing how machines like the presses work have helped me to understand some of the theory aspects I’ve been taught in a deeper sense.”
PAMIR is another software programme to which the interns have been introduced. It is the industry-leading powerful and versatile Roof Truss and Posi-Joist CAD software for structural layout and 3D design.
Ekene has found this element of the internship surprising: “I think the MiTek software (PAMIR) is very interesting. It takes most of the stress out of designing and cleverly I might add. It calculates the stress to see if the design matches the needs of the building.”
Working in a team
Somto’s most memorable parts of working with MiTek so far have been the visit to ETS in Shrewsbury and learning SolidWorks: “The ETS visit was very insightful. It explained a lot just by seeing how things happen. The SolidWorks tutorials have been good because I have just learned how to use a whole software and help was always available when I got stuck or when I needed it.”
The MiTek experience
Aaron Thomson CEng, Senior Automation Engineering Manager (EMEA), MiTek, has been very pleased with their progress: “Somto and Ekene have been with us for three weeks now and it has been a barrage of new experiences and learning for them. They have taken it in their stride and are absorbing the information impressively, I look forward to seeing how they grow the rest of this year with MiTek.”
With half term coming up soon, they can have a break to absorb their new-found knowledge. Soon enough, they will be starting on their ‘Five-Day Sprints’ – live projects on Automation under the watchful eyes of the Engineering team. Brilliant work so far!
