Thomas Bennett

Since beginning my time at TfL, I have been in three separate placements in three different areas of the business.

I have spent 9 months working as a Project Controls Assistant on the London Underground initiation phase. Here I gained valuable experience in dealing with stakeholders and reviewing documentation. During my time with the initiation team, I had made enough progress to lead early gate reviews for projects such as RailSys and Substation Fire Panels.

My second placement was as a Risk Assistant in Surface Risk, where I spent 6 months. On this placement I gained experience outside of rail, this time working on projects such as Lambeth Bridge, Healthy Streets and more prominently Kew Bridge, where I led risk reviews. I also became an adept user of Active Risk Manager on this placement and I now feel very confident using the software.

I then spent 6 months with the Planning team as a Planning Assistant. I worked on both the Piccadilly Line Extension and Bakerloo Line Upgrade and was able to work relatively independently. I would work on and then send out periodic updates for BLU, Silvertown Tunnel and Heavy Haulage Vehicles. I also created the schedule for Battersea Western Entrance from scratch. I gained a lot of experience with Primavera 6 and now feel comfortable doing periodic updates on large projects.

Overall, I feel as though my experience as a Project Controls Apprentice with TfL has allowed me to work alongside and learn from some fantastic professionals in multiple disciplines and has also allowed me to gain valuable skills in software such as Primavera 6 and Active Risk Manager.