Intern insights - Learning and growing at Ashton Fire

Ben McDermott shares his experiences of his recent internship with us.

Ben, tell us about your experience at Ashton Fire:

Currently pursuing a BEng (Hons) in Fire Safety Engineering, it’s essential for me to be constantly acquiring knowledge of both the construction and fire engineering industries. Ashton Fire stood out to me as they offer a proactive learning culture with a structured development and mentoring programme whilst also being a company who offers “the full circle” of fire safety services.

My internship began with the ‘Ashton Fire Learn’ program which involved presentations and technical exercises. The main topics of this program were Approved Document B Volume, BS 9999, BS 9991 and Bluebeam software. This was extremely useful to me as being an Irish student I had little knowledge of the British codes and standards.

Over the past five weeks I have been involved in various projects ranging between residential and non-residential buildings. When I had completed the work, an engineer would review it with me and explain where I had gone wrong or where I could’ve employed a disparate approach.

Do you have any highlights or memorable moments from your time here?

I enjoyed working on active construction projects which gave me experience into what’s involved and expected in the role of a fire engineer. I also thoroughly enjoyed working cohesively with the engineers who gave me vital exposure into the technical world of engineering.

Attending a recent team meeting in Bruges was a standout experience. Meeting fellow interns and colleagues from across the UK highlighted the company’s supportive culture. Everyone at Ashton Fire is not only passionate about what they do but also incredibly friendly, which made integrating into the team seamless.

What skills or knowledge did you gain from this internship?

I can confidently say that I have learned an immense amount of knowledge since I joined Ashton Fire, this was only possible through the support of my colleagues. Whilst I enjoyed learning about the technical aspects of fire engineering such as completing markups and writing detailed fire strategies; I found very useful learning about what’s involved in working as part of a team in a fire engineering consultancy and how vital communication between everyone involved is.

How has this internship helped you going forward?

This internship has given me a head start to jump into a graduate fire engineer role through the technical and communicative skills gained. These skills can also be put into practice at university which will make the studying process a lot easier!

I’m looking forward to the possibility of returning with Ashton Fire and I would recommend them to any of my fellow students. I’d like to thank everyone at Ashton Fire for making my internship such an enriching and rewarding experience!

Thank you, Ben. It was a pleasure having you on the team.

If you'd like to join our intern programme, please click here