YASA partners with Formula Student 2025 and begins search for engineering placements
October 21, 2024
YASA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz headquartered in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, has announced it will partner with Formula Student in 2025. In celebration of this, YASA has begun a campaign to recruit students for its engineering placement programmes at the Bicester and Yarnton sites.
Launched in 1998, Formula Student is Europe’s most established educational engineering competition, having inspired thousands of students to take up a career in engineering.
With more than 100 university teams taking part every year, the Formula Student competition provides real-world experience combining practical engineering skills with broader business competencies, such as logistical planning, budgeting and project management.
“Formula Student holds a special place in my heart – it’s a competition that has shaped the careers of so many engineers, myself included, in the automotive and motorsport industries,” stated Simon Odling, YASA’s Chief of New Technology. “At YASA, we’re thrilled to be involved with next year’s event, and we can’t wait to meet the talented young engineers who could be the future of YASA, joining our exceptional engineering placement programmes in 2025.”
YASA is looking for up to ten university students who have a clear passion for engineering and innovative technology to take part in the YASA placement programmes. Starting in July 2025, the 3-month and 12-month placements offer students experience within YASA’s fast-paced and high-tech design, development and manufacturing environment.
Former industrial placement student at YASA, Danae Topi, added, “With the support of my manager, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Innovation Team on a year-long project involving electromagnetic design, simulations, and motor control software development. Throughout my placement, I have developed my practical engineering skills through component testing alongside learning more about materials, manufacturing, failure analysis, and microscopy amongst others.”
The placements are available across the engineering functions including development, design, testing, manufacturing, and innovation. Students will be given the opportunity to work on current and future electric motor and e-propulsion projects as well as work on current tech and engineering challenges.
“Being a University of Oxford start-up success story, we have tried to consistently support many placement students across our engineering functions, and several of them have subsequently returned to work for us as graduates,” explained Chris Jeffcock, Recruitment Manager. “As a lean, agile company, we can offer students an unrivalled level of hands-on experience working on some of the most innovative projects in today’s automotive industry.”
