I didn’t do a placement year, I thought it might distract me from my studies and make me disinterested in additional years of education. I did work during the summer breaks at a family engineering firm in Coventry (Power Torque Engineering, no fixed engineering role), but it was not part of my undergraduate degree. It taught me to listen to the guy with a spanner, he knows how it works and has a lot more experience with it than me!
Support was available from PhD students that took the tutorials or from the lecturers whenever I required it. This was in the form of additional coursework feedback, help setting up final year project tests, queries on revision questions etc. There was also plenty of help from support staff, especially from the mechanical technicians (I didn’t really required support from office staff or electrical technicians during my undergraduate) who were often willing to help with whatever scheme I had come up with or drawings that I needed doing.
My undergraduate set me up for an opportunity with the PhD, which ultimately got me the position I am in now. I gained a lot of practical and experimental skills during my final year project, but it was ultimately the skills during my PhD which got me where I am now. Presenting my work continuously (during my PhD), to industrial sponsors, supervisors, lecturers and at conferences has also helped my public speaking ability tremendously.