Industrial placements that are not entirely the same as my future aspirations

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Hi all,

I am looking for some advice/opinions about industrial placement years. I am a second year UK mechanical engineering student with aspirations to work in the automotive industry as a designer, specifically engine/powertrain design. An opportunity has arisen to do a placement with an excellent automotive company, however not as a design engineer but rather a manufacturing systems engineer.

I like the sound of the job description, however my question is whether or not this is worth doing? Will it give me an edge over other applicants when applying for graduate design jobs? Or will I still be seen as having no experience in that particular area?

Thanks