For work experience I went to  this a company that makes lasers for measuring components to see if there are the right size or if it is broken and needs replacing. The first day I went down to new mills at nine o’clock for the presentation and got shown around the site and seeing what they do as a whole company. After that a person from a department come and picked me up. The department manger was working under Intel that sorted all the components to the changes and seeing if the parts list was right.

The rest of the week I was moved around to get a wider picture of what they did .I was moved to three more areas and they where cad/cam, technical library and authoring.

In cad/cam I was shown basics how to make a basic design on training program then I made a clock.

The technical library is where all the engineers go for help or try to solve a problem with a laser or a mathematical problem.

Authoring is where you are making a booklet for the Renishaw company or a outside company that has got some products and needs to now to use them.

Chris Ball - 2003

Overall I enjoyed the week, although it did (obviously) have its highs & lows. Here is a selection of the tasks I performed, as I can remember (it now being several weeks later!)

• Monday: As it was my first day, we had several health-and-safety videos to watch, and a few pieces of paperwork to sign. In addition to other forms, we had to sign off all intellectual achievements we might achieve during the week at the price of one pound. Once we had finished the videos, the group at Renishaws (about 9 of us) split out. We just had time to meet our staff – my boss was a man called Mark Buckingham – before lunch. After lunch (which was a DELICIOUS gammon pie, why can’t school serve food this good..?), I was set to administration work, as I was in shirt and tie and so could not go to the workshop. Boring, but necessary.
• Tuesday: On Tuesday I went down to the workshop, where I was working on a project to prevent damages to parts coming out of a certain machine (due to the confidentiality agreement I cannot actually say any more.) It was fun, and a good challenge of my lateral thinking abilities.
• Wednesday: Wednesday I was helping with some of the technicians. We had to supervise a move of the workshop, and then go to a supplier to enquire about a certain part they were supplying which was proving to be faulty. Another worthwhile day.
• Thursday: I was helping to transfer various bits and pieces of equipment down from the Renishaws site at Woodchester to the one at New Mills (where I was working).
• Friday: Friday was a shorter day. I did some sorting, and then had a meeting with the personnel manager.

All in all, a good week. I enjoyed it, and found it worthwhile – I would definitely do it again!

Luke Hanratty -  2003

I was introduced, on the first day, to Mr. Mark Acers who is (2003) the leader of the product return group. He explained exactly what his group did. He told me that they looked at products that have been returned by the customer to the company because it doesn’t work, his team then takes the product and checks to see if anything is obviously wrong. Then if nothing obviously wrong the team takes the product apart to check the inside circuitry. When the problem is found the team write a report saying what was wrong and if it was a design fault they send it off to the design dept. During my stay with Renishaw it was my responsibility to help one of the team to go through the process of finding out what was wrong with the product. All this was done in a lab and I had to wear a special anti static coat to help prevent damage to some of the more sensitive of the machines.

DAY 1:

• First day at Renishaw and I am introduced to the man who will be my boss for 3 of the 5 days of my work experience. My boss (Mark Acers) introduced me to the local paramedic who was also a part of his team, Mark passed me over to him (hereafter known as Chris) for the day. Chris took me to the lab where he works with the rest of the team and together we began to disassemble a returned product. This took all of the morning, in the afternoon we began to test the circuits to in what the faulty circuit was.

DAY 2:

• Today was the same as yesterday apart from the fact no new introductions were made.

DAY 3:

• Today we found out what was wrong with the product by using an infra-red camera. The problem was that one of the infra-red transmitters was not working. While Chris was writing the report in the afternoon, I was given a mini project to complete which was designing and completing an egg timer on a circuit board.

DAY 4:

• Today I was introduced to the design and development dept. In this dept. I was given the task of sorting out how many components they had

Anthony Edwards - 2003

For my work experience I worked at the New Mills Centre owned by Renishaw plc. I found my week enjoyable and informative. I worked in the electronic engineering department.

• On Monday I worked in the beta production line, where they try out the new circuit boards before they are approved.
• On Tuesday I learnt how to program hardware and the designing of circuit boards.
• On Wednesday I went to the Woodchester site where I looked after the boards being made. The boards were called flexi boards.
• On Thursday I wrote up a database and watched a test probe.
• On Friday I worked in the parts library.

Jonathan Wells - 2003

Responsibilities and Duties: Working in the Software department.

After a site tour and a company and health and safety videos, I was given the task over designing screens for a database test harness. Later in the week I was given a coding task, and the one of the other areas of software development, testing a different program and suggesting improvements.

Health and safety issues:

• The common problems in this type of work include RSI, back problems and eye strain resulting from poor posture and badly designed equipment. Luckily, at Renishaw the company allowed for regular breaks with a free drinks machine, and each employee was provided with an ergonomic chair with adjustable height etc.

Overall I found the week interesting at points, and extremely boring at others when repetitive tasks were required. I did learn a lot, and the work I was given was suited to my own particular strengths.

Ben Goodwin - 2003

On my first morning we were shown around, told health and safety and was paired up with someone who already worked there to do jobs. I had to do the same jobs as everyone else, a list was put up twice a day with jobs and you just had to go through and do them.

Monday-introduction

• Jobs - 1st riding lesson and assessment

Tuesday-1st riding lesson

• Jobs - 2nd riding lesson
• Jobs - help teach

Wednesday-1st riding lesson

• Jobs - Watch a lesson and help
• Jobs - show jumping lesson

Thursday

• Jobs - watch the riding instructors lesson
• 1st riding lesson
• 2nd riding lesson

Friday

• Helped get the competition horses ready for a competition in Cirencester.

Rachael MacGowan - 2003

They had to make sure that they told me what to do so I didn’t get stuck.  I didn’t have to wear a uniform but they said I would have to dress smartly.

The manager told me that when customers came in that I would have to tell them that I was on work experience other wise they would think I was a travel agent.

I was working with two other girls. One was a part time and one was full time. I had to use the computer and went to the bank to give them some money.

For the last 3 days I had to ring people up and tell them that there tickets had come for their holiday. I had to sort out brochures and also sort out people’s files that had booked a holiday with us.

It was very repetitive and got a little bit boring after a while.

Jayde West

While I was there I had to help take in deliveries, help customers, clean up the shop and make coffee.

Tom Biagioli - 2003

I expected to not do a lot as there was a lot of watching (e.g. operations). However this did not stop me in going to a Veterinary Practise. During the week of my work experience my jobs were widespread as I generally had a lot of cleaning to do (e.g. Operating instruments, disinfecting floors, cleaning kennels etc).

Monday

• Day one. I arrived at the veterinary Practise at 8:00 in the morning. I met all the staff and got a tour of the Practise. I received a white coat and was told to shadow a veterinary nurse (Teresa). I watched a lot pre-med injections (injections given to the animals before their operations for drips or sedation) and blood samples being taken. I then went into the operating theatre and watched a liver biopsy. I then had to clean the operating theatre, prep-room and consultation rooms where the vets had previous consultations to the public. After my lunch at 1-2 I went into the consultation rooms with the vets.

Tuesday

• Day two. The start of my day was much the same apart from the fact that we were not that busy and only had one operation, which was a dental extraction. This finished at 10:30. From 10:30 till 1 I had to hover and mop the reception area, disinfect all of the tables, clean the operating instruments, and put the drapes and vets clothing into the autoclave ( a disinfecting unit).

Gemma Phillips- 2003

For my week’s work experience I worked along side a group of vets and veterinary nurses and carers who instructed me on what to do and help with. I worked at The Rowe Veterinary Group. While I was there I carried out every day chores, such as cleaning the kennel area and making tea and coffee for the staff, to helping with a caesarean section on a cow and herding cattle. I was allowed to stand in on consultations and operations, manly on cats and dogs, one operation included a dog which had eaten 1 foot of carpet.

I also went on 7 farm calls in total, with some of the vets from the practice during the week, 5 calls were to see cattle and the other 2 were to see horses. Most of the week contained a lot of physical work but occasionally I had to help with checking, dating and putting away the daily drug order to checking and refilling the farm call kits.

Helen Binge - 2003

I transferred drawings from paper to an auto-CAD program and helped with a land level survey. Was also shown a lot of building plans and regulations.

There were no health and safety issues.

My work experience taught me that I never want to go into architecture. I found it very monotonous and boring but it might suit some people. There was not much social interaction as there was only one person there because it was his business. It was good I went because I learned I do not want this career.

Lona Chaloner - 2003

During the week I took part in several postal deliveries around Wotton and the surrounding area and also I did jobs in the sorting office such as sorting the mail and redirecting lost mail.

One of the main health and safety risks was the dangerously hungry and aggressive dogs which lurk behind peoples mail slots .To remove the risk of losing fingers all postal workers are instructed not to put their fingers in to the slot with the letters.

To make me more visible to cars I had to wear a high visibility vest.

• Monday – Delivery around town and sorting inbound mail from Gloucester.
• Tuesday – Main Charfield Delivery
• Wednesday – Deliveries to prisons and businesses around Wotton.
• Thursday – Deliveries to the Dryleaze area of Wotton.
• Friday - Work around the sorting office such as : Redirecting mail, Unloading mailbags, Answering the enquiry door.

On conclusion work experience was very interesting and worthwhile in terms of an insight in to the mail service and how it works. Everyone in the sorting office was very friendly and welcoming .I really enjoyed work experience and wish that it could of lasted longer.

James Court - 2003

From the 23rd June until 27th June I worked at the Royal Oak Inn, a pub in Wotton-Under-Edge. On my first day I was introduced to all the staff working at the bar, and the kitchen staff (who I would later be working with). I was also told I would be learning about Catering within a pub.

My daily tasks were as follows:

• On day 1 I had to help prepare for a funeral buffet. This included buttering lots of rolls, taking food down to the kitchen and also arranging the food on the big buffet table.
• On day 2 I had to help “bottle-up” which basically, means filling up the display shelves of the bar with more alcohol. Later on I had to help move out things in preparation for a new kitchen to be put in. I had to follow health and safety rules which were explained to me in full detail i.e. appropriate lifting.
• Day 3 involved bottling-up again and helping to move the new kitchen in. Also I had to clean the outside of the car park with a pressure washer to get rid of all the old grease on the floor.
• Day 4&5 Were almost the same. I was doing washing up in the new kitchen at lunchtime and before that was just generally helping with things at the bar (not serving drinks). After I had washed up I had to polish the knifes and forks in the restaurant so they looked all clean and new.

All in all I had a great time at my work experience the staff were nice and the boss was very helpful. I was kept busy at most times of the day and the few times I wasn’t doing anything I was given free coke and lemonade.

Paul Jackson

I worked in Kingswood in Wotton-under-edge as an electrician. I had to work on installation and repairs.

I worked from Monday to Friday, 8am-4pm

• Monday-Fitting Hand dryers at a paint factory
• Tuesday-Same as Monday
• Wednesday-Same as Monday
• Thursday-Fitting a new fuse box in a house at Wotton-under-edge
• Friday-Fitting up factory lights at the c.p.c paint factory.

The week work experience helped me make my mind up about becoming an electrician and I learnt loads from S.J.P.

Daniel Hughes - 2003

Feeding birds in grounds, cleaning the bird enclosures (flamingos & ducklings), cataloguing ducklings, using high-pressure hose, Cutting down trees, construction of flamingo enclosures, transferring birds to different enclosures, helped with wing-clipping, ringing and vaccinating.

Used high-pressure hose, and cut down trees, only piece protective clothing was a pair of waders.

Hard manual labour, long days but quite fun learnt quite a bit.

Hugh Bennett - 2003

Responsibilities and duties:

• Write a press release.
• Record data into a database.
• Photocopy information.
• Compare articles written by different papers.
• Read papers; find out what is going on in the news.
• Highlight stories, which are to do with the council.

Health and safety issues:

• Take long enough/regular breaks.
• Sit in a comfy chair.
• Have enough legroom.
• Do not have loose cables hanging out.
• Rest your eyes sometimes.

I think my work experience was helpful for me as it told more about what working in the media involved and whether this is something I would like to do as a career.

Jonathan Marler - 2003

My name is Glen Banks and I went to for my work experience, I was given the privilege of a wide range of ‘job types’ for example: - bakery, management, shelf stacking, price integrity and stock control.

During the experience I completed a whole range of tasks. On the first day, I started by stacking the fresh food shelves, this included: yogurts, butter, milk, veg etc…

On the second day I try price integrity, which consisted of promoting new deals and changing price labels.

When I was doing stock control, I was asked to go around and count up all the left over products in the bakery. Then transfer this information on a spreadsheet and print it off.

The bakery was simple, all day just the same thing, taking freshly baked rolls and packaging them.

Finally I did management, I had to go around with the fresh foods manager, he was a really good manager, he encouraged employee satisfaction.

I feel that the work experience was good although it was only a week long it has given me a good inside to the world of retail.

Glen Banks - 2003

I managed to get an interview with The Theatre Royal Bath. It was very interesting and made me even more interested in a job in the theatre. Did loads of cool stuff including going back stage while a show was going on and seeing the set go on and off. I also got to go with a friend.

Jo Hellier - 2003

On my Work Experience week I went to The Database Group in Bristol. Their main function is to collect data from other companies, storing and managing it. The Work Experience involved inputting data into the computers, as well as a variety of different other jobs. One of these other jobs included programming, which was fairly interesting but quite repetitive.

I worked in a variety of different departments throughout the company. In one of the departments, which was involved with the technical part of the company, I would just watch my colleagues as they would do things that I was not qualified to do, such as fixing a broken computer system or repairing a computer program. I felt that their was quite a lot of explaining to me to how the company operated, and there

In the Marketing department I had to find out which e-mails had not gone through to a client. The e-mail’s contents was an annual newsletter, and for the clients that had not received the e-mail, either because we had the wrong e-mail address or that client had left the company, I would then phone and get their e-mail address from them, with persuasive measures! Phoning the clients made me slightly nervous at first but after the first couple of calls, it seemed a lot easier.

Another job was building a computer from the basics of just the required parts. It seemed fairly complex, as it was confusing getting the correct wire in the correct place, but after countless amounts of attempts it finally fitted together!

William Evans - 2003

I carried out my weeks work experience with The Lucknow Band of the Prince of Wales Division. They are a military band based in Tidworth, Sailsbury. I got this placement by chance; I met the Director of Music for the band at a parade in Bristol, earlier in the year where he offered me the placement.

I arrived at their barracks on the Monday morning and they showed be round the band block, there were loads of guitars and amps around as well as pianos and loads of other weird instruments I cant spell.

In the middle of the week, we travelled to Kneller Hall, which is in Twickenham, right next to the rugby stadium. Kneller Hall is the British Army’s Royal School of Music. After a really long rehearsal of the pieces for the concert, we had the night off and went to the NAAFI. On the second day we rehearsed again and spent the afternoon playing cricket. After dinner we changed for the concert and made our way to the bandstand. There was a crowd of around 3000 people, some members of the public and some high-ranking VIP’s. The music was grade 8 standard so I struggled through it, despite this I don’t think I did too badly. After the concert we travelled back to Tidworth and went to bed.

On Thursday morning I had a private clarinet lesson which was really helpful, the teacher, Des, gave me loads of useful tips on how to improve my playing. After lunch we went bowling. This was quite embarrassing to start off with because I was rubbish but I got better as the afternoon went on. After a couple of games we went back to the barracks and chilled out for the evening on the playstation and in the bar.

Friday was my last day but I didn’t finish until midnight. The band had Friday morning off so we watched tele and drank tea (after a nice lie-in). In the afternoon, around three, we boarded a coach to Portsmouth where the band did a ‘beat the retreat’ parade. Unfortunately I couldn’t perform in this because I didn’t have a uniform and didn’t know the drill! It was midnight when I finally got home but I had really enjoyed the week so I didn’t really care.

R Fitt - 2003

Responsibilities + duties: Serving food, preparing food, washing up

Health and safety issues (clothes): Not allowed to use any machinery, had to wear black trousers and a white shirt.

Overall my work experience was very boring and useless.

Partly because I did not try to get a placement until a few weeks before we had to go there. Some people working there were nice and some were horrible. Luckily the horrible ones went on holiday half way through the week, So the last few days were quite enjoyable. Plus you get paid afterwards even though they’re not suppose to. I got offered a permanent job there due to my amazing performance during the week, I turned it down because it was too far from where I live and I already have a job, which I prefer a lot!

Claire Cruickshank - 2003

I worked on my own or with one of the workers.

I used the till and I did a bit if stock taking. I also helped to unpack new stock and inspected it.

Lucy Howells

I was given an introduction morning, where I was introduced to the members of staff I would be working with throughout the week, and I was shown all the different parts of the sports centre. I was also shown and given passwords. I was told I would have to wear different items of clothing each day. When I worked in the café I would have to wear black trousers and a café t-shirt provided by the staff, whilst working in reception I was told I had to wear black trousers, black shoes, and a white shirt. If I was working on Poolside as a leisure assistant I would have to wear shorts, trainers and a t-shirt, again provided by the staff. And when I worked in bridges gym I could wear my own choice of clothing.

MONDAY:

• I had my introduction morning, and then I was sent down to the bridges gym. While I was working there I helped to give people inductions to the gym, this included showing them how to use the equipment properly and what parts of their bodies they should be exercising and how often, and the intensity at which they exercise.

TUESDAY:

• On Tuesday I shadowed a leisure assistant around the sports centre. This was a very busy day as there was a lot to do. I had to help put equiptment out and away such as trampolines, mats, badminton nets, football nets and so on…. I also had to sit on poolside and help to lifeguard.

WEDNESDAY:

• I worked in reception on this day. I was shown how to use the till to book and pay for customers.

THURSDAY:

• I helped out in the café on Thursday. This was the most active day as there was a lot to do. Including cleaning, putting things away, making tea and coffee, serving customers, and using the till.

FRIDAY:

• I worked as a leisure assistant again.

Laura Pedley - 2003

Tinknells in Tetbury are agricultural engineers

I rebuilt a 6800 JD engine because the cylinder linings were porous. I drove 6220,s,mx, 6800,6110,and rebuilt a PTO shaft on a John Deer tractor. I also went out on call outs.

Sam Moulder - 2003

For my work experience I went to total beauty health and beauty studio. It was a very calming environment with customers who were all bimbo’s and airheads. Only joking.

I contacted total beauty by ringing them up and asking if they let students do their work experience there. I was in luck. They do.

I went in on the Thursday the week before my work experience to have a look around and meet the beauticians. They were all friendly and nice.

In my week of work experience I had to clean most things that you will find in a salon. It was really enjoyable. On Tuesday I got instant nails free which was the best thing in the whole week.

I had to be there for 9:00 and got to leave at 6:00 it was a very long day in deed. I also had to answer the phone with ‘total beauty, can I help you’. It got easier the more I answered it. I got to speak to the public and had to make small talk, which I found hard first of all. Some of them just don’t shut up.

Monday

• The receptionist showed me around the salon she was very nice and kept calling me darling or something like that. I cleaned up a lot of the mess.

Sian Fullylove - 2003

For my work experience, I went to Transco in Gloucester. Transco is a large company who’s (Gloucester) control centre supplies the whole of the south west of the UK with gas.

It’s their job to monitor the gas stations and pipelines and deal with gas leaks and emergencies that people report.

To deal with an emergency, the call is transferred to the main call centre (which is the main portion of the building). Here the call is processed and details like the name and address of the caller and phone numbers. Secondly, the information goes to the dispatches area, where the information from the call centre arrives and they work out who to send and to what location. That information is then sent out to the engineers who can drive to the location and fix the problem.

The are lots of friendly people working for Transco; everyone I met was friendly and didn’t hesitate to answer any questions. But there isn’t much hands-on work to do there since the work they do is very important and could save lives; most of the time you just end up watching and observing. When I applied for work there I had two days out on call with the engineers, two days in the control centre, half a day in the call centre/dispatches and half a day in purchasing (where all the materials needed for the company are brought or sold).

Being out on call isn’t bad, because you get to travel around a lot, and when the weather is nice, it’s quite enjoyable. Also, they tend to finish quite early (as early as 3:00). The control centre has the most relaxed atmosphere, as that’s the place where they monitor all the gas substations around the country. Working here is surprisingly interesting with fancy computers and huge screens, but it does get a bit boring after a while (they drink too much coffee). The call centre isn’t too bad because you can listen to all the angry customers- as I only stayed there for half a day it didn’t get too repetitive (but you can’t answer any calls yourself as a call could be a dangerous situation) you can only listen to them. Dispatches was the most boring place because you have to watch the people deal with the information and send it out the engineers. Luckily I only spent half an hour here. Lastly, at the purchasing section, you will get something to do here as the work isn’t as urgent or potentially life saving, but don’t expect anything more then just normal office work. Sometimes people finish early here; around 3:30/4:00.

Sadly, you won’t get any pay at Transco (or at least I didn’t). You might get some free safety boots from being on call with the engineers (you rarely need them, I didn’t at all). They have a canine which a variety of food and vending machines with free drinks for the people in the call centre and control room. To work here, it helps to have IT skills and a technical mind. You will learn everything you need to know about gas in the week and a whole lot that you probably won’t care or have a clue about.

Cole Jefferies

Responsibilities: Watching operations, preparing for operations, cleaning up, walking dogs and standing in on consults

Health and safety issues: Before I went to my work experience week I went to visit the vets to be told about heath and safety and to meet the staff and be shown where everything was and what to wear.

Daily Diary

• Monday: I stood in on the morning consults, and in the afternoon cleaned up.
• Tuesday: Stood in on consults, watched operations and cleaned up, sort out delivery.
• Wednesday: Photocopied, operations, delivery, cleaned up, walked dogs.
• Thursday: photocopied, operations, consults, delivery, sort threw out of date food, walked dogs.
• Friday: Operations, consults, walk dogs, cleaned up.

My thoughts: I thought work experience was okay, it was a bit boring as it wasn’t a veterinary hospital which I would have preferred to go as there is more going on and there is big and small animals their but the people there were very friendly.

Emma Kellett

How I was introduced - When I got to my work experience, which was at the Vale Vets in Stinchcombe. I was introduced to a very nice lady called Lesley; she was the head of all the nurses. Lesley then handed me a booklet telling me my chores for each day that I was going to work there. My duties were to look after the dogs that were staying over night from a operation they just had. Other important things I had to do was to clean the surgical kits with a special soap that kills all the bacteria. Then I would have to pack each kit up in a package and put a date which I had to put a 3 month date from the day I cleaned the kits. Lesley who was in charge of me she let me watch a couple of operations which was really interesting to know how they do it. It’s incredible how they know where to look for and they do it in a small amount of time.

Day 1:

• First day I watched an operation on a very small snake which was suffering from its tail been chewed of. The snakes tail had a infection creeping up its tail which one of the vets had to operate. I also walked a couple of dogs and just helped out where necessary.

Day 2:

• I started my second day of by being on reception. I was aloud to book each person in. A lady called Margaret showed me all what to do and she would help me if I was really stuck on something. I helped sort out invoices for them which needed sorting out.

Day 3:

• I started my day of by walking 3 or 4 dogs in a field out the back behind the surgery

Emma Baker - 2003