Science / Engineering work experience for 6th formers
Lots of my A-level students are unsure what they want to do at university or for a career. I believe work experience in science or engineering during the summer following Year 12 can help them make up their minds. Over the past few years, I’ve managed to use personal contacts to arrange placements for a number of students and they’ve always been incredibly grateful for this, often choosing to go into the field in which they did the work experience.
It shouldn’t be the case that I am left to organise such things for students, nor is it fair that a “well-connected” teacher can give his students such an advantage. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious place to go to arrange such work experience if you don’t have contacts with university departments, however there are some schemes operated by individual university departments and other institutions (note that the deadlines for many of these has passed for this year):
University College London Physics Dept.
Science and Technology Facilities Council
University of Surrey Physics Department (Year 10 upwards)
Student Ladder (not specific to STEM)
Summer Courses and other ways to help Year 12 students with STEM:
Aspiring Professionals Programme
Space related work experience and summer courses
King’s College London K+ Scheme, for extended support
Exscitec Science, Robotics and Maths Courses and Activities
Dr Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institute
International Summer Science School Heidelberg
If you’re reading this and know of other schemes, please leave a comment below and I’ll update this post so that it’s more useful for next year’s lower sixth.
Finally, if you’re a teacher, you might be interested in the Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme which provides teachers with STEM related work experience in industry.
Science and Technology Facilities Council placements: http://www.stfc.ac.uk/1348.aspx
Eton summer school.
Thanks Roger, that looks like it might be useful. Will add it to the list.
http://www.etoncollege.com/SummerCourses.aspx
Link for Eton summer school
This is one of the things we’re doing for Think Physics, but our focus is the North-East of England.
We’re running several summer schools of different flavours, and developing a database of employers across the region, including whether they offer work experience. Northumbria University also offers work experience directly, though my understanding is that systems for this are in flux so there’s not currently much promotion of what’s available.
That sounds brilliant – let me know when you have links you want people to share.
The Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore has a Science Summer school – http://www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk/education-at-the-park/science-summer-school
Thanks Drew
Ahem:
thinkphysics.org
…which currently has a banner for the Ri Engineering Masterclasses we’re hosting. We usually showcase current opportunities on the front page.
We’ve taken students for the summer at the Mullard Space Science Lab before. There is also some information on other opportunities on our outreach pages.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mssl/outreach/education-links
Thanks David, but link to the UKSA from that page doesn’t seem to go to the relevant page and stuff at ESA seems unclear as to whether they take 6th form students?
Sorry, looks like the UKSA website was rearranged at some time. I found the original page, which is now out of date, and then dug up:
http://ukseds.org/outreach/school-guide/
which has a list of work experience at the bottom. Hope that helps.
I think that ESA is more focussed on undergraduate than 6th form.
Thanks, that’s really helpful
The Genome Damage & Stability Centre at Uni. of Sussex takes in Y12 & Y11 students in the summer (usually July), but its first come first serve & a popular destination so the local schools (East Sussex & West Kent areas) career departments/co-ordinators need to make contact with the Genome centre as early as possible!
Thanks Aimee, do you have a link?
Sorry we don’t have a web page for the scheme but I’ve attached the main website & email address. 2015 applications have been filled hopefully this will help for next summer:
GDSC@sussex.ac.uk
or the director, Prof. Tony Carr: A.M.Carr@sussex.ac.uk
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/gdsc/index
Sounds like a great opportunity – it would be really helpful to have a dedicated web page so link could be shared and scheme could attract applicants from wider audience, thus promoting greater equality of opportunity. Can you ask about getting that to happen? Thanks.
Great idea. I will ask!
In2Science http://in2scienceuk.org
I just saw this on twitter
Andrew Kavanagh@stpkav·30 mins30 minutes ago
Are you an undergrad studying physics, maths or stats? Want to work at BAS for a summer investigating space weather? http://tinyurl.com/nlmc2ka
Hi, this page is a bit old. Is there a recent equivalent?