Davey's Work Experience Placement

Blog Post

For work experience, I chose the Pontypridd Museum adjacent to the Old Bridge in Pontypridd. While most other students in my school chose rugby or some arbitrary excuse to stay in school, I felt the need to start to branch out and broaden my horizons. I thought to myself “Well, you’re not going to stay in school forever now, are you?” and so I took an opportunity to both learn about a field of work that may interest me and about my local area. It was an easy choice too, Pontypridd is only a bus fare away from Porth, and the decision was a quick and easy one.

As to what I got up to during my work experience, it was a range of different and minor tasks that allowed me, over the course of five days, to learn about how museums run and how they maintain a pristine environment. Though Pontypridd Museum is a small organisation, it does not retract upon the premium guidance I was given. How grateful I am that I chose the museum over something such as being an assistant to a teacher or some other such ploy, to do “work experience” in the same fashion that walking down the street is “hiking”.

Overall, my experience was a positive one, as you could guess. There was no greater feeling for me than getting all my daily objectives done and receiving a feeling of satisfaction as I walked out the entrance doors - knowing I did a job well done.

I cannot deny the fact that I needed help, but I know that I had never stepped foot into a job before, so to come out feeling confident and grateful should tell you that I at least put in time and effort to not let down my supervisors, Morwenna and Alex. I am also pleased that I chose them for my placement, as they were supportive and allowed me to learn at my own pace while not stalling themselves. They gave me a gentle push which set upon my way into giving passion into my placement. Without them, my experience would’ve gone a lot differently.

One of the paintings I helped to mount, Coedpenmaen Chapel by Esther Grainger

The first day of my experience involved me doing usual work. Walking around and familiarising myself with the environment was the focal point of the entire placement, with it being punctuated by winding the grandfather clocks, a planetarium session and a budget calculation task. I ended the day with an online training task which outlined handling museum objects, museum pests and methods of packing museum objects.

The second day of my experience involved me preparing items digitally, such as creating a poster for William Edwards’ 300th birthday and preparing the blog post that I’m currently writing. I also measured the light levels within the museum to see if there was light that would damage the artefacts. Overall, it was a good day, and I even helped to prepare a painting for mounting.

The third day of my experience involved me doing more manual work, replacing brackets on paintings, and helping drill holes into walls for mounting. I also had time to set out an entire labelling catalogue and write an editor’s note, as well as learn about how to handle museum objects – it was a busy day, and probably the best one of the week.

Another painting I helped to mount, Elaine Morgan by Roy Guy.

The fourth day was the exact opposite, however. It was pretty much just revising the catalogue I made yesterday and spending time transferring accessions register data to a collections management system. The entire staff knew the accessions register job was boring, and it didn’t help that the writer’s handwriting looked like it came out of a wood chipper, but learning about databases is important, so I pulled through. I ended the day by testing out a kids trail project made for the museum, and leaving for home tired and weary of that damned accessions register.

The fifth day is the day that I’m finishing this blog post. I just attended a Dementia Support group session, and had some lovely conversations with the attendees and played some games with them. Me and Morwenna showed them some handling objects which reminded them of their younger days, and it was nice to see them reminisce about their experiences. I ended up eating two bacon butties and a cupcake, and drinking a cup of tea and a cup of coffee, so all things considered, I enjoyed it.

Later I will help to digitise some photos and help move some objects around, so I’m not left to lounge about on my last day. It’s not often that I enjoy doing work, but since school is about as fulfilling as driving a tractor to Derbyshire, I’m going to say that I’m thrilled to have had this experience. I love being productive in a way that gives me more results than just “you’re smart, here’s a piece of paper that says you’re smart”, so I’m, as I said, thrilled.

In conclusion, if I had to choose going into work experience for a year, or school for a year, you can bet your dog that I’m choosing work experience. School is just boring and formulaic, like I’m some sort of ingredient to fit into a mould. This experience is one I’m going to remember fondly, and I hope the rest of my life will be as joyful as this experience.

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