Anyone work in a laboratory / chemistry field?

[neomneomneom]

Calling anyone who has links to chemistry laboratories, particularly in the London / Suffolk / Leicestershire area ! I need the wisdom of the wise brains of Mumsnet, please. My hardworking daughter has completed the first three years of an integrated masters in chemistry and is seeking some lab work or volunteer lab experience in August / September. Does anyone have any contacts or advice on who she could approach, please? She has tried local hospitals and universities but the labs are closed over the summer.

Daughter is reliable and responsible, and got a first in her academic lab work but she really wants to gain some real life lab experience. She would be happy to shadow / work on a project and help out. I work in a completely different field (and can help anyone interested in Social Work / Adoption!) but wondered if the power of Mumsnet might just be able to point us in the right direction here. Thank you so much!

University labs aren't closed over the summer but taking on a student is an extra hassle and time sap and lots of staff will have a holiday planned at some point causing disruption.

Your daughter would be best served looking up the profiles of the PIs on the University websites, and finding a few whose research interests her. Then read a few of their most recent papers and phone/email them directly putting accros a good case of her basic knowledge of the specific niche of their research and her desire to learn/develop a specific technique she's seen they use in their lab.

In any case, the PI is the one she'll need to charm, but it will be the lowly PhD student that's supervising her on a day to day basis 🤣

I would suggest she tries googling names of local towns/counties with words like laboratories, analysis, scientific, testing, bio, micro, chemical etc there are lots of small scientific businesses tucked away on industrial estates all over the place and no one would really know they are there because they aren't public facing. Then try contacting them, you never know.

I work in this area, but in the NW I’m afraid. We have been hiring for summer placement students (paid positions, July-Sept ish) but we’ve pretty much finished recruiting - and we were late even starting compared to most companies around here.
I think all you can do at this point is as somebody else said - google for any type of testing lab, and drop them a nice email with a CV attached.
Be ready for rejections, simply because for some industries the training involved before you can actually do anything is so lengthy that there’s not much point having somebody so short-term. That doesn’t mean don’t try! I just mean that it’s really not you, it’s them.
Also be prepared that if she does get something, it might just be very basic, repetitive work. Possibly not even actual lab work. Hopefully she’ll understand that any experience is useful though.
Certainly for me, when I’m recruiting new grads, I need evidence that they’ve worked before (tbh I don’t really care what work they’ve done - I’m pretty happy if they’ve done bar work etc). So if she can’t get lab work I would encourage her to do something at least.

Also look at the manufacturing sector particularly consumer goods. Factories usually have QC/R&D labs. For example, British Sugar has several factories in 'East Anglia' (sorry, I've only been out that way a couple of times so geographical knowledge is very limited) so they might be able to help.

Likewise Walkers Crisps are based in Leicester. Try googling FMCG (fast moving consumer goods, industry term) manufacturing and Leicester, Suffolk or London, which gives several options of the types of places I'm thinking of.

Good luck to your DD. I did work experience in factory labs for a local paint company and for a mulitnational toiletries manufacturer when I was 16/17, which gave me references that enabled me to gain employment at entry level in a public sector lab after A levels, which probably isn't an option these days but I ended up doing a degree on day release as a mature student.

Walkers crips is part of Pepsi Co, DH got DS work experience there a few years ago but it was a personal favour as he did collaborative work with them. DH said it’s quite a hassle with internships in labs as so much health and safety so they didn’t take students where he worked. I’m sorry it’s not what you want to read but I suppose I’m writing to say don’t let her think it’s personal at all.

@Bjorkdidit thats how I took my qualifications, it really was a great way wasn’t it. Had to agree to pay back fees if I left before a certain number of years.

Yes, we don't take students because it takes too long to train them to do anything useful especially with all the H&S stuff.

I did a regular degree with an industrial placement in a major scientific business in the 80s, at least half the people in my dept had done their degree part time sponsored by the company as school leavers, GRSC I think it was, I suppose degree apprenticeships are the modern equivalent but they seem fairly rare.

Has she spoken to the careers advisor at her university? It’s very late to be looking for a place now, most big companies run their intern recruitment before or just after Christmas, in my experience. Is it a five year degree, ie in Scotland? That would make more sense, it’s quite hard to get technical internships if you’re not in the penultimate year of study.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and reply. DD did apply for internships but feedback was that other candidates were given the posts as she had no previous lab experience. She has been working to keep herself financially afloat as well as doing her degree / masters so has done brilliantly well to achieve what she has, it’s just this initial shadowing / volunteering opportunity which seems so tricky to secure. I think this is what will open doors.

I totally understand the health and safety aspect to taking in students for short term placements - would this apply for just shadowing?

You could perhaps miss out some of the H&S if they were only shadowing, but just being in a lab involves quite a lot on its own.

I'd look at who does short term contracts with labs in those areas, and get on their books. With the bonus it would come with pay.

I know NE contacts, but noone further south, sorry.

We have a one page risk assessment for shadowing type visits, but these are never more than a day as even shadowing takes up a lot of a host's time, our work is so complex it takes a lot of explaining. Yes it's worth trying scientific recruitment agencies, I get contacted by these on LinkedIn fairly frequently. It's also worth asking around widely in your own network, you never know you might have a scientist or two lurking in your friends circles.