To ask you lovely mumsnetters if....

[RunawayFishWife]

Anyone can help me with a work experience placement in July for DS1 who will be 15 and wants to be a forensic scientist, his passion is chemistry.
He is doing well in his subjects with an A in Biology and a B in Physics so far.

The school website had nothing in the area he wants, in face nothing in labs at all,so if anyone works in or has a DH/DP/DW of dear anyone who works in a lab any sort of lab just so DS1 can get a feel of it please message me.

Needs to be in the Egham, Walton, Weybridge, Brentford, Windsor sort of area.

Very grateful for any help.

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Have you tried the university?

I am going to start ringing round tomorrow.

We have lots of friends in this field but they are all miles and miles away 300+ miles

have you thought of the vet labs?
Central Veterinary Laboratory New Haw Addlestone Weybridge Surrey KT15 3NB UK Tel: 01932 341111

Have you tried the hospitals? DS had a placement last year, not in the labs, though, and it was arranged through the school.

Might be worth including them on your list for ringing.

I'm not in your area (or line of work) so i can't help, but based on what happens at my workplace, please can I very respectfully suggest that any ringing round would be greeted with a much better response coming from your DS.

My boss despairs at wex time of year when half her day is taken up taking calls from parents. Every wex student we've ever had through the doors have been the ones who have called themselves (I started as one 10 years ago).

Even if you find the places then he rings, it will reflect so well if he makes his own calls

Doesn't GSK have labs in Weybridge?

Thank you all, DS1 has an inset day tomorrow so I shall make a list and get him to ring round
Vet lab a great idea, thank you.

Good luck to him, hope it all goes well. I remember how nerve wracking the lead up to all of that was. Then exams then A levels then Be A Grown Up. What I'd give for it to be that simple again

I have a list of people for him to ring today.
2 hospitals, GSK, P&G, the vet labs, fingers crossed.

OP, bearing in mind that the 'Forensic' part of his career plans is a non-starter as far as work experience goes, then you're obviously just left with the science and there should be loads of options for him to get some lab/chemistry experience.

What about charities, who commission huge amounts of research, Environmental groups (this may be more biology, but the scientific principles will be the same) etc?

Oh, and why not get him to write a letter rather than make phone calls? Think that likely placements would be more impressed and more likely to respond.

If you were in the Suffolk area (or have family up here) I'd suggest the Horseracing Forensic Lab (though they go by a new name now). They're responsible for testing all the blood and urine samples taken from racehorses, though they are also expanding in to human sports testing too. 'Tiz very interesting.

This is them

My DS walked up to our local Vet and asked them.

He got a 2 week work experience placement and the thing that impressed him the most ws the fact that all the Vets and assistants got to have pizza for lunch while he had his sandwiches, fruit and chocolate milk.

My last job involved placing 600+ uni students a year - believe me, best thing to do is ask him to call and find out exactly who he should contact about placements, spell the person's name correctly, and the job title and put together a single page CV with zero errors. His letter should explain why he's writing, what he's looking for in terms of placement content (be reasonable), dates, duration etc and what he would ideally like to cover (mostly shadowing at this stage to start off with) and what he wants to get out of it.

Based on the I came across from uni students (undergrads and postgrads), this will put him ahead of the pack by a mile.

Thank you all, I like the idea of the letter, I will help him with something today, he has made some calls and got a few points of contact but no luck so far, thank you all for your help and input it is appreciated

I wanted to be a forensic scientist when I was 16 - 20 years ago now!

There weren't so many labs around then, but I got a week's work experience with the police. I had a couple of days seeing the general work that went on, but had a day in the forensic lab and watched a post mortem too.

Maybe worth a try if he can't get any specific lab experience...?

Thank you BBP, I will give the police a go as well

Bumping

When my daughter was looking for work experience we made a list from internet research, she then emailed every one with a tailored request + CV and followed up a few days later with a phone call.
It worked.

Have helped him with a letter