Three Year 11 students from Toot Hill School and College have swapped school uniform for orange high visibility outfits for a week of hands-on work experience at Tarmac’s Barnstone cement plant in Nottinghamshire.
Jack Abrams, Bella Higginbotham and Louisa Heath joined the cement plant team to learn about all aspects of cement making including blending, quality checks, maintenance, environmental monitoring, logistics and customer service. In an unexpected cement plant activity, the students also got to meet a birds of prey expert who visits the site to help with deterring the large number of pigeons who can impact operations.
For Bella, she had asked to do her work experience with Tarmac after touring the site on a school visit in July. The tour had given her an interest in a career in engineering, but the hands-on work experience with the quality team has now given her more of a taste for laboratory work.
She says: “The people at Tarmac were welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful to me whilst I was on work experience. I was able to research into the process they use to make cement and learn a lot about professional working environments. This has given me some ideas for my future career”
Barnstone Plant Manager Steve Odell comments: “We work closely with our local schools to educate students about construction materials manufacture, but also to promote careers opportunities in our business. We are particularly keen to show how Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects are applied in the workplace so this type of work experience is a perfect way to bring this to life.
“It was a pleasure to have the three Toot Hill students with us – they got to try out work across many aspects of our operation and we hope they now have a better understanding of the complex work that goes into producing a bag of cement!”
Fiona Farmer, Careers Leader at Toot Hill School and College adds: “Work Experience for young people is invaluable as it allows them to explore a variety of careers. This experience has not only developed their confidence, skills and knowledge of STEM careers, but has also inspired and informed students of a future career pathway. We are proud to have a strong link with Tarmac both in the classroom and in taking our young people on work experience.”
Picture caption: Work experience student Bella Higginbotham enjoys time in the lab at Tarmac’s Barnstone cement plant, with Laboratory Technician Mick Tainton