Citizenship
Work experience comes from topic 1 in the citizenship syllabus. This part of the syllabus covers school, work and the community. I chose work experience as it covers the points necessary for the syllabus. The parts of the syllabus were covered as we firstly planned the experience at school, and this would then lead us to work in the community.
During Year 10 in the autumn term (2004) our Monday tutorial sessions were used to get us prepared for our work experience. In one of the lesson we had a visit from Mrs Penning of Connexions who told us what we’d get from our work experience. This was important because we looked at the different jobs on offer, what options would suit us and what employers look for in us.
We also had talk in several assemblies about how it was important to be organised for our work experience. Which encouraged me to make enquires about my placement.
We also had a database available to us with which we could search for suitable jobs. This was important for those who were looking for ideas about the kind of placement that they wanted.
In the spring term we had mock interviews for our placement when an interviewer came into school and interviewed us. This was a useful experience as we will have to take part in interviews when applying for the job.
Citizenship – Work experience Dates
Introduction to my work experience
In July 2003 I participated in the schools work experience program. I firstly decided to link my work experience with my hobby that is in the motor sport industry, as I have raced karts for many years and have always been involved in motor sport from a very early age. Unfortunately there isn’t that many jobs in the motor sport industry in Devon I had to look further a field for a placement of this nature. The nearest placement that I could find was in Aldershot, so I had to ...
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Introduction to my work experience
In July 2003 I participated in the schools work experience program. I firstly decided to link my work experience with my hobby that is in the motor sport industry, as I have raced karts for many years and have always been involved in motor sport from a very early age. Unfortunately there isn’t that many jobs in the motor sport industry in Devon I had to look further a field for a placement of this nature. The nearest placement that I could find was in Aldershot, so I had to book a hotel and travel to and fro between the two weeks of the work experience program. However fortunately I was able to finance this and was able to get to my placement. My work experience was at Carlin Motorsport a F3 racing car team. They are multiple British champions and have led such drivers as Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson into the F1 grid.
In this placement I aim to achieve the following things:
- Turn up on time for all tasks set and complete them to the highest standard possible.
- Learn from my experience to see whether this is an area of work that I would choose in later life.
- Learn about life outside of school and what interacting with adults on a working basis is like.
- Increase skills that I will need later in life.
Roles, Rights and Responsibilities
It was my responsibility to attend my work placement on all the days agreed with the College. If for any reason such as illness I was unable to attend I needed to phone Mrs Sandra Peters at the College and my supervisor at work. This is just common courtesy and an important procedure in the world of work. Similarly if I was going to be delayed in arriving because of transport problems I would have phoned to explain the reason. Employers have the right to expect notification in such circumstances.
My employers also had the right to expect that I would be dressed appropriately for work. It was my responsibility to ensure that I fitted in with their dress code. This I tried to do and I believe that I was successful.
On arrival I had the right to expect to be shown the health and safety procedures. One of the things that the College told us was to be certain to find out what should happen in the case of a fire or an accident. It was the responsibility of my work placement to ensure that they had public liability insurance. This is important because in the event of their negligence an accident did occur, then they would be covered from an insurance point of view. Before I went on the placement health and safety checks had been made by the County Council in Aldershot which were sent to the Devon county council as they wished to be certain that it was a suitable environment for me or any other student to work in. Fortunately no accidents did occur but if I had injured myself in any way then the details would have needed to have been recorded in the Company Accident Book. This would have included the time, the date and how the accident occurred.
From my point of view it was important that I had a supervisor (David Lowe) who monitored what I did. I didn't want to make any major mistakes or let down the company. Also I wanted someone to turn to for advice when it was needed.
In addition I wanted to make sure that I received adequate breaks e.g. at lunch time and was not put upon. It was important to me to be treated just like one of the work force because that was the whole object of the week. Also I wanted to have as much variety as possible so I would benefit from the different experiences and be able to develop new skills.
Diary of my work experience at Carlin Motorsport
On the first day I went to the factory and was given a quick tour around the factory, then I was assigned to work with the “truckies” and basically cleaned the trucks out for the whole day, also I washed wheels and basically settled in to the work environment. However I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t get an impression that I was to be given the sort of jobs that I had been promised during the build up to my experience there. I was also a little disappointed that I didn’t get to meet the boss of the team but I realised that he was very busy in his work and that there was possibly wasn’t enough time to see me. However I still held out hope for the rest of the experience as I thought that the situation may improve as it thought that they may become more hospitable in the days to come.
On the second day of my experience I was again placed to work with the race team trucks and basically had to make minor repairs and clean the Lorries out once again however I realised that I was on a work experience placement and that I wasn’t perhaps entitled to the best jobs. I wasn’t given yet again the work promised to me which was to help prepare the cars for a test day.
On the 3rd day of the experience I took more of a hand’s on approach with the cars for half the day and after the lunch hour I had to pack all the cars up with the other staff in preparation for the test day the day after.
On the Thursday I had an early start of 5 o’clock as I had to be up early enough to go in one of the artic Lorries as this was how early we had to set off to get to Rockingham Motor speedway in time to unload all the data logging, cars, tools, and equipment at the race track. It was a very hard days work as I was taking tyres to an fro from the pit garage, and was constantly washing wheels and tyres so unfortunately didn’t get to see much in the way of action of the cars driving around the circuit, however I felt that I was working extremely hard, and possibly working harder than any other member of staff and not being thanked for it. Then whilst having my lunch with all other staff at the time Team Boss Trevor Carlin decided to basically have a real go at me as he believed that I wasn’t doing anything all morning and then I was forced to polish an artic lorry with one rag, even though the rest of the staff knew that I had worked as hard as anyone else and all admitted this, and his reasons for his action still lie unbeknown to me. Unfortunately the work experience was starting to become less enjoyable for me. However I was still to continue and show enthusiasm and willingness to work. I got back to my hotel room at 10 o’clock at night and was completely shattered after a long day’s work.
The next day however I enjoyed as I was for the first time given the opportunity to work with the cars properly and managed to re fit engines, remove rear diffusers and gearboxes from the cars and this was much more in my element as I enjoy those types of practical work. The week ended on a slightly better note than I would have thought after the previous days work and the general manager was keen to have me back for the next week as he was pleased with my work.
The next week I arrived at work at 8 am and started work by firstly repairing the team’s hospitality car by repairing an oil leak. I then spent an hour or so working with the racing cars and was then fitting tyres onto rims for the rest of the day which was quite hard work but I enjoyed using the machinery as I proved myself quite adept at it. However only to be informed that it wasn’t necessary for me to come testing the next day, however due to this change of plan I was unable to make transport arrangements for the rest of the week so unfortunately I was unable to complete the rest of my work experience as logistically it was quite a struggle for me.
Evaluation of my experience
Overall I thought that the experience was useful to me as it showed me what life was like within a working environment and the highs and lows of holding down a job and working hard. I think that the actual job that I would be looking for in the motorsport world was perhaps not involved with the work experience that I took part in. I wasn’t really allowed to be involved with the areas of car setup and data as I would have wanted to have been and instead had the experience of being part of a truck maintenance environment which isn’t something that I want to do in later life. Therefore this experience has highlighted a certain area of work that I don’t want to be involved in but didn’t serve the purpose of enlightening me regarding the area of work that I would most be interested in which is data acquisition and vehicle aerodynamics.
I think that in many ways it was a negative experience as I found the environment quite difficult to settle in with as I wasn’t particularly well catered for and wasn’t doing the sort of work that I had been promised to do. However it was also a positive experience as I learned to adapt to different situations and gained confidence in my own abilities as it showed me how hard I was able to work and I then realised that work effort was one of my strengths when I was interested in what I was doing.
As for my aims I think that I met most of these as I turned up on time each day, and never once failed to complete a task set to a high standard. I also think that I have learned what I don’t want to do later in life and this has given me further encouragement to go out and try to be involved with vehicles design and data acquisition. I think that I learned an awful lot about the working environment and dealing with different peoples reactions to things and how to deal with peoples temperaments differently which would with hindsight have improved my relationship with the team boss. I think that the experience increased my skills of working with others and improved my attitude towards people in the working environment.
On week two of the experience I only completed the first day of the experience as the team decided that they didn’t need my services on the following Tuesday as they were going testing. However my liaison David Lowe informed me that I was needed for the rest of the week. However this was not logistically viable for me as I had to travel home for the Tuesday and couldn’t get a lift or a train up for the rest of the week due to the late notice given to me I couldn’t make prior engagements to get to the factory for the rest of the week. Perhaps if I had been able to work for the rest of the week I may have been able to of done some of the work that I was promised at the start of the experience.
Referring to my section that I written under the title Roles, Rights and Responsibilities I was reasonably well looked after by David Lowe and he directed me to what work I should be doing although the whole experience to be fair had a rather disorganised feel to it. I also when I was unable to complete my work experience due to travel arrangements contacted Mrs Peters to inform her of the situation and it was dealt with in due course through the correct channels. As this is what I had been told that I needed to do as this is correct for insurance purposes.
However I parted with the team on amicable terms and as they realised how far it was for me to go and work their and they were happy with my work effort.
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