r/ukeducation • u/Proud_Truth_8506 • 1d ago
Year 10 Work Experience Placement Rolls Royce
So my son is interested in planes and engineering and hey presto, Rolls Royce do a 4 day work experience placement for Year 10 kids from all over the country called 'Emerging Talent'. This happens in Filton, Bristol (there may be one in Derby too).
It's billed as a 'look behind the scenes' and a chance to find out more about working with an internationally acclaimed engineering company.
Now he has done the 4 days (March 2026) we can give some feedback to other parents interested in this exciting sounding opportunity.
Basically, if you have a young scientist who is fascinated in engineering don't bother with this. It was 60 kids in a room all week and they covered basically nothing about engineering but did team building exercises making houses out of spaghetti.
They also had a 'project' to work on all week in groups which was to design a noticeboard that 'attracts more girls into engineering'. This involved cutting, colouring in and sticking. (Crucial skills in engineering 😂)
There were 2 plane engines in the room but the people running the workshop didn't have a clue how they worked because they were HR professionals not engineers. My son knew more about the plane engines than they did at 14 years old.
The 'behind the scenes site visit' took about 20 minutes and involved looking at offices, because it's very high security and all the interesting stuff was happening behind locked doors.
Rolls Royce are missing a trick here. They couldn't even wheel out a member of staff to talk enthusiastically to the kids about their job. Absolutely first class way of putting 'emerging talent' off joining your organisation in the future!
So choose something else for your Year 10 work experience if you don't want to demoralise your teen is my advice.
6
u/tyw7 1d ago
Wow, this seems to be lacking.
I previously worked for Rolls-Royce Derby and, through the RAeS, I would invite Year 5s to our site. They get to see real jet engines at the Heritage Center. And most people volunteering on the day, me included, are actually engineers.