Work Experience with Joe and Jess

Our 2023 work experience intake continues! We welcomed our second lot of students last week and this time, two of them took it upon themselves to record their week. We didn’t put any words in their mouths but we did encourage their spirited search for the perfect synonym.

This is Joe and Jess’ week according to them.

Monday – (Jess) helped with setting up the PINC (Pride in North Cumbria) exhibition set up, meeting different members of site staff, curators, etc.
(Joe) Helped with Once Upon A Planet school session; handing out paper, brushes, helping children with drawings and queries.
Tuesday – (Jess) helped assist with a school session talking about toys and games from the past with year one and two, helped the children make peg dolls. In the afternoon I carried on assisting with the painting of the exhibition for PINC.(Joe)Couldn’t arrive until the afternoon due to an induction day; work experience at Tullie House is fantastic as the day is flexible and forgiving. I also was sent out to buy snacks for the rest of the week – yum!
Wednesday – (Jess)Helped with the exhibition again, revised for an hour and a half (once again flexibility) and then I got back to work after lunch.
(Joe)Helped with a session about the Border Reivers, learning a lot about the impact they left behind on our language and culture. I got to hold a 16th-century halberd, and got to be ‘stabbed’ by it as a demonstration to the children about its reach and commanding presence on the battlefield. In the afternoon I got to help organise a session of CSI: Tullie, a session where the schoolchildren became detectives to solve the mystery of who stole a priceless violin, and I helped to corral the children to where they needed to be.
Thursday – (Jess) In the morning I did a Border Reivers session with some year fives and I helped on the Border Galleries. Then we went to put up the pride flags on the almost finished exhibition. Liana showed both me and Joe the Egyptian artefacts which included jewellery, pottery, hieroglyphics and a mummified bird.
(Joe) I worked on the front desk for the morning, learning skills such as how to admit visitors to the museum, how to answer phones and find staff scattered throughout the museum, and how to accept parcels and letters.
Friday – ( both) Did social media stuff. (And had a store tour!)

Display case before.

Display case after!

Jess

Work experience gave me a deeper understanding of how things work in Tullie House and why people do them. I gained new practical skills such as Plastering as well as Social Skills such as talking to visitors, managing school groups and discussing with staff members about their jobs. Overall, it has been a very fulfilling work experience placement and I would highly recommend more people to get involved with Tullie House. The staff at Tullie are well versed and experienced at their jobs and were more than pleased to share how their job works. This week has also assisted me in figuring out what kind of things a career in a museum involve, and I have also deduced that window cleaning is not the career for me.

Joe

Work experience at Tullie House has been a fantastic and deeply enjoyable experience. I have learned a lot and gained many valuable skills, including IT skills, skills relating to preparing an exhibit such as painting, plastering, glass cleaning and arrangement. I have also had the chance to try almost every aspect of museum life, giving me a well rounded and varied time at Tullie House and plenty of opportunities for growth and asking questions. The staff at Tullie House have been incredibly warm, welcoming and helpful, allowing me to really make the most of my time and explore to the fullest extent everything that Tullie House has to offer, and all of the possibilities available to me when I enter wholly the world of work. In summary, whilst I definitely expected to thoroughly enjoy my work experience, I could have never predicted the extent to which I overwhelmingly adored my [stay/tenure/domiciliation/residency/occupancy/habitancy/incumbency] at the museum. If you have an assiduous attitude I unreservedly endorse the experience and advocate for this incontrovertibly frabjous placement.

(See if you can work out who got more stuck into the thesaurus)