Five William Howard Sixth Form students experienced ‘Dream Placements’ in various successful businesses during the half term holiday. The leadership development programme for bright, motivated young students aged 16-18 is organised by the Centre for Leadship Performance.

Okan Paca was partnered with the National Nuclear Laboratory, where he learned about Nuclear Engineering, Nuclear waste control, decommissioning and clean energy. He visited Sellafield as well as the Workington Laboratory to explore nuclear medicine. He found out about apprenticeships at NNL and how to improve his CV and employment chances. At the end of the week Okan presented to the CEO. Okan said it a really valuable experience – he learned how to behave professionally in a workplace and saw how everybody listened to each other.

Jake Wright worked at the University of Cumbria where he met with the Vice Chancellor and learned about the different aspects of running a University.  He visited various campuses and met people in high level positions as well as attending lectures, giving him an insight into University life. Jake even attended a lunch at Holbeck Ghyll Restaurant representing the University along with his mentor for the week. Jake said it was good to gain an insight to all the areas of the University as you don’t always see behind the scenes.

Ryan Hetherington worked for Story Contracting and enjoyed the experience so much he now hopes to work for them in the future. He met the CEO and attended meetings and site visits and gained an insight into a possible career of a Chartered Surveyor – something he had not considered before. Ryan said that this had been a great opportunity to gain experience in a prospect career at a high level and is keen to work with Story again in the summer.

Kirsty Smith worked at Carlisle City Council with the focus of the week on improving staff wellbeing. Kirsty took part in focus groups and created a survey. She visited different departments to talk to staff and met the CEO. Kirsty said she had found that there were more jobs in the council than she had been aware of before and it has made her think about her future career. Kirsty was able to use her presentation skills at the end of the week with the Deputy Chief Exec and Heads of Departments about the survey findings to help improve staff wellbeing across the Council.

Natasha Fell completed her placement at Doosan Industries and spent some of the week in Glasgow working on marketing within the Nuclear and Asset Industry.  Meetings were held with the CEO and other leaders and at the end of the week Natasha designed the newsletter for the company with the marketing team, which is the area that she is particularly interested in. Natasha found it to be a really good opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills in industry.