Have you heard of Learning Lab placements? They are placements are offered to students studying a MSc Science Communication with UWE Bristol’s Science Communication Unit. They are a great way to gain industry experience and network with some fantastic organizations.
My name is Laura Thomas, and I am a recent postgraduate student who studied Science Communication at UWE Bristol. I have recently finished two placements as part of the Learning Lab scheme, and I fully recommend seizing this opportunity.
I did my first placement with ecancer, a charity which communicates advances in cancer treatment and patient care to professionals, such as doctors, academics and patients.
I was an editorial assistant for a week, where I wrote tweets for ecancer’s Twitter feed to promote ecancer’s content, posted videos and news stories on ecancer’s website, produced a reference pack for a scientific article and wrote a news article to communicate an advance in oncology research to doctors, nurses and oncologists.
My interests lie in conservation, but I decided to communicate a new topic to challenge myself, test my boundaries and see if I enjoyed communicating cancer research.
Writing the news article was a really useful exercise as it allowed me to develop my portfolio and improved my ability to translate a scientific research paper into a news release for professionals. I learnt a lot about writing for this kind of target audience. Additionally, I was able to receive valuable feedback from my line manager, who was very experienced in the field, which will be useful for future projects.
My second placement was with Films@59. Films@59 is a Bristol based TV production company that mainly focus on post-production. They cover a variety of genres – their most famous being reality and natural history (for example, The Great British Bake Off and Planet Earth).
I was a runner for a week where I ran errands for clients, such as making tea and coffee, and sat in on three sessions with clients. I attended sessions on offline editing, dubbing, and grading. During the sessions I was able to watch people at work and ask them questions. It was interesting to learn how all these different elements contributed to the story and how one small tweak can massively influence the piece.
During my placement I was able to network with people and learn about the variety of career journeys employees had been on to get where they are. There really were a whole range of pathways – both planned and unplanned. Overall, it was a really valuable experience, and I learnt a lot about the industry.
I found the Learning Lab placements extremely rewarding. They are a fantastic way to evaluate your career choices, develop your skills, network, and explore the career paths you could take. I would definitely recommend applying for a Learning Lab placement – you never know what you might gain from it!
Laura Thomas, MSc Science Communication student.