Work experience at National Slate Museum, 2026

Day 1

We had an introduction from Chloe and we also got lanyards that show we are on our placement here. We went to the quarry hospital to help out, making a video on how to get to the quarry so that more people are interested in coming to the area. Even though we didn't do that much today, it was a good ease into how the work environment is. We learnt that museums are very complicated behind the scenes and have a lot of jobs within them that make it up. It was very quiet and there weren't that many visitors in the quarry hospital so we are hoping the video makes people want to go. We realised there are a majority of English people going and visiting these places which is good that they want to learn about the history but surprisingly Welsh people themselves do not want to go and learn their own history. At the end of the day we looked at the beautiful view that the quarry hospital looks over and got to know each other, since we didn't know each other before today. 

Day 2

On day 2 we started off with an admin task where we learned more about using excel to maintain information and numbers. We used excel to type up the stats from old visits from e.e 1967. We learned that details like this can be useful in terms of patterns and what needs to be improved about the event or task. We also helped Lowri create an activity for young children which was very helpful to me as I learned that there is many jobs within one company that you would never expect for example we later helped Mari who works in the education department with Lowri to go down to storage, she works part time which was something I didn't know you could do when working as an adult but it was interesting and useful to know that there's always a job or opportunity that can suite everyone which would be great for when just starting of your career. We later had an opportunity to have a meeting with Amgueddfa Cymru about the importance of using both languages equally, which was very interesting because we learned that it really is helpful to be bilingual as it provides more job opportunities. 

Day 3

This was one of the most exciting days of the week, actually being able to go into the slate museum while closed. But at the start of the day we helped Lois by making a plan on how to get children and parents aware of the nature trail Amgueddfa Cymru has to offer. We brainstormed together until our early lunch break. Then we went down to the construction site to get protective gear so everyone was safe during the tour. We also had to take other safety precautions like wearing trousers and walking shoes. The tour was really fun and we both helped keep everyone together but it was extremely hot that day so it was really hard to focus. After the tour Chloe treated us both to ice cream, we both got cookie dough, and it was very lovely and helped with the heat. After we walked back up to the quarry and filmed a tiktok on the nature trail before having to leave. We learnt about preservation and how important and how much work goes into preserving museums and showed the careful work they have to do to get everything right to tell the story of the museum. 

Day 4

On day four we went to Castell Penrhyn. We had a walk around the castle however later learned more about the history of the castle and the history of the Penrhyn family which I we learned is a big part of having a museum or a historical land because although people love going to castell Penrhyn, most people see it as walking around a beautiful house instead of looking at the good and bad parts of the castles history, for instance the slavery in the 18th-19th century. We think its very important to the visitors to know what really went on instead of only seeing it as a house. We then watched a slate demo and then helped people complete a survey about the experience and their past visits of the museum in Llanberis which was very good to see how useful surveys can we when running a company because it allows the company to see the visitors opinions and thoughts about what they offer, it also helps to know what the company need to promote or do better. 

Day 5

Our last day here at Amgueddfa Cymru, we started the day by summarizing how the week has been and what we have done and learnt. We wrote this blog and will after create a blog on the importance of the slate history in Penrhyn castle. Afterwards we will make a few promotional social media videos before leaving early. This work experience has shown us a lot and helped us realise the importance and how museums work behind the scenes and given us skills like talking to new people, teamwork and helping others. And we weren't really shocked how museums work and is exactly how we pictured working at a museum was like.