Work Experience

Every year, Wessex Archaeology takes up to six pupils from local secondary schools for a week’s work experience. Amongst other activities, the pupils spend some of each week helping in the Finds Department, washing and marking finds, and in the Environmental Department, processing soil samples. Whenever it is possible, they are taken to visit a site where an excavation is in progress.

We always have more requests for placements than we can take, so we prioritise those pupils who make a direct contact with us early in the school year. We interview all candidates for work experience to make sure that they will be able to make the most of the opportunity.

We hope that the week at Wessex Archaeology gives pupils a taste of what is involved in archaeology, and an idea of whether or not it is the right job for them. We are very pleased that several of our past pupils have gone on to study archaeology at university, and to make it their career.