Work Experience

Our work experience placement offers secondary school students the opportunity to go behind the scenes to see what we do on a day-to-day basis and what our various programmes offer to visitors.

The placement takes place either with the Royal Observatory or with the National Maritime Museum. 

Royal Observatory 

A work experience student will learn more about astronomy and science communication and will be involved in a number of activities including, but not limited to:

• Creating social media posts.
• Sitting in on some onsite sessions for schools and the public, evaluating the sessions and suggesting improvements.
• Writing a script about what's in the night sky for a particular month to be included in our Look Up! podcast.
• Chatting with one of the astronomers to find out about what it's like to be an astronomer. You'll be able to ask them any university or careers related questions you may have.

If you have a query regarding work experience at the Royal Observatory, please contact ROGEducation@rmg.co.uk.

The successful applicants will spend one week in summer 2026 with Royal Observatory astronomers. Due to a partial closure of the Royal Observatory as part of a new renovation project, the astronomy team are currently based at the National Maritime Museum.

Please note: we run a dedicated work experience programme with an application process and are unable to accept speculative CVs or cover letters, or host students outside of our summer programme dates.  

Find out more about work experience at the Royal Observatory

National Maritime Museum

This placement is based at the National Maritime Museum within the Engagement team. There are additional opportunities to explore the Queen’s House, Cutty Sark and Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre. Some of the previous placements have involved:

• Working with the schools team, family programme, visitor services, library team, exhibitions and interpretation departments
• Undertaking focused project work (if possible, this will be tailored to your particular area of interest)
• Learning new skills such as using digital audio recording
• CV writing workshops

This programme runs throughout the school year and has limited capacity. Please email learning@rmg.co.uk with 'School work experience' as the subject line and ask to be sent a link to the work experience form.