This is future-changing work

Work experience at the Met Office

This is future-changing work

Work experience at the Met Office

An introduction to
the Met Office

The Met Office work experience programme consists of two distinct phases. The first is an online work experience. This stand-alone programme is available to all UK-based students aged between 13 and 18, and all who register are guaranteed a place. As part of this programme, you’ll explore typical roles in the Met Office through a series of videos, projects and webinars and learn all about the common skills and qualifications needed to pursue a range of careers, from Forecasting, Engineering and Data Science to Cyber Security, and Customer & Stakeholder Management. Following completion of the online programme, you can apply for a second phase of work experience - a two to three day in-person placement, for which limited places are available.

Current in-person opportunities
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Forecasting your Future
(online work experience)

We’ve teamed up with Springpod, a specialist careers platform, to offer a fascinating insight into the work of the Met Office. This online work experience is designed to develop your knowledge and skills and provides the opportunity for you to tap into individualised support from Met Office staff across the organisation via an online chat system. The online programme can be completed across a work experience week or at any other time of the year, with the bulk of your time spent on exciting work-related projects. Once you’ve finished the programme, if you’d like to find out more about a career at the Met Office, we encourage you to apply for our in-person work experience programme.

Ready to get started?
Find out more about the ‘Forecasting your Future’ online work experience programme by visiting the Springpod website, reading more about the programme and creating an account. Use the link below, click on the ‘Start’ button and follow the registration instructions.

Register for the ‘Forecasting your Future' programme

In-person
work experience

In-person placement opportunities are available across the year, with a variety of teams, including Forecasting, Technology, Engineering and Communications.

Am I eligible to apply?
To apply for in-person work experience, you must have completed 'Forecasting Your Future', the Met Office online work experience programme. You'll also be in one of the following academic year groups at the time of the placement:

England and Wales. Years 10, 11, 12 or 13 (up to 31st August)
Northern Ireland. Years 11, 12, 13 or 14 (up to 31st August)
Scotland. S3, S4, S5 or S6 (up to 31st August)

Finally, you must be studying in the UK, either in formal education or being home-schooled.

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Current opportunities

The application procedure for an in-person placement is based on our Met Office job application process, to give you experience of what it is like to apply for a job vacancy with us. Please be aware that you’ll need to submit all the work-based assignments you completed during the online work experience, as part of your application. So, please make sure you have them downloaded and ready to attach. Our in-person placements are highly sought-after, so the more effort you put into these assignments, the more likely you are to be offered an in-person placement.

Download our guide to making a great application

Climate Science Team

Location: Exeter, Devon
Dates: 15-17 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025

Work placement outline: This placement will be centred around completion of a mini project related to changes in West African monsoon rainfall, supported by the Climate Science team. The project will involve some coding – depending on your level of ability, this could be as simple as making small edits to existing code or could be designed to be more complex. 

Apply here

Field Service Engineering Team

Location: Watnall, Nottinghamshire 
Dates: 15-17 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025

Work placement outline: Field Service Engineering involves the maintenance, repair and calibration support of the vast majority of operational instrumentation, equipment and systems within the Met Office; from the tipping bucket rain-gauge to the complex system of equipment at Weather Radar sites.  This placement may also involve insight into Lidar maintenance and an Autosonde weather balloon launch.

Apply here

Hazards & Resilience Team

Location: Exeter, Devon
Dates: 19-21 May 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025

Work placement outline: This placement involves an introduction to the technologies involved in Weather Warnings, Space Weather, Flood Guidance, Chemical and Nuclear Dispersion and the Hazards Manager Help Centre.  You will take part in hands-on coding, testing and user experience activities and join in team stand-ups and other meetings.

Apply here

Communications & Engagement - Content Team

Location: Exeter, Devon
Dates: 7-9 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025

Work placement outline: Our busy Content Team, helps to communicate weather and climate science in engaging, innovative ways.  You’ll learn how the team creates content to suit a wide range of channels including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X.  You will work alongside designers, video editors and presenters to experience what it’s like creating and publishing content.   With an interest in design, video and social media, you’ll be encouraged to take an active role in brainstorming sessions and feeding back on the content the team create.

Apply here

Analysis & Visualisation of Data Team

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 14-16 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline: The AVD (Analysis and Visualisation of Data) Team's Vision is “Enabling users to focus on Science through the provision of standard scientific tooling, support and best practice”.  The AVD team writes and maintains open source Python software that is used for the analysis of meteorological and climatological data.  This software is used by both forecasters and scientists at the Met Office and around the world. The team also spends a lot of time working directly with scientists to help them better use the software.  This placement provides the opportunity to shadow our software developers in the AVD team.  Work can vary depending on priorities and planned activities but may include: fixing bugs, working on new features, producing map visualisations, parallel computation of big data, supporting users of our software, discussing/debating future work.

Apply here

Simulation IT Team

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 30 June - 2 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline:  Within the Simulation IT Team, scientific software engineers design and maintain specialist systems to provide models that can be analysed and tested.  Simulation software models real-world environments to support Met Office scientists and enable the development of products and services for Met Office customers.  During this placement you will be given an overview of Science IT in the Met Office and will take part in a programming exercise using Python, with a simplified example of a numerical method, similar to those used in our models.

Apply here

Software Development Team

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 14-16 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline:  Our team of Software Developers builds and maintains digital services, providing data for the Met Office public website and app. We work in a devops environment, implementing technical designs, improving and maintaining our existing code base, and identifying issues with the software and operating procedures of software.  This placement will provide you with an introduction to the work of the team, working in a devops agile environment, with the opportunity to meet and work alongside a variety of staff, from Solutions Architects and Software Engineers to Product Managers, Delivery Managers, and a Technical Lead.  Activities will include attending the daily team scrum, an introduction to ticketing, and discussion of Agile, among other things.

Apply here

Operational Expertise Team (May)

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 20-22 May 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline:  Our Operational Expertise team works closely with Markets and Service Delivery experts to ensure that Met Office products are fit for purpose now and in the future.  The team is responsible for managing the lifecycle and demand of products that rely on the skills and expertise of Operational Meteorologists and others, and involve the provision of data, forecasts, assessments, and advice, which can be delivered in person or as a push service.  As our day is varied, you could  be involved in things like product review conversations or assessing the next improvement opportunity.

Apply here

Operational Expertise Team (July)

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 8-10 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline:  Our Operational Expertise team works closely with Markets and Service Delivery experts to ensure that Met Office products are fit for purpose now and in the future.  The team is responsible for managing the lifecycle and demand of products that rely on the skills and expertise of Operational Meteorologists and others, and involve the provision of data, forecasts, assessments, and advice, which can be delivered in person or as a push service.  As our day is varied, you could  be involved in things like product review conversations or assessing the next improvement opportunity.

Apply here

Weather Impacts & Advice Team

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 7-9 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline:  The Civil Contingencies Advisors (CCA) team, based in Exeter, works with our Chief Meteorologists to shape UK weather warnings, and sits within our wider Weather Impacts and Advice Team.  The CCAs are responsible for communicating hazardous weather to the Civil Contingencies Team across the UK and to emergency responders (e.g. police, ambulance service, firefighters) in their area. They also contribute to high-level central government meetings, such as COBR, during emergencies.  

Apply here

Finance Team

Location: Exeter, Devon 
Date: 30 June - 2 July 2025 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 24 March 2025
 

Work placement outline: This placement involves an introduction to the various parts of the Finance team – looking at cash management within Finance Operations, seeing how we manage our money in and out; discovering how Finance Business Support staff work alongside Met Office business areas, providing support and challenge to their numbers; gaining an appreciation of financial accounting processes – annual report & accounts, and investment business cases; and learning what Plans & Performance and Demand Management teams do. You will also gain experience of our financial systems and using Excel.

Apply here