Hello, my name is Harry; for the past 6 months I have been working as a Kickstart Museum Assistant here at the London Museum of Water & Steam. When I was younger, I developed a great fondness for British history – and our steam powered past – from the many museums, steam fairs and heritage railways my parents brought me to. To gain some much-needed work experience I asked my local Job Centre if there were any museum work placements available in the London area, and to my joy there was.

As a Kickstart Museum Assistant, it has been my role to assist the museum staff and volunteers in any way I can – this has enabled me to learn a wide variety of tasks and responsibilities, including; customer service, money handling, museum operations, archiving, answering calls, marketing, minor site maintenance, and event preparations. In addition to what I have learnt on the job, I have also received online employability training from West London College, on-site First Aid and Visible Thinking training from external providers, and visits to other museums to learn more about the Culture & Heritage sector.

Through my time at the London Museum of Water & Steam, I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to create 12 illustrations and 6 colouring sheets for children’s activities. In addition to this, I am proud of my ability to manually computerize years’ worth of temperature and gas readings (associated with the running of our internal steam boiler) within a very tight deadline. Towards the end of my placement, I was asked to design a new logo for the Museum’s Sustainable Steam initiative; I am very happy to have been offered this rare responsibility, and I am delighted to have been of assistance.

I am sincerely grateful for all who have worked with me during my time at the London Museum of Water & Steam. The experience I have gained from this opportunity will be invaluable to me at such an early stage in my career, enabling me to find suitable employment that I would not have been able to access before.

Through my time at the museum, I have learnt that I enjoy providing services and assistance to others; with this in mind, I am now looking to pursue a career in customer service or graphic design. In the week following my departure from the museum I will begin a graphics design course, with the hope of one day becoming a design consultant for museums and heritage sites – providing advice and creative suggestions for maps, logos, signage, and other forms of media.

Harry Green, Kickstart Museum Assistant