Work Experience at Curteis
Many people know the story of Curteis Ltd’s origins in a farm house called Towed Hall, where the Curteis family lived. And how the modern factory we operate in, is built on the farm’s land. What is less well-known is how deep the company’s role in the local community goes: Most of the company’s staff live, and many were born, within a few miles of the factory. We all use the rural shops, pubs and schools near to our workplace. And almost everyone who works for the company has a friend or relative also working here.
Each year the company welcomes one or two pupils from the local schools on a Work Experience scheme. The following is Ryan’s story, in his own words, of his week at Curteis:
“My name is Ryan. I came here, to Curteis Limited, for a week of work experience that is a compulsory scheme at Lakelands Sports and Language College. I came here for experience in IT work because that is what kind of work I am interested in.
When I arrived on Monday I was given a tour of the factory where I was shown the complete process of jewellery production. It started downstairs in the factory where I saw the beginning of all jewellery production where the gold, silver and copper is made into the correct concentration and manageable amounts of it. I was then taken to an area where they turned the pieces of silver/gold into chains or what ever shape was required. This work was done with machines that is over viewed by humans with large magnifying glasses to check that everything is done perfectly. I was then taken into several rooms where the jewellery is checked and tested with strict guidelines. One of these rooms had multiple bath-like tubes filled with sulphuric acid and cyanide which is used to clean the chains because when they come out of the previous stage they are greasy and mucky, so the acid cleans them.
I was then taken upstairs where I was again shown several different rooms. The first one of these was a room where a group of people were hand engraving lockets and putting them together, which looked very fiddly and difficult to do but the results are amazing. The next room was where there was another group of people who cut chains at the required length and style. The chains are taken from this room into one next to it where machines, again operated by humans with large magnifying glasses to make sure that the bolts, triggers and hooks connect to the chain properly.
I was then showed the order processing rooms that are divided into two rooms. The Gold Room, for the part of the order that contains gold and the Silver Room that deals with the silver part of the order. I was then shown Order Dispatch. Order Dispatch is where the orders are packaged, tagged and put in a bag when they are then taken to the post van and dispatched to the customer.
The following day, Tuesday, I got to spend the entire day doing IT, where I got to make a spread sheet on a survey about the company and its jewellery.
On Wednesday I started a mammoth task which I haven't finished yet (Friday), which is to Cut up 333 pieces of paper into one thousand slips saying that there is a stock clearance at Curteis.com. I then had to put them all in one thousand envelopes, one each, and then label each of these envelopes with its own sticker. On Wednesday I also got to go and help in the Gold Room for about one hour before being sent back because I had picked and made note of all the orders and had nothing left to do!
On Thursday I went to help in the Silver Room, which operates in much the same way as the Gold Room. After that I went to the chain cutting room where I had to manually cut 750 silver chains that were then sent to be polished. I then went to help in Order Dispatch when I logged up on to the computer what orders were going out with their order number. An example of an order number is 1145950001. I also produced invoices for orders which I would later put into Royal Mail packaging and then into large bags that would be given to the RM.
On Friday I helped out with the financial side of things as well as continuing with the post job. I did things like creating news letters and making logs on what parcels went where and for how much.
Through out work experience I was greeted by loyal and friendly workers”.
Many people know the story of Curteis Ltd’s origins in a farm house called Towed Hall, where the Curteis family lived. And how the modern factory we operate in, is built on the farm’s land. What is less well-known is how deep the company’s role in the local community goes: Most of the company’s staff live, and many were born, within a few miles of the factory. We all use the rural shops, pubs and schools near to our workplace. And almost everyone who works for the company has a friend or relative also working here.
Each year the company welcomes one or two pupils from the local schools on a Work Experience scheme. The following is Ryan’s story, in his own words, of his week at Curteis:
“My name is Ryan. I came here, to Curteis Limited, for a week of work experience that is a compulsory scheme at Lakelands Sports and Language College. I came here for experience in IT work because that is what kind of work I am interested in.
When I arrived on Monday I was given a tour of the factory where I was shown the complete process of jewellery production. It started downstairs in the factory where I saw the beginning of all jewellery production where the gold, silver and copper is made into the correct concentration and manageable amounts of it. I was then taken to an area where they turned the pieces of silver/gold into chains or what ever shape was required. This work was done with machines that is over viewed by humans with large magnifying glasses to check that everything is done perfectly. I was then taken into several rooms where the jewellery is checked and tested with strict guidelines. One of these rooms had multiple bath-like tubes filled with sulphuric acid and cyanide which is used to clean the chains because when they come out of the previous stage they are greasy and mucky, so the acid cleans them.
I was then taken upstairs where I was again shown several different rooms. The first one of these was a room where a group of people were hand engraving lockets and putting them together, which looked very fiddly and difficult to do but the results are amazing. The next room was where there was another group of people who cut chains at the required length and style. The chains are taken from this room into one next to it where machines, again operated by humans with large magnifying glasses to make sure that the bolts, triggers and hooks connect to the chain properly.
I was then showed the order processing rooms that are divided into two rooms. The Gold Room, for the part of the order that contains gold and the Silver Room that deals with the silver part of the order. I was then shown Order Dispatch. Order Dispatch is where the orders are packaged, tagged and put in a bag when they are then taken to the post van and dispatched to the customer.
The following day, Tuesday, I got to spend the entire day doing IT, where I got to make a spread sheet on a survey about the company and its jewellery.
On Wednesday I started a mammoth task which I haven't finished yet (Friday), which is to Cut up 333 pieces of paper into one thousand slips saying that there is a stock clearance at Curteis.com. I then had to put them all in one thousand envelopes, one each, and then label each of these envelopes with its own sticker. On Wednesday I also got to go and help in the Gold Room for about one hour before being sent back because I had picked and made note of all the orders and had nothing left to do!
On Thursday I went to help in the Silver Room, which operates in much the same way as the Gold Room. After that I went to the chain cutting room where I had to manually cut 750 silver chains that were then sent to be polished. I then went to help in Order Dispatch when I logged up on to the computer what orders were going out with their order number. An example of an order number is 1145950001. I also produced invoices for orders which I would later put into Royal Mail packaging and then into large bags that would be given to the RM.
On Friday I helped out with the financial side of things as well as continuing with the post job. I did things like creating news letters and making logs on what parcels went where and for how much.
Through out work experience I was greeted by loyal and friendly workers”.
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