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.
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.
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.
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.
Hazards & Resilience Team (Technology)
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 18-20 May 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
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.
Atmospheric Dispersion & Air Quality Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 22-24 June 2026 - dates TBC (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
Work placement outline: We are experts in 'where stuff goes' in the atmosphere. It might be ash from an erupting volcano, smoke from a wildfire, pollen grains released from vegetation, pollution from a busy road or mineral dust from the Saharan desert. As a team of scientists and software engineers, we develop the understanding and tools to predict how these substances are emitted to, transported around, altered within and removed from the atmosphere. During your placement, you will participate in a short training course, conduct a mini-research project using our sophisticated atmospheric dispersion model, and have a chance to present your results at our User Workshop hosted each June at Met Office HQ.
Communications & Engagement Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 7-9 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
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.
Field Service Engineering Team
Location: Watnall, Nottinghamshire
Date: 14-16 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
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.
Climate Science Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 7-9 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
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.
Analysis and Visualisation of Data Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 30 June – 2 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
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.
International Affairs Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 7-9 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
Work placement outline: Our International Affairs Team supports the development of sustainable weather and climate services across the world, via the United Nations (UN) body the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), to help organisations deal with the impacts of severe weather, climate variability and extremes. The Met Office is a trusted and long-term partner for national governments, donor agencies (who provide financial support for developing economies), National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and non-governmental organisations, including The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), European Centre for Medium-range Weather forecasts (ECMWF) & The European Meteorological Network (EUMETNET). On this placement, you will meet staff from a range of different international roles. This will give you the opportunity to explore how we enable the delivery of weather forecasting, early warning systems and climate services, which help international organisations make the necessary plans to protect against disasters and help societies adapt to and mitigate against the impacts of climate change.
Project Delivery Team
Location: Exeter, Devon
Date: 13-15 July 2026 (3 days)
Application deadline: Monday 23 February 2026
Work placement outline: The Met Office delivers a wide range of projects, both nationally and internationally. During this placement, you will be introduced to the full project lifecycle and gain insight into how our diverse, complementary teams collaborate to deliver projects such as Amazon Face (Amazon Free Air Carbon Enrichment) or Digital TWIN (a virtual model designed to accurately reflect a physical object). You will work closely with Met Office employees, actively participating in project delivery, attending team stand-ups, and joining meetings to experience firsthand what it takes to initiate and bring a project to successful completion. Additionally, this placement will highlight the wider work of the Met Office that is essential to help people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.