Olivia`s Work Experience Diary

Hi, we are Lily and Olivia, two school students, who chose to do our week of work experience from the 12th July to the 16th July at CDA Products Ltd.

CDA Products is a company that is owned and run by our grandparents. Whilst we are doing our work experience, we will learn what it is like to be in a workplace and give ourselves an idea of what the future withholds for us when we leave either secondary school or college. We will experience different roles in the workplace and the different jobs in a manufacturing business.

We chose to do work experience here after getting rejected by every other business and companies we tried to contact like vets due to our age, covid or health and safety.

Before we started our work experience, we were given a contract to read and sign to inform us of the rules and regulations that we must abide and follow. The contract entailed such rules as: No jewellery could be worn and that you must wear the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that was provided on the first day.

On our first day we started the day by reading the staff training PowerPoints on different subjects which are a part of the workplace and reading Covid restrictions. We were then told and shown what to do if a fire was to occur and shown both emergency fire exits. Then we helped clean our working space and put on PPE (Disposable gloves, hairnets, and an apron/overalls) after washing our hands thoroughly. We then entered the food preparation room and were given all the equipment we needed to help assist and create an order. We were shown how to pop dots out of wafer paper and then how to seal a bag and pack it neatly; we then did this ourselves for a few hours whilst making a mess. We were also shown how to print onto the wafer paper. We had a few breaks – A normal break and a lunch break. After lunch we helped label packages and arrange them into piles ready to be sent to whoever ordered them. Then we started working on the press – a machine that creates the circles into the wafer paper- This led to us making our own dots. We did this with blue wafer paper. At first we struggled a bit with the machine and getting all the wafer paper lined up together neatly but after a while we got the hang of everything and created a routine whilst operating the press, whilst one person was hole-punching the wafer paper so it could g into the machine the other person was operating the machine and creating dots. After we did that, we would pile the sheet of dots in a box. Once the day was over, we helped tidy the food preparation room by hoovering and wiping down every surface with antibacterial spray.

On our second day we started the day with sorting orders off of Amazon and eBay ready for delivery. We then packed the orders and stuck the delivery stickers or the letters/parcels. Whilst we did this we were shown how to print and access an order. Afterwards I created some more blue dots. Then we helped print out/press butterflies decorated with the Jamaican flag onto wafer paper. Once the butterflies were printed out we arranged them into four neat piles and bagged them.

Once we had finished that job we went onto printing and creating white dots with a new type of wafer paper. I was then sent off to go and clean some plastic boxes that had old ink in them which was quite messy but quick. I then went back into the food preparation room to help Lily print out some more white dots.

On our third day instead of doing the same type of work as what we had been doing as the days before, we were sent to work in the company creche to help us decide if we ever would consider working with children or in an early year setting. It seemed quite easy but I think that was due to there being two of us and only one child. I don’t think working with children is an ideal option for me.

On our fourth day we went back to pressing and popping blue dots into the wafer paper. After a while, Lily went onto placing stickers on some butterfly packages. I then was sent to pack some gold butterflies which were quite delicate. We both then went onto pack some blue-ish butterflies, that we had printed out the day before, ourselves. We then left work early so we could get home to write a CV for an ‘interview’ we had the next day.

On our last day, we finalized our CV’s and wrote letters to the manager.


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CDA Products is a UK manufacturer based in the beautiful Dorset countryside near to Shaftesbury in southern England.

We are experts at producing bespoke edible printed and shaped items on wafer paper / rice paper.
We are experienced in supplying custom-built edible decorations and edible labels to commercial bakeries both here in the UK - we also export to 43 countries worldwide.
CDA is a leading brand of retail packed Edible Decorations available to the trade for sales in shops or websites.
We are a UK Manufacturer of quality bespoke small cardboard boxes
We can laser cut and laser engrave both edible products and other materials.
We manufacture Tongue Tattoos
We hold the biggest stock of white and coloured edible wafer paper in the UK for sale to both retail & trade customers. Available in A4, A3 & bespoke tray sizes for non-stick baking and cooking.
We have an immense amount of experience in exporting our products worldwide
We supply edible promotional items from cocktail images to record inserts, from funny faces to emojis and much much more in between.

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Registered Address: 3 Melbury Workshops, Cann Common, Shaftesbury, SP7 0EB, United Kingdom.
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