STEM
WORK PLACEMENT
1ST June to 4th June 2009
Copeland, Cookstown
Judith Mallon- Maths Teacher
St Joseph’s College, Coalisland
The Company
 Copeland Ltd is part of an American company
called Emerson Climate Technologies.
 Emerson are the worlds’ leading provider of:
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Heating
Ventilation
Air Conditioning
Refrigeration
Oil and Gas
 Copeland started production in 1997.
 They make compressors which are used in
refrigeration, air conditioning and, more
recently, heat pumps.
 At present they make up to 1500
compressors per day. They started off
with 100 per day!

The reason for their success in
this market is the use of Scrolls
inside their compressors.

Most other companies use pistons

These Scrolls and their
production are top secret!

They are made behind “the wall”

Some employees never get behind
the wall and those who work there
have to sign a confidentiality
agreement.

I was lucky enough to get a tour
behind the wall!

Here is a picture of “the wall”. I
wasn’t allowed to take any
pictures behind it.
 In my placement, I shadowed employees
on their day-to-day duties. I discovered
how they used Maths in their job and
where using and applying Maths in the
workplace can be linked to my Schemes of
Work.
 I worked with Engineers, Production
Supervisors, Business Improvement
Facilitators, IT Technicians, Quality
Managers and Human Resource Managers.

I met lots of interesting people.
One employee, Eugene Corr, is a
past pupil of St Joseph’s College.
He has worked in Copeland Ltd
for 11 years.

Eugene completed a HND, Degree
and is now in his final few weeks
of completing a Masters Degree
from The University of Ulster,
Jordanstown.

Copeland Ltd offered him this
opportunity to continue his
professional development due to
his enthusiasm and hard- work.

He did all this alongside his fulltime employment.

Here is a picture of Eugene.
 Another employee is Tom
McQuaid. Tom is a Business
Improvement Facilitator.
 This means he facilitates and
oversees business
improvement initiatives.
 His job resembles a teacher’s
job. He is always trying to find
ways to make improvements
and minimise errors through
group work and problem
solving.
 He certainly gave me some
ideas that I can bring back to
the classroom and implement
in my teaching.
 Here is a picture of Tom.
 To do this work effectively everyone needs
understanding of Maths.
a basic
 For example:
mentally
add and subtract positive and negative
decimal numbers.
 Target-setting and reporting back are done through bar
charts, scatter graphs, box plots, mean and
standard deviation.
 Measurements used include volume, conversion
between metric and imperial units and
trigonometry.
 Problem solving is another key aspect that features strongly
 The employees on the shop floor need to be able to
in the day to day running of the company.
 In terms of softer skills and qualities, an
employee needs to be a team player.
Every department is linked and someone
is always relying on someone else to get
the job done successfully.
 Co-operation, communication, enthusiasm
and adaptability feature strongly
alongside punctuality, attendance and
willingness to take and give direction.
 I intend to encourage my pupils to achieve
these skills and qualities by incorporating
them into my lesson plans and classroom
activities.
 I plan to introduce a more practical
aspect to some of my lessons e.g finding
volumes of boxes.
 Group work is another method I mean to
use more of and is highly relevant to the
Maths curriculum. I have seen its
benefits in terms of employability
through this placement.
 Everyone wears the same uniform right to the
plant manager. This seems to give all employees
a sense of equality and importance.
 Although the type of work was very different
to what I do each day, I also found a lot of
similarities between the running of this
company and that of my school.
 Everyone works together to maximise
production, minimise waste and hence achieve
the best possible results, just like a school.
 The ages of the workforce ranged from 18 to
approximately 50, although there were a few
employees over 50.
 There are around 200 employees made up of
approximately 70% males and 30% females.
 I did notice that the Engineers and Production
Supervisors were primarily male.
 Here are a few pictures of people at work,
including myself.
Catherine and Monica in
Final Assembly
Part of the
manufacturing line
Compressors ready to
be shipped
Packaging
More compressors ready
to be collected and
shipped
Barry and Myself in
Helium Operation
Lisa and Ashleigh in
Human Resources
The top secret “Scroll”
 Although I had a brilliant placement, I
love my job as a teacher so I wouldn’t
change permanently to what I did all
week.
 However it gave me an invaluable insight
into the working environment and the
employability skills that we, as teachers,
need to convey to our pupils.
 I plan to stress to my pupils the
importance of Maths in every aspect of
the working day and show them how it is
relevant to their future employment.
 I cannot emphasise enough how showing
enthusiasm for your job can result in
great rewards and opportunities such as
further education and development thus
leading to promotion and hence a pay rise!