Secondary school students visit for ‘Explore Humber’ Careers Event

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust is working with local schools to highlight the wide range of opportunities available to young people considering a career in healthcare. In July, around 50 students visited Trust HQ to meet with staff from a range of services and professions for their Explore Humber event.

The event showcased five different roles and services that exist within the Trust with interactive stations that allowed young people to try out some equipment and learn more about what patients could experience, and how to support them. The station provided by Occupational Therapists demonstrated what it was like for patients with limited hand movement, by asking students to wear gloves or mittens while trying to open a bag of sweets. These practical activities really brought to life the work of services in a way that young people could enjoy and learn from.

In attendance were Speech and Language therapists who were explaining their roles to the students. One young person commented, “My brother uses this service, and I didn’t really know what that meant before today, so now I can go home and talk to him about it.”

Members of the Trust’s Executive Management team also came along to meet the young people and share their insights about working in the NHS, highlighting how important the Trust views these events in building our future workforce.

Liam Smith, Psychologist at Miranda House said, “We are really keen to meet young people and share what a career in psychology within an inpatient unit can look like. However, due to the nature of our work we aren’t able to invite them into units. That’s why events like this are fantastic for highlighting our work and hopefully inspiring the next generation of psychologists in our area.”

Feedback from the young people confirmed how these events can open their eyes to employment opportunities that they weren’t previously aware of and how rewarding a career in healthcare can be. One student fed back their highlight was “Using the equipment and learning about the different solutions to health problems”. Another really valued the insight into services saying, “I enjoyed learning about all different careers that we can go into, especially because it linked to people who use these services in my home life.”.

Oliver Shipp, Career Development Co-ordinator, shared how the reflections from the young people highlight how much the event delivered, “When asking the students about how we could improve the event, we received no negative feedback at all. The main overall opinion was they would just like to see even more stations to interact with and spend longer with our teams.”

These events are part of a programme of work the Career Development Team at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust deliver. Young people interested in getting involved are encouraged to speak to their school’s career advisers who can link in with the Trust’s work experience team. The team deliver a range of accessible ways for young people to learn more about careers in the NHS and the options available to them. Any enquiries about opportunities can be sent to their Career Development Team via email at hnf-tr.careerdevelopment@nhs.net