Health and social care students got the chance to meet nurses and therapists from the National Health Service when they attended an interactive careers event.
More than 100 students, from a combination of level one, two and three courses, visited the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS careers day, held at Shrewsbury Town Football Club. The NHS in England has launched their biggest recruitment drive in history this year, to highlight the fact that there are over 350 different careers available within the NHS!
Tracy Leah, learner manager for health, early years and education, said: “Our students were able to take part in a range of different interactive activities on the day, produced by the staff. They got chance to work with the microbiology and fertility teams and were able to talk to nurses from all disciplines – adult, mental health, children and learning disabilities.
There were also occupational therapists, dietitians and radiotherapists on hand to offer careers advice and an NHS fraud specialist.
Brogan Athersmith, a level one health and social care student at Telford College, said: “I really enjoyed the event. I got lots of information about careers, talked to the community children’s nurses and really liked the sound of the job that they do.” Brandon Travis, also on the level one course, added: “I talked to the occupational therapists and found out a great deal about their job role. I didn’t really know much about it before but can now use the information in my assignment work.”
Meanwhile, level three student Tawa Zakari added: “I found the event really informative and learned about many roles in the NHS I had not heard of before. The NHS fraud officer was amazing!”
Tracy Leah added: “It’s clear that the students got a lot out of the visit and have been able to use their findings in their ‘Working in Health and Social Care’ unit back here at college. We have made lots of great contacts as a result of the visit, and have already had offers from the NHS staff to come into college and deliver some talks. This is a perfect example of the partnerships we are building up with local employers – giving students the chance to gain first-hand experience from people with real-life experience in their chosen sectors.”
