As part of the NHS 70th birthday celebrations, NHS England have teamed up with Inspiring the Future to get more NHS staff into schools on a regular basis talking about the breadth of interesting roles available and encouraging school children of all ages to consider a career in the NHS.
These volunteer Health Ambassadors will not only show the huge range of jobs available in the NHS but will also get students thinking about the benefit of shaping their choice of GCSE and A-level around STEM subjects that provide vital skills for so many NHS workers and with over 100,000 vacancies and increasing demand for NHS services, encouraging the next generation to take up a career in the NHS is vital to its future.
Information for NHS Staff
We are looking for more NHS staff to register a minimum of 1 hour a year to go into local schools and colleges and talk about their job and the educational route they took to get there. We want to demonstrate the huge range of jobs that are available within the NHS and are interested in volunteers at all levels. Volunteers may be contacted by primary schools all the way up to sixth form colleges and it’s up to the school and volunteers to plan the activity, as a Health Ambassador you will be provided with access to materials to support you and tips about going into schools and engaging children and young people.
Volunteering is simple:
- Use this link to register. To complete our quick registration process you just need to add the postcodes you can volunteer from and some information about your role
- Select ‘Career Insights’ as an activity and any other activities you are interested in
- Respond to invitations from schools that will arrive direct into your inbox and use our interactive maps to search for opportunities near you
- Connect with the teacher to plan your activity, whether that’s giving a classroom talk, participating in a careers carousel with other volunteers or delivering an interactive workshop
If you have any queries please contact our team.
Information for Schools:
If you are a teacher and would like to invite local NHS volunteers to come in to your school or college to talk to your students about a career in the NHS, you will need to be registered with Inspiring the Future. Once registered, please log in to your Inspiring the Future or Primary Futures account. You can then search for volunteers local to your school using our interactive maps and filter using the sector ‘Healthcare’.
Our sister charity, Speakers for Schools is also working with the NHS to help state secondary schools inspire their students and broaden horizons through access to the insights, experiences and expertise of today’s high profile, influential leaders through talks and more – free of charge. Speakers for Schools talks are more appropriate for larger groups or assemblies.
Ashley Hodges, Executive Director of Speakers for Schools said: “We are thrilled to be supporting the NHS’s 70th birthday by helping NHS leadership get into schools across the UK, celebrating not only its amazing contributions to Britain since its foundation, but also the array of specialists, innovators and outstanding individuals that make their work possible. We hope this will help students see the amazing amount of opportunity available in the healthcare sector, from bio-medicine to therapy and support roles, and spark new interests for their future.”