Working in health and social care is incredibly rewarding, and full of opportunities. There’s a huge range of potential professions to choose from, from the more well-known nursing and medical roles to therapy jobs, scientific roles, and careers in social work and care, to name a few.

Recently a project in Hastings has been encouraging primary school children in year 5 to consider future careers in health and social care, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The aim is to broaden the children’s horizons and ambitions and encourage them into fulfilling and skilled employment in the future.

The Aspirations project has the ethos ‘if you can see it, you can be it’. By showing children the types of roles they could work in, and the skills they’d need, it can help them see themselves in these types of professions. Importantly, it also educates them on the skills and subjects they might need to make it happen.

The Aspirations team uses a range of information to help choose the schools to take part. Then over seven sessions, children can hear about the project, choose to take part, and have opportunities for exciting interactive sessions with several different health and care professionals. These include roles like critical care nurse, junior doctor, midwife, school nurse, social worker and microbiologist. Most of the professionals taking part live locally too.

As well as learning about the jobs and what a typical day might involve, children get the chance to join in practical tasks, like practicing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and how to use a defibrillator. Through question-and-answer sessions with the professional, they can find what kind of skills they might need for that role, like staying calm under pressure, communication, problem solving, and leadership.

In the first year (2023/24) the project has worked with 104 children across four schools in Hastings. At the beginning of the sessions 13% of the children said they wanted a career in health and social care, which increased to 32% by the end. They could also identify lots more health and care professions, going from 15 to 25.  Other results included:

• 88% identified English and maths as essential for all future jobs/careers.
• 72% said that they knew what it was like to work in the NHS.
• 80% identified that they had learnt about different jobs and qualifications.
• 59% said that it was important to eat healthily and drink water to stay healthy when you work.
• 84% said they knew how to do CPR and find and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) in an emergency.

Over the next three years, the Aspirations team will be working with three primary schools in Hastings per year, so many more children can benefit from it. A particular focus will also be given to parents, to explore training and careers pathways for their children and for themselves.

The Aspirations project is delivered by Hastings based charity Education Futures Trust. The project pilot was funded by NHS Sussex’s Universal Healthcare programme, which took place over two years in Hastings and supported a range of co-created projects aiming to reduce health and care inequalities. It is now funded for the next three years by Public Health at East Sussex County Council.

Marie, Project Manager from Education Futures Trust, says:

‘‘Children are incredibly influenced by what’s around them and the kinds of jobs they see other people doing. For example, we often get children telling us they’d like to be YouTubers or footballers when they grow up, as this is frequently what they see in the media. Early exposure to a range of different career options is really important so they know there are lots of opportunities open to them. We also really focus on building skills that would be helpful for any future career, and the importance of subjects like English and maths. The children who have taken part so far have overall really enjoyed the experience.’’

Director of Public Health Darrell Gale said: ‘‘The COVID-19 pandemic brought medics and scientists like Professor Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance into children’s lives as never before, and we hope this inspired many of them to consider wanting to build their careers in these areas.

Research has shown the importance of ‘career related learning’ in primary schools to expose children to the world of work and broaden their aspirations. Through the Aspirations project we want to increase local children’s awareness of potential job options in the health and care sector and encourage them not to rule things out.

This is important for the future as it would enable children from Hastings to access high quality jobs, which means secure income, which impacts on their mental and physical wellbeing. It could also benefit the local health and care workforce of the future.

The pilot of this project showed some really positive results, and we’re pleased that more schools in Hastings will have the opportunity to take part over the next three years.’’