With recruitment into the NHS having never been so important as now, colleagues from the people services team at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust have been busy inspiring the next generation – right from the very beginning of their school days!
There often articles and videos published about the many different routes for people of all ages into the health service, from degree courses and apprenticeships, to work experience and placements.
But the trust also has a specialist team that goes out into both primary and secondary schools with the aim of raising awareness of the diverse range of careers available in the NHS to children at the very earliest age.
Caroline Stone, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s careers and employability skills facilitator, explained: “We’ve found that among lots of young people there’s a bit of a misconception that everyone who works in the trust must be a doctor or nurse and nothing else – mainly thanks to the many TV dramas and YouTube clips out there!
“When we visit schools, we obviously still want to promote a medical or nursing career to young people, but we also find out exactly what they’re interested in, so we can tailor our conversation to fit that. For example, it may be that they love science, so we’d talk to them about the many healthcare scientist roles available.
“The whole purpose of the work we do is to engage with young people at an early age, planting those seeds that a career in healthcare could be for them.
“We also try to dispel some of those other myths, such as every single colleague working 12-hour shifts and on Bank Holidays, as this actually all depends on the setting and role.
“Another example is that most young people who want to work with children in the future tend to believe that the only realistic path would be becoming a paediatric nurse, while actually there are so many more roles available.
“On the other hand, some people may walk past us at a careers fair, and when we ask if they’re interested in a career in the NHS, they might tell us ‘no thanks, we want to work in IT.’
“That’s when we tell them what goes on behind the scenes with clinical systems, equipment, cyber security and so on – they’re usually amazed!”
Most of the primary school visits and engagement is led by Mark Carter, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s future careers facilitator, who even runs a special Teddy Bear Hospital.
“There’s no point in bombarding the very young kids with information, but instead we want to inspire them through practical things, which is why I tend to take a Teddy Bear Hospital with me to primary schools,” said Mark.
“This basically involves allowing the children to play with the bears, and some of the ‘medical equipment’, and within that setting we talk about which professions may use that equipment in very simple terms – no jargon allowed here!
“In total we’ve held 27 events for primary schools and have spoken to 1,315 kids so far this school year – an incredible effort.”
The feedback from teachers at the schools visited by the team has been unanimously positive. One teacher said: “Mark was informative and the learning was well pitched to our children. I loved that it included the stoma bag and hearing aids, which was very useful for discussions and future learning.”
Another teacher said: “The children had a brilliant time exploring the poorly teddy bears and the equipment. They developed their use of medical vocabulary during the session and engaged in role play to support our topic of ‘People Who Help Us’.
“They were able to ask questions and were interested to learn about the range of careers available in the NHS. They were aware of the roles of doctors and nurses but weren’t aware of the need for plumbers and decorators to help the hospital to function. We will definitely use the service again as our children had a very memorable afternoon.”
Caroline added that one of the other areas the team tries to address is the misconception that everyone in the NHS must have a degree.
“There are so many entry levels to a career in the NHS, such as apprenticeships,” she continues. “Many people don’t realise that it’s possible to come in as a healthcare assistant and work their way up to be a registered nurse.
“Much of the work we do with secondary school children is targeted to the latter years, but that tends to be the schools’ decision. For Years 7 and 8, our focus is more on careers talks and workshops, and Mark’s been doing some simulation with them, where we use a mannequin – a little more advanced than teddy bears of course!
“We provide them with more details about what the job roles are, and we talk about them in more depth and within their faculties, such as pharmacy, healthcare scientists or allied health professionals.
“For the older children, we focus more on the actual pathways into a career, including the practical steps they can take and the detail behind that. We also offer work experience and talk to them about NHS pay bands, career development and other practical aspects.
“We attend a lot more careers fairs for secondary schools too, as well as mock interviews, and we’ve invited both teachers and students alike to visit our hospitals.
“In total we’ve attended 59 events and spoken to 3,916 secondary school and further education students since the current school year began in September 2025, as well as hosting 164 work experience placements.
“We always encourage people to do work experience, because reading or hearing about it only gets you so far, and it can make a huge difference. Some people can come in and realise that they don’t enjoy a particular work environment and that’s good as it helps to guide them for their training.
“One of our sixth form work experience students, Harriet, did some work experience in our audiology department and she now works there too, via an apprenticeship – a great success story, which you can read all about here!”
One of our former work experience students said: “One role I learned about was clinical coding, a profession I had never heard of before, but I found it very interesting to learn more about a role that apparently few know of. It showed me that there are many jobs in a hospital that are not very well known but could be an opportunity for me to take in the future.”
Caroline continued: “It’s well known that recruitment can be difficult in some areas of the NHS, and if we don’t have these sort of schemes then young people may not necessarily think of us or realise the range of opportunities we have available.
“In fact, I’ve sat through colleagues talking about their own careers and they mention how they’ve trained to do a certain role, which I personally didn’t even know existed!
“There’s so much that our trust does, and the teachers are even surprised at this, but unless we go out and chat about it then people won’t know – we’ll keep spreading the word!”