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25 Identifying effective ways to communicate healthcare science careers to secondary school students

Engaging with secondary school students to raise awareness of the careers available in healthcare science is a vital step in recruitment and development of the future workforce. In order for healthcare science careers events to be successful, it is important to identify the requirements of the targe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of disease in childhood 2020-11, Vol.105 (Suppl 2), p.A8-A9
Main Authors: Radi, Sarah, Heath, Victoria
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Engaging with secondary school students to raise awareness of the careers available in healthcare science is a vital step in recruitment and development of the future workforce. In order for healthcare science careers events to be successful, it is important to identify the requirements of the target audience.A learning needs analysis (LNA) online survey was developed to identify the learning requirements of students, and to gain feedback on the Clinical Immunology laboratory tour video developed for Healthcare Science Day. The LNA was distributed to UK secondary school students via multiple social media channels.The LNA received 48 responses from students across the UK, with a roughly equal distribution of responses across all school years. Slightly over half of the respondents (55%) identified as female, with a mix of different reported ethnicities that demonstrated that the survey had reached a range of respondents.When asked about their current experience of STEM careers, only 47.9% responded that their school had a formalised STEM careers programme, and 54% had not taken part in a STEM careers activity, demonstrating that schools may not be successfully promoting STEM careers to their students, further impacting on uptake of STEM subjects in higher education and application to STEM careers.The majority of respondents agreed that the information in the laboratory tour video was useful (56.3%), but only 33.8% agreed that they would investigate further into healthcare science careers as a result. The general consensus amongst respondents was that the video needed to be longer, and to explain some of the concepts raised in more depth.In conclusion, this survey provided a wealth of useful information that could be used to develop more effective digital STEM careers resources to be used in schools in order to raise the profile of healthcare science careers.
ISSN:0003-9888
1468-2044
DOI:10.1136/archdischild-2020-gosh.25