There is more to working in the NHS than Doctors and Nurses – the NHS employs people in more than 350 different roles.
The Workforce Employability Team supports Schools, employability organisations and community groups to promote the NHS as an employer of choice and help people develop a better understanding of NHS jobs and careers and pathways into these.
The following resources should help your students and clients explore a wide range of NHS careers and help them better understand that there is an NHS career is for them that matches their interests and skills and meets their aspirations.
Routes into the NHS – Infographic
Find the pathway to an NHS career that matches your skills and experience:
Schools Engagement
NHSGGC is keen to ensure that school pupils have access to accurate information in relation to NHS careers and pathways and recognise our role providing advice and guidance in the school environment. Our schools engagement programme aims to inform, educate and entertain. We help broaden pupils job aspirations, tackle stereotypes about jobs and careers and most importantly highlight the huge range of career opportunities and career pathways within the NHS.
Our engagement programme supports your school’s careers provision as it will help your pupils to link their subject choices to career pathways and supports student aspirations through supportive encounters with employers, employees and role models. We engage with schools through a range of activities:
- NHS Careers Ambassadors
- Careers events
- Virtual visits.
NHS Careers Ambassadors
Our NHS Profession Ambassadors work in a wide range of roles. They can talk to your students about their specific profession, raise awareness of the wide range of NHS Careers, host discussions to support subject choice and share their own career stories. We can tailor session for a specific age group or subject area or Job Family.
Find out more about NHS Scotland Job Families or visit the NHS Scotland Careers website.
Virtual Visits
Our school visits programme can include virtual visits to schools. These visits can take the form of:
- Q&A session specific to a profession
- General advice and guidance on subject choices
- NHS careers pathways and entry routes
- Apprenticeships awareness sessions
- Mock interviews.
What you need to know when making a request
- There is no charge for the visit or talk
- We will prioritise requests from schools within the NHSGGC Board area. If you are outside our catchment area please contact the HR Department for your local health board for support
- We will endeavour to support any request attendance at careers events and parents evenings however we give priority to schools within SIMD 1 and 2 areas or schools who have not had a visit from us before.
How to Organise a Visit
Although we endeavour to arrange a session at your school, we may redirect your visit request to one of our timetabled events or sessions.
1. Decide which of the sessions we offer is most suitable for your class or year group
You may want to bring a number of classes together or ask our Ambassador or the Careers team to address an assembly.
2. Contact us with your request
We will endeavour find a suitable Ambassador you but please note that our Ambassadors are also NHS Professionals delivering a service to patients therefore a minimum of 4 weeks notice is required and we cannot always guarantee your preferred date(s).
Email your request with as many details as you can give us by emailing mark.goldie@nhs.scot
3. Let us know your objectives
For example, is it to support a particular subject area or to give a general overview as part of the careers programme? Please give details about the age of your students so we can tailor the talk.
4. Prepare your students
Tell your students about the visit/session. Ask them to think of questions they’d like to ask. If possible, share these questions with the Ambassador in advance.
5. Please allow enough time
We suggest our Ambassadors deliver a 15-30 minute talk followed by 15-30 minutes of questions and discussion.
Be prepared to remain with your students to ensure the visit/session runs smoothly.
6. Follow up
Consider follow-up lessons relating to the curriculum or careers. Your feedback is important. Please complete the online evaluation we will send you.
Terms and Conditions
By completing our request form you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
We do our best to honour our bookings but we cannot guarantee against staff unavailability, illness, adverse weather conditions, transport problems, or other factors beyond our reasonable control.
If we cannot complete a planned visit, we will tell you as soon as possible and offer you the opportunity to make alternative arrangements.
If you can no longer host the scheduled visit, please tell us as soon as possible to allow us to either cancel the visit or reschedule it for a later date.
Future Nurse Programme
The Future Nurse campaign is a partnership between NHS Scotland Health boards and the Scottish Government to engage directly with pupils in primary schools and learn what Nurse does and to tackle gender stereotypes – its not just for girls.
The project was initiated by Colin McNulty, Senior Nurse Manager at NHS Grampian, who found that attitudes and ideas about nursing are formed as early as primary school for most children.
NHSGGC is currently planning a Future Nurse programme for Primary Schools
Contact the Workforce Employability Team
Workforce Employability Officer – Mark Goldie – mark.goldie@nhs.scot
Workforce Employability Officer – Donna Lennie – donna.lennie@nhs.scot
Job Coach – Josh Thompson – josh.thompson2@nhs.scot
Job Coach – John Mcaulay – john.mcaulay2@nhs.scot