Local pupils go from classroom to career at healthcare role event

School students in Barnsley have been learning more about what it’s like to be an Allied Health Professional with South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
To encourage pupils into the allied health professions, Barnsley community services held a careers day where local students were invited to find out about the roles of podiatrists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, and speech and language therapists.

27 pupils from Outwood Academy Carleton, Greenacre School and Dearne Advanced Learning Centre took part in a range of interactive activities reflecting the roles, including doing Tai Chi with physiotherapists, learning about food groups and nutrients with dietitians, and using a speaking keyboard with speech and language therapists.

Bob Senior, community services manager, said: “Nationally there’s a shortage of students for the number of Allied Health Professional roles available, so we wanted to try and encourage young people into the roles by showing them the variety of things to do and the job satisfaction you get from joining these professions.

“We made our sessions really interactive to engage the students and you could see on their faces that they were genuinely interested in what these roles involve. One teacher said that it was the best careers event they’d ever been to.

“Some of the students had never even heard of these professions before but through coming to our event, they said they would now consider the roles as a career.”

All 27 pupils reported that the day helped them to understand more about Allied Health Professionals and what they do, with over half saying they would consider a job as an Allied Health Professional when they left school.

Follow Barnsley Allied Health Professionals on Twitter at @BarnsleyAHPs.