NE1, in partnership with Newcastle Hospitals, hosted ‘The Big One’ this week, an NHS careers event for 500 students from across the region. The third annual event was organised by NE1 as part of its NE1 CAN programme, which offers strategic support to the city’s business community by bringing industry sectors together with education and youth providers to deliver real-life career insights and raise aspirations and ambition in young people. Newcastle Hospitals is the largest employer in Newcastle city centre.
The event highlighted the wide range of career opportunities available across Newcastle Hospitals in addition to traditional medical and clinical roles. It offered participants practical, hands-on activity sessions, combined with day-in-the-life talks with professionals from different departments and disciplines ranging from midwives to managers and physios to pharmacists.
The event targeted students in Key Stages 4 and 5 with 20 education providers from across the region attending the biggest event in NE1 CAN’s autumn programme.
Newcastle Hospitals employs around 16,000 people in roles suited to a wide range of skills and abilities. The event offered a unique insight into the organisation, the careers available in the NHS and how to get into them. It also allowed direct conversations with potential future employees, breaking down perceived barriers, and connecting the school curriculum to careers and the world of work.
The day was divided into two sessions: the morning session was aimed at Key Stage 4 students in Years 9, 10 and 11 while the afternoon session focused on Key Stage 5 students, those aged 16 and over.
The sessions centred on 20 stations, with participants alternating between practical, hands-on activities and interactive discussions. The practical sessions included a midwifery station where students had the chance to deliver a baby using simulated models, and a resuscitation and CPR station where trained nurses taught students how to perform chest compressions on a dummy. Career insight talks and day-in-the-life presentations were interspersed with these practical activities to balance discussion with hands-on learning.
The goal was to provide information at a crucial stage in participants' educational journeys, helping them make informed decisions and broaden their career options and aspirations.
The education providers came from across the North East, from Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland, Northumberland and North and South Tyneside.
Kerry McCabe, Business Network Manager at NE1 Ltd said: “NE1 CAN offers Newcastle’s business community the rare opportunity to get in front of their potential future workforce and help shape the job candidates of tomorrow. These tailored and targeted sessions inform the next generation about the career opportunities available across different business sectors.
“The BIG ONE is the largest event in our calendar delivered in partnership with Newcastle city centre’s largest employer, Newcastle Hospitals. The young people who attended the event were engaged and enthusiastic, and all said they were inspired by the NHS staff they met and the opportunities available.”
“NE1 CAN events are designed to support our city centre businesses, helping tackle recruitment, retention and diversification issues while showing young people from across the region the opportunities available here in Newcastle and helping them make informed decisions about their future.”
Caroline Docking, Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs at Newcastle Hospitals Trust, said: “Newcastle Hospitals is one of the biggest employers in the city and we have an extraordinary range of careers available.
“Events like The Big One give us a fantastic opportunity to open young people’s eyes to those possibilities, from clinical and scientific careers to roles in digital, engineering, finance, communications, estates and many more.
“We want young people from every background and every community to be able to see a future for themselves in the NHS. Meeting our colleagues, hearing about their experiences and getting hands-on with different roles can help turn something they may never have considered into a real career ambition.
“Working in the NHS can be challenging, but it is also hugely rewarding. Every day, our colleagues use their skills to make a difference to patients, families and communities, and we hope some of the young people we met at The Big One will become our colleagues of the future.”
Janet Leigh, Careers Advisor from Lord Lawson Academy in Gateshead, said: “NE1 CAN’s Big One event provides a fabulous way to bring STEM to life for our students, giving them practical, hands-on, interactive sessions and the chance to speak directly with professionals from different departments within the NHS. These first-hand conversations and insights are really inspiring for students and can help shape the rest of their lives. Students remember these events, and the experience stays with them, with many likely to pursue careers within the NHS. One of our students who came to the first NE1 CAN’s Big One event two years ago is now applying to study medicine at University.”
Lord Lawson School attends many of the NE1 CAN events covering other industry sectors including law, architecture, IT and creative media.
Rebecca Thompson from Thorpe Academy in Ryton in Gateshead said: “This is the second time we have attended the BIG ONE event with our students studying Health and Social Care. One key thing about the event is that students get to talk directly to professionals within the NHS. It was wonderful to see our students engage, ask questions, participate in interactive sessions, and learn about the range of opportunities available to them.”
“We take the learnings from the event back to school and into the classroom, looking at the pathways students need to follow and working with them to shape their progress and help them achieve their goals.”
Two of the participants in the BIG ONE event, Eadie and Niamh from Jarrow School, said: “We came to the event to learn about careers in Health and Social Care and find out about all the jobs and professions in the NHS. We are interested in midwifery and nursing and really enjoyed all the activity sessions, especially the CPR and intubation stations where we put tubes into the throat of a dummy. The event has really helped us to understand the different roles in the NHS and find out what a typical day looks like in some of these jobs.”
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