A new and improved Step into the NHS schools competition has re-opened for entries, giving students the chance to celebrate the NHS’ 75th birthday and schools the chance to meet the Gatsby benchmarks.
Developed in partnership with teachers, the careers competition encourages secondary school students to research and create a job advert for an NHS profession while learning about over 350 careers in the health service.
Last year’s national winning entry told the story of a student’s journey to become a medical physicist, through a creative stop-motion video using Lego pieces. 
Evelyn Duxbury, 2022 national winner, said: “I really enjoyed the Step into the NHS contest because it allowed me to experiment with my creativity while exploring my favourite subjects, mathematics and science. I hope it inspires other young people to look into the wide range of jobs that are available in the NHS.”
For the first time, this year’s winning students will have the chance to see their advert put on public display in their local community. Amazon vouchers and goody bags are also available to win as well as the chance to have their entry displayed in the upcoming Step into the NHS online gallery.
The teacher resources are free to download and aligned to the KS3 curriculum, supporting teachers to meet several aims of the Department for Education’s careers strategy and the Gatsby benchmarks for Good Career Guidance.
Naomi Winmill, teacher of science and careers lead at St Crispin’s school in Berkshire, said: “Running the competition at St Crispin’s was a fantastic opportunity for our students to discover the world of careers, improve their job-seeking skills and learn about the NHS as an employer.”
The resources were fully flexible and easy to deliver, and my class really enjoyed the challenge. Our winner, Evelyn, was over the moon at being named national winner, having worked extremely hard on her entry, and presenting it to a virtual panel of judges.”
The Step into the NHS competition is now open and accepting submissions until 30th April 2023. It now takes as little as one hour to deliver the learning from with the new ‘one lesson launch’ resource, which is downloadable from the Step into the NHS website.
Stacey Drake, careers and employability lead at Daventry Hill School and 2020’s UK Careers Leader of the Year, said: “It has been a privilege to judge the Step into the NHS competition and get a sneak preview of the students’ amazing entries. This competition is fantastic in helping young people understand the vast number of NHS professions, while exploring their creative side.”
With Ofsted now wanting evidence of schools meeting the Gatsby benchmarks as part of their inspections, Step into the NHS offers a programme of work that can really help.”
Visit the Step into the NHS website https://www.stepintothenhs.nhs.uk/ for more information and how to enter the contest.
