Fertility in the Toon – Kevin McEleny

This event took place on the 7th October 2019 at the Assembly Rooms, Newcastle.

It was attended by 137 Biology ‘A’ Level students from local schools and colleges, with an emphasis on students from disadvantaged areas.

The aims were to raise their interest in Life sciences and to make them aware of the range of careers available to them in Health Care and Life Science, (especially in the field of Fertility) areas in which the North East is an International Leader.

The feedback was excellent

92% of students said that it had increased their interest in health care and life style issues

83% said that they were now more likely to consider a career in healthcare or life sciences

Following brief talks on careers within Fertility and Science, given by staff at Newcastle Fertility Centre and other national leaders, the main focus of the event was an interactive exhibition with 20 stands, where doctors, nurses, clinical scientists and academic staff (mostly from The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital NHS Trust and the University of Newcastle) ran interactive stands where a huge range of learning opportunities were provided by national experts.

The Demonstrations scored 2.8 out of a possible 3 points in the feedback. These included science experiments, nursing topics, sexual health, laparoscopic surgery, childbirth models, basic life saving techniques and many others.

Following this, there was a very popular careers ‘speed dating’ session, with 19 tables where students learned about careers in nursing, various branches of Medicine/Life sciences and also related areas like the pharmaceutical industry. Many students fed back that they were now more interested in pursuing such careers, which was great as many of these jobs were unknown to them beforehand.

The Careers session scored  2.7 out of a possible 3 points.

The next STEM event has been postponed until 2021.  But we will be delivering virtual content to schools.  Keep your eyes out for announcements about this! Perhaps the next great leader in Fertility Health Care or in Life Sciences may be in the audience, waiting to be inspired to achieve great things.