We were lucky to be invited along to the Mackie Academy Developing the Young Workforce careers event.
4 members of our team took up the invitation and headed along to tell the S4-S6 students a bit about what we do and how we came to be working in Health Services Research.
We started our hour slot by asking the pupils to take a coloured ball from the box before they took their seats. Katie Banister introduced the team and went on to explain a little about Aberdeen University, HSRU, our funders and Clinical trials. The next part of the presentation involved explaining randomisation. At this point we explained that the students themselves had already been randomised, by using the means of the coloured balls. Those with red balls got a red sweet and those with blue balls got a blue sweet. We then asked the students in each group if they enjoyed their sweets, from this we could show them that we could already start drawing conclusions based on their answers.
In the final part of our presentation Katie (Research Fellow), Louise (Data Coordinator) and Alex (Summer Intern) all took a few minutes to explain a little about how they had come to be working in Health Services Research, the paths they had taken through school, college and university. The job roles that they undertake in the Unit and they key skills needed to fulfil their roles.