Educational holiday for local schoolchildren

18 February 2016

UCLan Junior University pupils spend half-term break getting hands-on career experience

Youngsters from Lancashire have given up their half-term break to get hands-on career experience.

Year 10 students attended the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) for an action-packed event which saw them test out their skills as police officers, nurses, firefighters, lawyers, physiotherapists and journalists.

These skills were put to use after an ‘accident’ which saw two Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service fire engines and a North West Ambulance Service paramedic car attend a two car ‘crash’ on the Preston Campus.

The University’s Junior University half-term activity was designed to demonstrate the real-world practical nature of a range of health, crime and media subjects on offer at UCLan.

"The hands-on approach to learning was great during this event and it’s given me a good insight into what studying at university will be like."

Georgia Lund and Chloe Ball, from Fulwood Academy, spent the week sampling crime related professions. Fourteen-year-old Georgia, who donned a white suit to work as a crime scene investigator, said: “I find it really interesting watching crime TV programmes so I was really pleased to get the chance to try it out for myself. It’s made me think of doing this job as a career.”

Chloe, 15, added: “The hands-on approach to learning was great during this event and it’s given me a good insight into what studying at university will be like.”

Sophie Gavin, from Burnley’s Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic College, was also among those who collected fibres, dusted for fingerprints and swabbed for blood on cars. The 14-year-old said: “It was a really interesting and totally new experience, it’s not something I’d have learnt about at school. The practical nature of the forensic work really appealed to me so it might be something I look at studying for my degree.”

Fulwood Academy’s Georgia Lund dusting for fingerprints
Fulwood Academy’s Georgia Lund dusting for fingerprints

"The Junior University programme aims to raise the aspirations and broaden the knowledge of high achieving students in the local area so they can consider applying to study at university when the time comes."

The youngsters attended from a wide variety of schools across Lancashire, including Ashton Community Science College; Moor Park High School; Walton-le-Dale High School; Unity Academy Blackpool; Darwen Vale High School; Sir John Thursby Community College, in Burnley; Pendle Vale College, in Nelson; Shuttleworth College, in Padiham, and Golborne High School, in Wigan.

It is the second time in successive years that the emergency services event has taken place.

UCLan Senior Marketing Officer Janet Andrew, one of the organisers, said: “Last year’s event proved so popular with the students and our staff that we decided to run it again this half-term. The Junior University programme aims to raise the aspirations and broaden the knowledge of high achieving students in the local area so they can consider applying to study at university when the time comes. This week of activities has done just that in a fun way and the feedback we’ve received is absolutely fantastic.”

View photos from the event on our Flickr Gallery.