We live in an increasingly digital world and none are more digitally savvy than our young people. Technology is weaved into all aspects of their lives. Not only are they experts at using phones, tablets, pcs and other devices, they are pretty much an indispensable part of their school and social lives.
ORCHA have been working with schools to develop a unique support system for school children: The Digital Healthy Schools programme. This is an educational programme which helps young people to responsibly navigate the world of health and wellbeing apps: to identify good apps and apply them to the needs of themselves, their families and their friends. The programme includes bespoke learning resources and tools that have been co-designed with young people, parents and teachers.
During this work, we discovered that students are keen to understand more about career paths and different roles available across the digital health sector.
As technology-based health and wellness interventions increase in number, HEALTH and DIGITAL need to come together, and we need more people working in this exciting space who have the skills to do so. Therefore, we want to find a way to get the relevant information to students and encourage their interest in this exciting career path.
Research* has shown that that parents/ carers feel that they are their children’s main influencers and, in the main, feel confident about giving careers advice. They would be more confident, however, if there was a parent-specific online resource to give them the necessary information they lacked. So, we want to create a package for schools and parents to enable them provide students with the information they need to support students explore a career in the exciting world of digital health.
We really value your opinion on how you think we could build upon the Digital Healthy Schools work, to provide support and guidance on careers in digital health: what information might be useful? what should this look like?
This survey will take just 5 minutes, and all information will be confidential and anonymous and will help create a solution which we will provide to young people across the country. We will not pass your information to any other parties.
*Link to research https://www.accesshe.ac.uk/yYdIx0u7/Parental-Influence-Report-2015-FINAL-1-JULY-00000003.pdf
