Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT) is championing a nationwide schools competition by NHS Careers.

As part of the Step into the NHS careers campaign, the competition aims to get young people aged 12 to 14 thinking about health service careers.

With more than 350 different roles and 1.3 million employees, the NHS means more than being a doctor or a nurse, yet when asked to give their perceptions of the NHS more than half of young people associated it entirely with hospitals and medical professionals.

Working individually or in groups of up to four, students in Bradford and Airedale must produce a job description, advertisement and CV of the perfect candidate for an NHS job.

A panel of experts in the fields of health, education and Government policy will judge the competition when it closes on March 31 with the winners announced in May.

There are 500 prizes to be won, with ten regional winners and one overall national winner, plus 500 runners-up.

Sabiya Khan, workforce development facilitator at the tPCT, said: “By supporting the Step into the NHS schools’ competition, we can hope to broaden the perceptions young people living in the district have of the NHS and the career prospects open to them.”

To find out more about the competition, log on to nhscareers.nhs.uk or email Sabiya at sabiya.khan@bradford.nhs.uk.