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Virtual village created to explore different health and care careers

An innovative, fully bilingual online platform which showcases the wide range of career opportunities available across health and social care in Wales has just been launched

Careersville, developed by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), currently targets learners and young people aged 14 to 16, but will expand to appeal to all ages as it develops.

Visitors to Careersville can navigate through the virtual village and enter various buildings. Within these they can get information on different health and care roles, access resources, watch videos and read blogs to gain insight into what it’s really like to work within the NHS and wider health and care services in Wales.

As considering career options can often be a daunting process, the project’s aim is to make information as easy to access as possible.

With more than 350 different roles available, health and care has something to offer at all stages of someone’s career – particularly if they had only thought of the more obvious roles such as medicine and nursing. They may also assume they need to go to university or have misconceptions about roles and what they involve.

Angie Oliver, Deputy Director of Workforce and Organisational Development at HEIW said: "Our workforce is our greatest asset. Careersville can help to inspire the next health and care professionals and ensure we are meeting the needs of our people in Wales. We are delighted with the feedback from the launch and excited to see Careersville develop as we add more professional areas going forward."

The free-to-use platform is available for learners, teachers, parents or guardians, and careers advisors. It houses different elements of health and care delivery and the associated careers available. Visitors to the site can currently explore six professional areas:

  • Allied health professionals
  • Healthcare science
  • Nursing
  • Medicine
  • Pharmacy
  • Social care and childcare [Social Care Wales building].

Wider career resources are housed in the Skills Library, including the Be the best you can be series, which feature videos on interviews, and university and job application tips. There is also Cornel Cymraeg (Welsh Corner) which showcases the value of speaking Welsh in the workplace, at all proficiency levels.

Careersville successfully launched last month with keynote speakers for each of the professional areas, including the Minister for Health and Social Services, Eluned Morgan MS. It received nearly 3,000 views on the day of the launch and very positive feedback.

Careersville was launched in both English and Welsh simultaneously. The Welsh site, Tregyrfa accounted for 27.7% of the total views received in the first week, which dramatically exceeded expectations.

The development of Careersville will be an ongoing process, with professional areas and information being continually added over the coming months. HEIW’s ultimate aim is for Careersville to become an all-age platform and allow visitors to create an avatar who will be able to visit each building and:

  • gather resources
  • experience virtual reality
  • speak to experts
  • and gain valuable insight into career opportunities.

We will also be running career development sessions including UCAS application support, interview skills and identifying transferable skills. This will allow visitors to build a portfolio of evidence that they will be able to use to support university and job applications.