ARCS Outreach – the importance of attending career fairs in schools and universities

Recently, I had the delight to join my old team from the University of Dundee to give a short workshop and talk about a career as research technicians, something we have done previously within the University as part of the Technicians Commitment. However, as two out of four of us had since no longer worked for the University and moved onto find work at fertility centres in Dundee and Liverpool, we decided to discuss how our experience as technicians have led us to where we are now.

As part of our session, we had a brief discussion on what is a research technician and the core skills we develop during our work, a lot of which is similar to most embryology and andrology labs: auditing equipment, preparation of specialist reagents and consumables, upkeep of good lab practice and implementation of quality control systems, and perform specialised assays or treatment of cells. Coming from a sperm biology research lab, we found the audience responded well to us showing specific examples of work that was carried out in the lab as for most of the students they may never have came across these experiments and their uses: sperm preparation and semen analysis, sperm capacitation, the Kremer test and many more! As the session went on, we discussed the key differences between the research and clinical labs. I have found the greatest difference between the two is that the stakes feel a lot greater in clinical practice and the weight of a mistake feels heavier than what I experienced before as it can directly impact the patient’s treatment outcomes.

The field of reproductive sciences is growing in the UK, coupled with declining birth rates and an aging population, we are now in more need of trained healthcare scientists working in fertility clinics – from medical lab assistants to scientific practitioners to fully trained clinical embryologists and andrologists. Our field is reliant on people having strong scientific backgrounds and by speaking to university students early in their studies is a great opportunity for us to outreach to! In fact, I would not have been where I am now had I not attended my second-year career’s fair. It was Professor Christopher Barratt’s talk on the field of clinical embryology and the career opportunities available that influenced my decision to embark in this field. Following that presentation, I have dedicated my time and research to choose elective modules and research topics that would set me up for success in the future to work in embryology. My undergraduate thesis looked at governmental research funding dedicated to male and female infertility, a piece of work I was very proud to have published afterwards. Fast forward a few years later, I am now working at the Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool as a Scientific Practitioner! I am hopeful that following our visit, we have given students more options to explore for their future.

A few days after my visit to Dundee, I attended a Liverpool secondary grammar school for their bi-annual career’s fair. I was representing the entire Liverpool Women’s Hospital solo! To add to that, my main challenge was to get these kids to not only simply walk past my stall but to engage and interact with them. I took a page out of the ARCS’ playbook from Fertility 2025 and set up the pipette challenge – moving as many tips as possible from one box to another under 30 seconds, which is harder than it looks! My spare sperm key rings I got from previous conferences got their attention but only the winners of the pipette challenge would get them. It was a simple activity, but it got everyone competitive and having fun, which is the first hurdle. As a few of them stayed around, either defeated or elated which I took as my chance to get to speak with them about working in embryology or andrology. With that, I also tried to link up what they would have covered in school so far. With a couple images of 2PN, 1PN, 3PN embryos and MII eggs, I got to quiz and help educate the students about what we would class as normal and abnormal signs of fertilisation. It was impressive to see what some of these students already knew beyond their expected knowledge.

It is my firm belief that as healthcare scientists we should interact and work closely with both schools and universities if we are needing to grow our field. Access to fertility services will just keep growing, and there is a finite number of us available to meet the demand our society needs. I am grateful to the ARCS Outreach grant team for supporting my attendance to Dundee and looking forward to participating in more outreach events!