Entrepreneurial students get their big break with Nissan
By: News Archive
Two University students from Norwich have delivered first aid training to staff at Nissan, after setting up their own business.
Harrison Young, who recently graduated with a Paramedic Science Diploma from University of East Anglia (UEA) and William Allen, an Army Reserve medic who is studying for an integrated masters in Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Suffolk (UoS), founded Medical Training Solutions Ltd. in November 2017.
In January this year they were offered the opportunity to deliver training at Nissan Technical Centre in Cranfield and are set to train more staff at Nissan Design Europe in Paddington, London.
William, 23, said: “It has been such an incredible opportunity for us, Nissan are internationally known and their workforce is huge.”
Their business idea was sparked after Harrison, 24, witnessed poor workplace first aid while on shift with the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST). He said: “I attended an incident at a supermarket where a man had been suffering from a heart attack, and the staff hadn’t recognised the signs. This unfortunately resulted in him having a cardiac arrest.
“We did everything we could for him when we arrived, but he sadly passed away. I kept going over the incident, asking myself whether better first aid training, would have given the staff the confidence to identify the heart attack and act sooner. This was our chance to make a difference.”
“It’s a well-known fact that the ambulance service and wider NHS are extremely busy, which makes workplace first aid even more important, especially in life-threatening situations.”
The pair have known each other since the age of 11 and both joined the Army in their teens, serving for around five years each. William said: “We both have very similar personalities where drive and ambition is important to us. I think my biggest fear is unfulfilled potential, and I don’t ever want to settle for second best.”
In their quest to improve workplace first aid, they took advantage of the UEA Student Enterprise Service which offers help, guidance and funding to students and recent graduates to help them turn their business ideas into a reality.
“We’ve both always had a strong business sense, but we’ve been in the Army most of our working lives so we really benefited from the workshops around marketing, networking and social media,” said Harrison.
Their tailored in-house courses are accredited, regulated and delivered by practicing health care professionals who incorporate the latest clinical guidance and research into their teaching.
Harrison who was in the Parachute Regiment, and William who used to be in the Royal Military Police, are keen to contribute to the community and will be donating a proportion of their profits to the UK’s leading veteran’s mental health charity, Combat Stress. They are also keen to take their training abroad and have been supporting the charity Futurestars by donating medical supplies and intend to deliver training in West Africa later this year.
In addition to working full time for EEAST and starting a business, Harrison has received a prize for best overall academic achievement in his university cohort. Now he has graduated, Harrison will continue to work for EEAST as a newly qualified Paramedic. While William, who has recently completed his second year of his masters alongside cofounding the company, is on track to receive a first-class degree.
Harrison added: “It is daunting setting up your own business from scratch on the back of an idea. But it’s all about having drive, ambition and the belief that your idea can make a difference.”
To contact Medical Training Solutions Ltd. email info@mtscourses.co.uk or click here.
Related Articles
Nurses worldwide rely on intuition to triage patients
Nurses around the world use intuition to work out how sick a patient is before triaging for treatment according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Read more
UEA nursing apprentice’s sky-high dive for Alzheimer's and Dementia awareness
On Sunday 24 September, University of East Anglia (UEA) nursing apprentice Francessca Turrell will be taking part in a charity skydive for Alzheimers Society, a UK care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers.
Read more
New book to focus on Norwich’s medieval logos
Logo Rewind: Trademarks of Medieval Norwich is a new book from UEA Publishing Project, in collaboration with CreativeUEA and featuring the work of Darren Leader, which will focus on the stories of Norwichs medieval merchants marks found in different locat
Read more