Open Doors- Supporting East Sussex Careers Hub and Modern Work Experience
The East Sussex Careers Hub’s mission is to inspire and prepare young people for the world of work. They are one of 44 Careers Hubs nationally and work with primary, secondary and special schools to improve careers provision and connect them with employers and partners in East Sussex. To help achieve this, they run the Open Doors project each academic year which provides young people with meaningful experiences of the workplace.
The Challenge
Initially the Open Doors project was managed using various spreadsheets to keep track of the visits that were being arranged by schools. However, as the project grew and it became clear that Open Doors will be key to schools achieving the government’s new Modern Work Experience guarantee, a dedicated platform was needed to standardise the process for arranging visits..
The Solution
The Careers Hub worked with Edazoo, who also host our Careers East Sussex platform and had developed a similar system for managing individual work experience placements in East Sussex, to create our booking system.
The aim was:
- To enable schools to view the Open Doors opportunities available and request and arrange visits with businesses directly via the platform
- To provide the Hub with a way of monitoring and reporting visits
- To link it to the Client Record Management System (CRM) used by our Employability and Skills team to track employer engagement
The tool allows schools and colleges to add in additional information to support the placements such as year groups, any students with additional/ SEND needs and once approved by the employer and the Hub, automatic reminders are sent to the teacher and employer three weeks before the visit is due to take place.
Results & Impact
Using the system has been overwhelmingly positive for the Careers Hub and those teaching using it. The Edazoo team have always been responsive to any developments and implemented these quickly!
34 Employer encounters live for schools to choose from
Over 115 visits booked since September 2025 and growing
Reduction in administrative processes
