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Articles > Customer Showcases > Optimising career and mentoring opportunities: A case study from the OBM Hub

Optimising career and mentoring opportunities: A case study from the OBM Hub

Hear how Bedford Modern School in the UK leverages ToucanTech's functionality for careers activities — from a Valentine's Day speed-networking event to ongoing mentoring throughout the year.
1 Mar 2024
Written by Toucan Tech
United Kingdom
Customer Showcases

Emma Adkins and Chloe Feeney from the development team at Bedford Modern School, share some of their simple but effective careers networking initiatives!

 

How have you been promoting and managing careers activities at the school?

Previously, we have always invited our alumni to volunteer at school careers events on an individual basis, utilising the information in our ToucanTech database. However, for our most recent careers event, ‘Loving Your Work’, which took place on Valentine’s Day, we decided to add it as an event on our ToucanTech-powered community website. 

The format was similar to that of speed dating, but ‘speed networking’ instead. Alumni mentors had a few minutes with small groups of students to talk about their career, why they love their job, and answer any related questions, eventually making their way around the room. 

We promoted it through our monthly email news bulletin and we were extremely pleased with the uptake. We had more than 30 alumni sign up to attend, which was fantastic given that they all had to take time off work.

 

Has your ToucanTech community site driven any successful careers connections?

It has. Our Careers page has been very helpful in enabling our alumni to search for other members in a specific field, especially those who are starting out or changing their careers. Through searching on The OBM Hub and reaching out to OBMs, multiple people have been offered work experience opportunities, support with interview preparation and we have been able to invite volunteers to careers events.

It is helpful that we can monitor the messages that are sent via ToucanTech between mentors and mentees. We do keep an eye on these messages, and it’s great to see the support that our alumni offer each other.

 

What age or year groups do you invite joining the site?

We invite all school-leavers to join the site at either Year 11 (age 16) or Year 13 (age 18). Any current students or alumni who are under 18 have restricted access to the site and have limited abilities on The OBM Hub, for example, not being able to message other members directly.

 

OBM Hub Facts & stats (Feb 2024):

  • School founded in 1764
  • Located in Bedford, United Kingdom
  • 15,234 database records
  • 1,572 online profiles
  • 4,500 newsletter recipients
  • 250 monthly community logins
  • 30 monthly mentor searches

 

ToucanTech functionality used:

  • Alumni/Fundraising database
  • Community website
  • Email system and newsletters
  • Careers & Mentoring
  • Events ticketing
  • Online merchandise
  • News & magazines
  • Photos & archive material
  • Online donations & donor tracking

 

Read more

You can find product support guides relating to ToucanTech's Careers functionality here: https://support.toucantech.com/news/careers.

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