Sussex agency creates a purpose built work experience programme for two Hurstpierpoint College students, giving them real client projects and a seat in real meetings
A Sussex marketing agency has spent the summer helping two local sixth formers take their first steps into working life, building a work experience programme designed to involve them in the business rather than simply let them watch it.
Phoenix Media Marketing hosted Hurstpierpoint College students Cat B. and Noah S. as part of the College’s Work Experience Placement Scheme. Cat joined the team for the week beginning 13 July and Noah for the week beginning 10 August.
The relationship began back in January, when Grace McKenzie, Director of Futures at Hurstpierpoint College, wrote to Phoenix to ask whether the agency might be able to host a single Lower Sixth student over the summer holidays. Phoenix offered two places.
A genuinely competitive process
Hurst’s Work Experience Placement Scheme is unusual in both its scale and its rigour. The College arranges around 100 weeks of student placements every year. Students apply formally, are interviewed at Hurst, and in some cases, successful candidates then go forward to a second round of interviews with the employers themselves.
This year 101 students applied for placements across the programme as a whole. Four of them applied specifically for the two positions at Phoenix, and shortlisted candidates were interviewed over several weeks before Cat and Noah were offered the places.
The Phoenix Marketing Summer School
Rather than asking the students to shadow a member of staff for a week, the Phoenix team designed a structured programme of its own, the Phoenix Marketing Summer School, and delivered it with the team live alongside the students for most of each day.
The week combined guided learning with live agency work. Students were brought into genuine company and client meetings as observers, worked through practical exercises covering different areas of modern marketing, and were given their own projects to complete using real client briefs.
Both students were also encouraged to bring their own thinking to the work rather than simply follow instructions.
Supporting local education
For Phoenix Media Marketing Managing Director Stuart Humphrey, giving young people meaningful exposure to the workplace is something local businesses are well placed to offer.
“I am a huge believer in businesses supporting local education and helping young people understand the career choices open to them.
“There is an enormous difference between someone describing what a career is like and a young person actually walking into a workplace, joining the conversations, meeting the people doing the job and being trusted to have a go themselves.
“We wanted Cat and Noah to feel part of Phoenix while they were with us. That meant involving them in real agency life and giving them meaningful projects, rather than finding things to keep them occupied for a week.
“Young people are making decisions now about careers that will exist in a world changing very quickly through technology and AI. If businesses can give them a little more confidence, experience and understanding before they make those choices, I think we have a responsibility to do it.
“We are very happy to support Hurst and local education in this way, and I hope it is something Phoenix can continue to build on.”
What the students made of it
Reviewing her week afterwards, Cat B. said:
“Amazing! I did work experience here for a week, they made me feel so welcomed and allowed me to get really involved in what they do like sitting in during meetings and work on my own projects using real clients. I loved it!”
Grace McKenzie, who checked in on Cat several times during the placement, reported that Cat had found it “really insightful to understand everything that goes on behind the scenes” and that the Phoenix team had been “so lovely to her”.
The admiration ran both ways. In its formal evaluation to the College, Phoenix noted that Cat had picked up Canva, software she had never used before and received no instruction in, and simply got on with it, and that she arrived ready and waiting at the start of every day. Her ideas were described as thoroughly thought through and well executed.
Noah’s week began with an unplanned diversion when the team pulled him straight into a company meeting on his first morning. He went on to impress the team with how thoroughly and diligently he approached each task, often giving a more comprehensive and considered response than had been asked for, and choosing to complete some work in his own time so that he finished the full programme.
Phoenix has confirmed to the College that it would definitely be willing to offer placements again next year.
A wider national picture
The placements come at a moment when work experience is receiving renewed national attention.
In May 2026 the Government announced 300,000 new work experience and training placements over the next three years as part of its Youth Guarantee, within a wider package of youth employment support intended to give every young person the chance to earn or learn.
Updated Department for Education statutory careers guidance also places far greater emphasis on meaningful experiences of the workplace. From September 2026, schools are expected to reform their programmes so that pupils receive a week’s worth of work experience activities during Years 7 to 9 and a week’s worth of work experience placements during Years 10 and 11.
The media and creative industries have been moving in the same direction. The BBC runs its own Get In taster experiences for young people interested in media careers, offering an introduction to professional environments, the range of roles available and practical hands on skills.
Credit where it is due
The Phoenix Marketing Summer School was created and delivered by Phoenix team members Tommy James and Deborah Webb.
“Tommy and Deborah deserve a great deal of credit,” said Stuart. “They put real thought and effort into building a programme that would be interesting, useful and challenging, rather than treating work experience as an afterthought.
“Seeing Cat and Noah engage with it so positively made all that work worthwhile. I am incredibly pleased with what the team created.”
Looking ahead
Phoenix hopes the Summer School will become an ongoing part of its relationship with local education, and the agency has already been invited to consider taking part in careers events at the College during the coming year.
In its feedback to Hurst, Phoenix described communication with the College as excellent throughout and added that the agency itself had benefited from the experience, welcoming the opportunity to establish stronger links with the wider community.
Comment from Hurstpierpoint College
“Strong relationships with local employers are enormously valuable in helping our pupils explore the opportunities open to them beyond school. Placements like these give students the chance to experience a professional environment, build confidence and begin to understand how their interests and skills might translate into a future career.
“We are very grateful to Phoenix Media Marketing and its team for the time and thought they gave to making Cat and Noah’s placements so engaging and so practical, as well as the support to the Hurst Work Experience Programme.”
