Cornerstone Employers

Cornerstone Employers work closely with the East Sussex Careers Hub. They act as ambassadors, linking their business contacts with clusters of secondary schools and colleges, influencing careers strategy and ensuring that young people can learn from employers. There are 9 Cornerstone Employers in East Sussex:

• Chaffin Works
• De La Warr Pavilion
• East Sussex County Council
• G M Monk Ltd
• Hastings Contemporary
• Hastings Direct
• Let’s Do Business Group
• LoveLocalJobs
• and NHS Sussex

All of our Cornerstone Employers contribute in their own way, whether it be supporting careers activities and events through providing Enterprise Advisers and Industry Champions from their workforce, providing project support through wider Careers Hub initiatives, or through representing the employer voice across the county in our work with schools and colleges. 

Cornerstone Employers have not been afraid to try new methods to encourage young people to get involved in their sector. The Careers Hub have produced a set of posters with one of our Cornerstone Employers, Chaffin Works, which showcase different people from a variety of industry sectors and their career journeys. These have been designed to support schools and colleges across East Sussex and are an invaluable resource for career development and education. The posters can be downloaded here.

6 of our Cornerstone Employers have also produced videos that cover their industry sectors, job roles, employability skills, employer expectations, and more. These were shared with schools and can be viewed on our YouTube playlist here. These were sent out alongside a lesson plan and crib sheet to help bring these videos to life in the classroom and highlight entry routes and vacancies to young people in East Sussex. 

Cornerstone Employers support projects across the Careers Hub, hosting business breakfasts with local employers to promote the benefits of connecting with schools, and act as ambassadors for the Careers Hub and supporting local schools and colleges. Many of the businesses act as Enterprise Advisers, providing strategic support to individual schools. Others are active members of Skills East Sussex Sector Task Groups, or host work experience placements, careers and apprenticeship talks and offer mentoring programmes.

Paula Sanders from Chaffin Works is the Chair of the Cornerstone Employer group. You can find out more about the Cornerstone Employers, including their background, aims, actions and outcomes in this case study.

For more information and to find out about how to become a Cornerstone Employer, please contact the Careers Hub team at Careers.Hub@eastsussex.gov.uk 

Cornerstone Employer Profiles

Paula Sanders

• Job title: HR & Social Value Director
• Sector: Environmental Services (arboriculture, landscaping, and ecology)
• Interests: Avid collector and rehabilitator of rescued spaniels of all shapes, colours and sizes
• Why you are inspired to support careers education across East Sussex?: After being a recruiter in a previous life it was pretty clear that not all companies and candidates were on the same page and great talent wasn’t being discovered or given the same opportunities. I absolutely believe that schools have a wider remit to create the workforce of the future and waiting until leaving age won’t equip our young people with the skills they will need to achieve and I strongly believe there is more than one way to be ‘successful’ (and define what ‘successful’ actually looks like!). Changing the language used to talk about careers, so young people already ‘talk’ employer is key to talent recognition and setting people up for success, alongside CV writing, young people knowing what their talents are in the first place and recognising that any job is a good thing when you are starting up. Every opportunity is a chance to grow, learn and understand more about where they fit in the world of work. Being an Enterprise Adviser gives me a platform to address this with schools and young people and hopefully inspire them to get outside their comfort zone and believe they have a place in the world of work, as well as challenge educators to think outside of the box.
• Career journey: I’ve never done the same thing twice (retail, finance, HR, recruitment, lecturer and even managing a nursery at one point) and I have always worked within smaller organisations where I have been a Jill of all trades and where I’ve been exposed to various elements of business. I’ve been lucky in my current role where I joined as Operational Support Manager and have grown with the business to introduce formal HR practices becoming their HR Manager, Operations Director and more recently the Group HR & Social Value Director.
  

Aimee Streeter

• Job title: Early Careers Manager
• Industry sector: Insurance and financial services
• Interests: Family, friends, long dog walks and a newly discovered love of puzzles in my spare time!
• Why you are inspired to support careers education across East Sussex?: As someone who grew up in East Sussex and continues to work within it, I know first hand how critical careers education can be to young people locally. I felt immense pressure when I was in education to go to university, to work in London and also know what I wanted to do when I left college. A good careers education is so critical to help alleviate some of that pressure and empower young people with knowledge to know what their options are. Employers are a vital linchpin in this and have a responsibility to work with educational providers to provide real insights and opportunities to young people about the work of work.
• Career journey: I was fortunate to finish university and land a role on Hastings Direct’s graduate programme and since then have worked in various different roles within the Human Resources team. This has included Recruitment, Learning and Development and I now lead our Early Careers team which focuses on apprenticeships, university programmes and schools engagement.

Graham Marley

• Job title: Chief Executive, Let's Do Business Group
• Industry sector: Business advice and finance
• Interests: Helping businesses to start and grow, Brighton and Hove Albion and Sussex Cricket
• Why are you inspired to support careers education across East Sussex?: To help schools inspire young people and help raise aspirations.
• Career journey: Worked at BHS on Saturdays whilst at college. Worked at NatWest for 14 years as a Senior Business Manager before working with the Let's Do Business Group.

Scott Monk

• Job title: Managing Director
• Industry sector: Electrical construction
• Interests: Family and sport
• Why are you inspired to support careers education across East Sussex?: I see careers as being one of the key drivers in ensuring a connection from school/college to the workplace. Students can learn a variety of skills, knowledge and insight from workplaces that can have a direct result to their current education, behaviour and attendance. If we don't give career opportunities to students then how do we expect them to be work-ready when they join the employment sector.
• Career journey: I started as a PE teacher and Head of Sixth Form before taking on our family business with my brother which I have continued to do since.

Stewart Drew

• Job title: Director and Chief Executive
• Industry sector: Creative industries (arts and craft, culture and heritage, music, theatre and performing arts)
• Interests: The positive change arts and culture can make to the community
• Why are you inspired to support careers education across East Sussex?: The De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP) supports the local creative and cultural sector through our involvement in organisations including the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, Culture East Sussex, 1066Music City and development projects such as South East Creatives. We have recently extended this to support children and young people through the Talent Accelerator programme which is for all young people in East Sussex who are in secondary school, college or further and (in or outside the county) higher education. It will offer particular support to those from areas of high deprivation, rurally-isolated locations and under-represented backgrounds to make sure everyone across the region is reaching their potential and has access to the same opportunities. The DLWP encourages exploration, collaboration and innovation by providing a venue where artists from different disciplines and audiences can meet, engage and share their thinking and ideas. Offering free access to exhibitions all year round, plus live performances, a dynamic learning and participation programme, indoor and outdoor events, and bespoke venue hire, we aim to live up to the name given to us by our audiences when we first opened, the People’s Pavilion. We believe in allowing greater access to cultural experiences, to ensure culture-led regeneration for the region into the next decade and beyond. Making us a catalyst for the cultural, economic, tourism and social regeneration of Bexhill and the surrounding region.
• Career journey: I have had a career that had developed in an unfolding way rather than a straight line! I did a degree in Arts History with a particular focus on Drawing and Printmaking at the University of the Arts. I then moved into my first professional role as a Picture Librarian at the Museum of London and then onto becoming a Professional Development Manager at the Crafts Council. I then moved into consultancy advising on IT and online content. I joined the DLWP in 2005 and have moved through a variety of roles starting as Head of Business Development then moving to Directory of Development, then Acting Director before moving into my current role as Director and Chief Executive which I started in January 2013.