Digital business develops careers service

Hollie Whittles runs FraggleWorks Ltd – a digital marketing business which has focussed on helping organisations with their online presence through workshops.

Workshops were usually delivered in person, however, when Covid-19 restrictions took effect it meant that these could no longer go ahead. Hollie started looking at other aspects of her business that could become virtual.

Hollie said: “I am an enterprise adviser and have worked closely with Telford & Wrekin Council over the years to deliver careers services for schools. With the introduction of the Gatsby benchmarks a few years ago, schools need to ensure that they are linking the curriculum with careers and I love delivering talks in schools to help with this.”

At the Life Ready Work Ready Conference last year Hollie was awarded a certificate of recognition for her work in schools and was also a finalist in the Shropshire Business Awards in the school engagement category.

The global pandemic has allowed Hollie to diversify her offering a focus more on the school engagement. She has developed a fresh new service where schools can book her to deliver virtually or in person as restrictions ease. She was recently certified as an eSpeaker meaning that she has been verified to deliver talks and workshops online with HD webcams and stand-alone microphones.

Hollie said: “A lot of live events and face-to-face meetings were cancelled initially however, working in partnership with Haberdasher’s Adams in Newport I gave several online talks in a virtual careers week in June and received really positive feedback from the students which gave me the idea to formalise this into an offer for all schools.”

This has led to the launch of a dedicated careers website https://careers4schools.co.uk/ and the creation of a brochure where schools from primary, secondary through to college and University can choose what type of careers help they are looking for. Everything is then created and tailored for each school ensuring that every need is met.

Hollie said: “It’s been an interesting few months but I feel excited for the future. My company wasn’t eligible for any of the grants being offered, however, thanks to the Federation of Small Businesses I was offered a media grant to design and place targeted adverts in some mainstream publications which will be launching throughout September.

“I always tell people to do what they love in my workshops and having some downtime allowed me to reflect and apply that to my own business. I am really looking forward to working closely with the schools and have already been booked to deliver some more virtual careers talks over the coming months covering several topics including getting the most out of work experience, how to prepare for interviews, creating CVs and LinkedIn profiles and many more."