As Long Road Sixth Form College heads towards its 50th anniversary, we’re delighted to announce an official partnership to offer work experience and careers insights to students at the college.

It forms a natural complement to our flagship work experience initiative, Sookio Bootcamp, which is built for graduate level students and has seen us giving highly valuable experience to over 100 attendees now.

Sookio has always had a strong connection to Long Road. Several of our team members (past and present) are alumni, including Business Development Manager Julia Latif, Digital Marketing Strategist Kat Selby and Campaigns Manager Hector Corey. They are particularly honoured to be invited to create our one-day blast of creative challenges that will inspire the next generation of digital marketing specialists.

The press release from Long Road (below) gives you the whole story:

PRESS RELEASE

Inspiring the Digital Marketers of the Future  

A new partnership between Sookio and Long Road Sixth Form College  

Leading Cambridge digital marketing agency, Sookio, and Long Road Sixth Form College are teaming up to inspire the next generation of digital marketers.  They will launch an exciting challenge for Long Road students in October to kick off the partnership. 

Digital marketing skills are in demand and critical to the success of businesses of all shapes and sizes.  Young people have grown up with digital technology and the challenge will demonstrate how they can develop and apply their skills, including what they learn in subjects like English, Psychology, Graphics, Media, Photography, Art, Business, to name a few.  

Also critical are essential skills like teamwork, communication, leadership, analysis, innovation, creativity, problem-solving, and resilience: skills necessary for every workplace.   

The partnership between Sookio and Long Road will invite students from different subjects to tackle a marketing challenge that Sookio will set.  They will work in interdisciplinary teams using the full range of skills. The details of the student challenge will be revealed in October once the new cohort of sixth form students has settled in. 

Marketing experts from the company, including several Long Road alumni, will be on hand to guide and support students and at the end of the challenge parents and carers will be invited to celebrate students’ achievements. 

Long Road will mark the 50th anniversary of its founding as a sixth form college in September 2024 and will be reconnecting with alumni over the coming year to celebrate the occasion and as part of its plans to prepare for the next half-century of its future.  

Sue Keogh, founder and director of Sookio said: 

“We're so looking forward to sharing real-world insights that will set students up for a career in the creative industries.
At Sookio we have an ethos of 'lift as we climb'. We know how important it is to open doors for the next generation of brilliant marketers. We'll be demystifying jargon and setting thought-provoking challenges that will give students a taste of what it's really like to work in marketing and communications. They'll come away with more skills, more experience - and having had a lot of fun along the way.”

Tariq Sadiq, Careers, Employability, and Skills Lead at Long Road said: 

“We are delighted to be partnering with Sookio to offer this fantastic opportunity to our students to get hands on with digital marketing.  It’s so important for young people to learn how to apply knowledge and skills in the workplace and to inspire them to follow the careers of the future.

As we approach our 50th year, the College is keen to re-connect with former students, like some of those now working for Sookio, and to get them involved in guiding the next generation into the world of work.  Young people will need all the insight they can get to navigate the huge advances in technology anticipated over the next 50 years and the profound social change that it may bring.

If anyone reading this is a former Long Road student, we would love to hear from you! You can contact us through our website Long Road Sixth Form College - Alumni.”

ENDS

About Long Road Sixth Form College

Long Road Sixth Form College began as the Girls’ Secondary School established in 1900 by Cambridge County Council in partnership with the Borough Council. The school grew rapidly and moved to the current Long Road site in 1940. Under the 1944 Education Act, the school became Cambridgeshire High School for Girls, a secondary grammar school. In 1974, with the reorganisation of education in Cambridgeshire and the move to comprehensive education, Long Road Sixth Form College was born. 

Long Road is a single-site Sixth Form College with 2, 700 16-19-year-old students and 200 staff. The College works within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and across three further Local Authority regions: Essex, Hertfordshire, and Suffolk. 

Does your marketing need a helping hand?

Contact Sookio to create a campaign you can’t wait to share!

Or read more about our work experience initiatives, which have given more than 100 attendees the insights and support needed to start brilliant careers in the creative industries.