On the 18th November, Stokes Tea & Coffee welcomed Year 10 students from De Aston School and Outwood Academy Brumby to its Lincoln roastery, offering a hands-on, STEM-rich experience that showed what a modern hospitality career looks like. The immersive session blended industry insights with practical learning, giving students a rare opportunity to step directly into a working production environment.
For Stokes, a respected name in the region’s hospitality and food sector, the day was a chance to spark early curiosity and highlight local career opportunities. For the schools, it provided an authentic, curriculum-linked experience at a key moment in students’ decision-making.
Bringing Industry to Life
Students spent the day inside the Stokes Roastery and Barista Training Facility, guided by Training Manager Mike and supported by the Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub.
The experience was designed to be immersive, focused, and highly accessible, avoiding many of the barriers associated with traditional work experience. With just six students attending, each received meaningful interaction, one-to-one guidance, and plenty of hands-on practice.
What the day included:
- A behind-the-scenes roastery tour, tracing the journey from bean to cup.
- Exploring career pathways in warehousing, logistics, engineering and front-of-house
- STEM concepts embedded throughout, from flavour extraction and variables in espresso making to molecular changes in milk steaming.
- A full 3-hour barista training session, using professional espresso machines.
- Practical challenges: preparing drinks for staff and early attempts at latte art.
- A reflection and skills-mapping session linked to EqualEx.
- Certificates were awarded to reinforce learning and celebrate progress.
Why Experiences Like This Matter
Employer-led experiences do more than showcase a workplace; they reshape how young people see their future. Stokes’ session connected curriculum learning to real-world application, helping students understand why subjects like science, maths, and communication matter in everyday professional contexts.
It also shone a light on a sector many young people overlook, despite hospitality and food production being central to Greater Lincolnshire’s growth economy.
"A huge and sincere thank you for today! The staff have just arrived back full of praise for the students, the course and you Mike! We're so grateful; as you can probably tell, this will make a great difference to the boys."
Jo Davey, Careers Leader at De Aston School
"By mapping this activity to EqualEx, we highlighted how the coffee industry connects to curriculum areas such as maths, science, and geography, while also supporting students in developing essential skills."
Alex Nightingale, Operational Hub Lead at the Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub
The Impact
In the short term, students left with greater confidence using specialist equipment, a stronger understanding of the career landscape within hospitality and food production, and improved teamwork and communication developed through practical tasks.
Looking further ahead, the experience is likely to support progression into hospitality, catering, or food production, while deepening partnerships between Stokes and local schools. Over time, this contributes meaningfully to addressing skills shortages across the region.
For employers, these benefits accumulate with every encounter, strengthening brand visibility, future recruitment pipelines, and positioning the organisation as a sector leader committed to developing local talent.
A Model for Modern Work Experience
Stokes Tea & Coffee’s approach shows how employer-led activities can be high-impact, curriculum-linked, and manageable, even with limited capacity. By keeping groups small and designing the day around EqualEx, the team created a session that was both transformative for students and valuable for staff, offering additional CPD opportunities.
It’s a reminder that meaningful employer engagement doesn’t have to be complex, but the cost of not providing these opportunities can be high for young people, schools, and local industries alike.
Ready to get involved? Learn how your business can offer experiences of the workplace here: https://www.businesslincolnshire.com/business-support/the-greater-lincolnshire-careers-hub/
Or contact the Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub at GLCareersHub@lincolnshire.gov.uk