As part of Heritage Open Days 2026, Skills and Education Group welcomed visitors to Opening Doors: The Extraordinary Impact of Everyday Educational Heroes, an exhibition celebrating more than a century of social impact through education. Hosted in the iconic Adams Building, the event explored how learning, qualifications and opportunity have helped shape lives, communities and careers since our foundation in 1912.

Developed in collaboration with Boots Archive, the exhibition brought together archive materials, photographs and stories that highlighted the role education has played both in the classroom and the workplace. Visitors discovered original documents from Skills and Education Group’s history alongside insights into workforce learning and development from the Boots archive, creating a shared story of opportunity, progression and social mobility.

The exhibition also provided a rare opportunity to showcase items from our archive collection, including historic reports, educational publications and artefacts that helped tell the story of how access to learning has evolved over time. Set within the historic surroundings of the Adams Building, itself a symbol of Nottingham’s journey from industry to education, the exhibition encouraged visitors to reflect on the enduring connection between skills, employability and community development.

At the heart of the exhibition were the Everyday Educational Heroes who helped make learning more accessible and transformed lives through education. From educators and advocates to learners and employers, the stories on display demonstrated that educational progress is often driven by ordinary people making an extraordinary difference. These stories resonated strongly with visitors, many of whom shared their own memories of qualifications, apprenticeships, workplace learning and the people who helped shape their educational journeys.

A particular highlight of the project was the strength of the collaboration between education, heritage and business archives. By bringing together the expertise and collections of Skills and Education Group and Boots Archive, the exhibition demonstrated how organisations can work together to uncover shared histories and create meaningful public engagement. The partnership helped tell a broader story about Nottingham’s development, showing how qualifications, training and educational opportunity have supported both individual success and the growth of local communities.

Most importantly, the exhibition reminded us that our founding mission remains as relevant today as it was in 1912. More than 100 years on, the themes explored throughout the exhibition, including access to learning, social mobility, employability and lifelong education, continue to shape conversations across the education and skills sector. The overwhelmingly positive response reinforced the importance of preserving and sharing educational heritage, while celebrating the people who have opened doors for others through the power of learning.