Essex teams up with graduate to boost digital growth in holiday camps

One of Eastern England’s largest school holiday activity providers is partnering up with the University of Essex in a bid to create an online platform that will revolutionise the sector.

Managing Director and Essex graduate Christopher Melsa’s Schools Out Activities will be working with Dr Amit Singh and Dr Anirban Chowdhury, from the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, to build an AI enabled Software as a Service (SaaS) platform which will support holiday activity providers with smarter scheduling, streamlined administration, and improved safeguarding and compliance processes.

Schools Out has its own bespoke online platform for bookings but wants to expand its capabilities so it can support national growth and increasing regulatory demands.

The team behind the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) will redevelop the system into a secure, scalable SaaS platform.

This new platform will combine booking, HR, compliance, and safeguarding into one integrated system.

It will include features such as automated check-in kiosks, QR code security, mobile app connectivity, staff compliance tracking, and secure data management for multiple organisations.

Unlike many existing systems that are fragmented or designed mainly for nurseries, this platform is built specifically for holiday activity providers that manage large numbers of children and employ many seasonal staff.

Dr Singh said: “This KTP will deliver the first fully integrated digital platform built specifically for largescale holiday activity providers, transforming how the entire sector manages bookings, safeguarding, and compliance.

“By replacing fragmented tools with a secure, scalable SaaS solution, it has the potential to set a new national standard for efficiency and child safety across the industry."

A key innovation of the KTP, backed by Innovate UK, will be the development of AI enabled modules to support areas such as scheduling, workflow automation, and compliance monitoring.

The team behind the project hope reducing manual workload and helping providers respond more effectively to operational and safeguarding demands.

The tools could improve efficiency, strengthen service quality, and support sustainable growth across the sector.

Dr. Chowdhury added: “A key strength of this partnership is that it combines academic expertise in AI, secure systems, and software engineering with the practical experience of a growing childcare provider.

“That gives us the opportunity to create a solution that is both technically innovative and grounded in real world sector needs."

The project will also bring advanced software architecture, cloud hosting, and data security expertise into the business.

A clear plan for commercialisation—including pricing, licensing, and customer onboarding—will support the launch of the platform.

This approach will create reliable recurring revenue, strengthen the company’s in-house technical capability, and help position the business as a national leader in the sector.

Mr Melsa, who studied BSc and MSc Mathematics at Essex between 2005 and 2010, said: "We are incredibly excited to be working once again alongside the University of Essex on this project.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience in the school holiday activity sector, this partnership gives us a unique opportunity to help shape the next generation of software designed specifically for our industry. As a team, we are fully embracing the AI revolution and the speed and innovation it brings to development.

"Our focus is on creating intuitive, practical solutions that genuinely support families, parents, children, and the staff delivering these programmes every day.

"We are particularly excited about the potential to roll this platform out to providers across the country, helping to raise standards, improve efficiency, and support the continued growth of this vital sector."