AGCAS Annual Conference for HE Careers and
Employability Professionals
Workshop Descriptions
Free choice on the day - seating is on a first come, first served basis
TUESDAY AM 11.45 – 13.00
Workshop A1
Room
A1: The evolution of an innovative entrepreneurship programme
Presenters: Dr Kate Daubney and Kirsty Badrock, University of Chester
The Venture Programme falls under the portfolio of the Careers and Employability department at the University of Chester
following its establishment within the Riverside Innovation Centre, as part of the North West Higher Education Enterprise
Champions Project. Now freestanding, the programme provides a comprehensive model of extracurricular support to
prepare students for start-up through a structured framework, offering practical and theoretical knowledge and skills, and
developing the entrepreneurial capacity of students.
Venture has adopted an innovative approach to entrepreneurship education, which is underpinned by three themes: create,
collaborate and accelerate.
In this session we will explore the evolution of the programme. In particular we will review;

the development of the programme over the past five years and how this has influenced stakeholder engagement;

the innovative nature of Venture;

the impact of the programme and the creation of an entrepreneurial eco-system;

how Venture has encouraged students to consider new venture creation and self-employment as valid graduate
career paths;

how Venture is embedded within the broader strategy of careers and employability at the University of Chester.
The session will provide an evidence base and examples of practice, which we hope will promote and encourage
discussion amongst participants. It is our aim to use the activities of The Venture Programme as a mechanism to
encourage participants to share practice and to inform future activity in this area.
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Workshop A2
TUESDAY AM
11.45 - 13.00
A2: Developing global graduates through international internship programmes
Presenters: Michael Benson and Andrew Kidals, King’s College London
King’s College London has recently launched an ambitious programme designed to provide King’s students with the
exclusive opportunity to further their international career with short-term international internships in Shanghai, Mumbai and
Washington DC. With only six-months between programme conception and the first students arriving on location, King’s
has developed an innovative, efficient and creative model.
Interest from students for the opportunity was staggering. Over 600 students applied within two-weeks, demonstrating a
ferocious appetite from students to further their international career.
This workshop is designed to provide careers service professionals with the tools, awareness and support necessary to
help deliver international internships within a short timeframe.
The workshop will be divided into three sections, helping you address the three key stakeholders integral to the effective
delivery of international internships at scale.
The workshop will specifically support:

The identification of key internal stakeholders and departments that will help progress your idea from concept to
reality

The effective marketing of the opportunity to your students, utilizing a wide variety of tools and resources.

The intelligent engagement of international employers, ensuring you are well positioned to articulate the benefit of
hiring King’s students and are in a position to support employers through the hosting process.
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Workshop A3
A3: Southampton stars – supporting our students to realise and reach their full potential through the
Graduate Capital Model
Presenters: Hazel McCafferty and Helen Fuge, University of Southampton
If you could arm your students with the best possible resources, skills and attitudes to enable them to be successful in the
future labour market, what would you give them? How would you explain this to them? How would you target resources and
assess impact?
The University of Southampton Careers and Employability team have been fortunate to work alongside Dr Michael
Tomlinson (who has published extensively on the topic of employability). Michael has created a new model ‘Graduate
Capital’ to help us understand graduate employability based on his research into the resources which students need to
establish and maintain a successful career. Michael is also part of a Learning Gain project, assessing the impact of
Employability initiatives. The Southampton Stars Project is about enabling students to realise and reach their full potential.
Join us on this journey, where we share our plans to translate current academic research into a working model.
In this interactive and thought provoking session we plan to introduce the model and describe some of its practical
applications. We will critique the model in light of recent research (including evidence around social mobility). We will share
some of our plans for resources to influence academic practice and enhance student engagement. Participants will be
invited to review their own services in the context of Michael’s model and plan potential action to take back to their
colleagues.
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Workshop A4
A4: The network effect – harnessing the power of your network
Presenter: Judith Perle Management Advantage Ltd
We all know that professional networking is crucial, whether you are job-hunting, need to raise your personal profile, want to
improve your leadership and influencing skills, or just want to get ahead in your career. But are you really as well connected
as you could be? Do you go to events, conferences or parties and routinely come back with new opportunities? And can
you always find the right man (or woman) for the job?
Networking is a key door opener to new possibilities and new opportunities, both personal and organisational, yet many of
us find the process daunting and difficult, and if we find something difficult, we tend to avoid it! This masterclass looks at the
why’s and how’s of networking from an unusual perspective: instead of focusing on the mechanics of ‘working a room’, we
examine how networks really work.
If you'd like to be able to turn a handful of business cards into something more valuable than wood pulp, you'll find ‘The
Network Effect: Harnessing the power of your network’ useful. During the session, you'll learn an interesting fact of life from
a telephone directory... find out what chain letters can teach us... consult the Oracle of Bacon... explore the paradox of the
strength of weak ties... and find out why lumpy porridge is so good for you!
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Workshop A5
TUESDAY
11.45 - 13.00
A5: How can career development professionals influence others to gain universal support?
Presenter: Catherine Stephens, University of Auckland
Developing and implementing proactive strategies, which support innovative practices can be the trigger to successfully
influencing others and overcoming challenging situations. Find out what the University of Auckland Career Development
and Employment Services (CDES) did to change negatives into positives.
Poor visibility and low engagement were the drivers behind developing a new strategic direction to transform the way CDES
operates. Being creative in thought, innovative in practice and courageous in trying new strategies and approaches has
resulted in more meaningful, high-level engagement.
The first part of this workshop will focus on how I influenced others to initiate positive change. A new reporting line was
established and an employability strategy was created to enable a new focus and approach to student employability.
The second part of the workshop will focus on innovative practices that have enabled our central service to establish
meaningful relationships with faculties. The need to raise our profile and engage early with students has been the driver
behind new programmes and activities, particularly for our target groups.
Industry collaborations such as that between Google NZ and CDES have been a world first for both parties. This cuttingedge career development programme has proven very beneficial for both students and employers. Students have learned
new skills required by industry, while employers have had the opportunity to network with students for positive employment
outcomes.
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Workshop A6
A6: Smart48: accelerating student employability
Presenters: Richard Wilcock, University of Leicester and Saj Jetha, The Smarty Train
Smart48 is a two-day immersive learning experience designed around ‘unlocking the future you’. In just 48 hours, students
learn key skills and ‘smart’ behaviours relevant to the working world. They collaborate and compete, working through
pressurised challenges, learning key employability skills along the way.
Workshop Outline
Our workshop will:

bring Smart48 to life;

showcase innovation in design and delivery;

demonstrate best practice in accelerated employability training and development (Smart48 has already won two
industry awards in 2016).
Strategy in Action
Smart48 is strategically aligned to our award-winning Employability Strategy and supports our mission to “ensure Leicester
students have the extra dimension”.
Innovative
Innovation is threaded throughout Smart48, including: visualisation, case studies, simulations, role play, personal stories,
gamification, goal setting and self-discovery.
Influential
Smart48 has been influential by supporting not only the challenges of our students, but also those of employer partners and
our own challenges as a careers service. Those challenges have been answered in one unified experience, all in the name
of better preparing students for the world of work.
Impressive
Using Kirkpatrick’s model we have demonstrated the impact of Smart48, resulting in students being better prepared by
securing real work opportunities.
Data shows:

98% feel they are able to make a positive and memorable first impression;

98% feel better prepared to apply for internships;

98% would recommend the experience to a friend;
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100% would describe their confidence level as Very High or High going into interviews or assessment centres.
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Workshop A7
A7: Multi-site working
Presenter: Helen Mitchell and Philippa Hardie, University of Chester
Since 2002 when the University took over the HE faculty and campus of Warrington Collegiate Institute from its FE roots, it
has gone on to acquire five additional campuses as well as continuing to serve the large student cohorts based at four
additional nursing sites. In order to attempt to deliver parity of service irrespective of location, we have had to develop
teams, services and processes to target the very differing needs of separate student bodies. This has meant that the
Careers and Employability team have had to find new ways of working by developing existing practice and services and by
using new innovative programmes and strategies. Realising that a one-size-fits-all version is not effective, we have had to
involve key decision-makers in creating and adapting our practice. This has included working with site management teams
to enable us to influence, at strategic level, developments that would enhance employability outcomes for students and
graduates. We have also tried to win the attention of employers and others in the local communities where the sites are
based. Marketing of available support, events and opportunities has had to link specifically to local cohorts of students in
order to resonate with their perceived employability interests and needs. This workshop will share our endeavours with
colleagues who experience similar issues and to open the opportunity for discussion to enable all concerned to make
progress in their own institutions.
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Workshop A8
TUESDAY AM
11.45 - 13.00
A8: Collaborate-innovate-inspire – using webinars to connect students, alumni, employers and careers
professionals
Presenters: Ellen O’Brien and Michele Zala Midlands International Group (MIG) Regional HEIs
collaboration and Ben Simkins, Keele University
As opportunities for international students to work in the UK after their course become increasingly restrictive, the
importance of developing global thinking and pursuing global employment grows. International students must focus on
getting relevant work experience while studying, also exploring global job opportunities and actively planning their career for
return to their home country.
To address this, funded by UKCISA and CPA Australia, a multi-institutional series of virtual activities was delivered week
commencing 7 March 2016 to enable international students make the best use of their UK experience and prepare for
global employment opportunities. The project involved 16 universities working in partnership to run individual and
collaborative activities, connecting electronically in real time.
This project used the experience of careers professionals working with international students to address these trends
providing opportunities for information-sharing, student employability skills development, employer and alumni engagement,
reflection and action planning, and networking within the international student community in the Midlands.
University of Birmingham hosted the event via Canvas VLE and Adobe Connect, another innovative aspect of the event.
Workshop aims:

to share/encourage sharing of practice on use of webinar technology;

to explore strengths/limitations of the approach;

to develop a simple model/approach that can be adapted for use at university/consortium level;
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to set up a community of practice.
Possible format:

our experience, what we did and how we did it;

your experience, what you’ve done and what’s worked for you;
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developing an approach from where you currently are, no experience/some experience/lots of experience;

building a simple model, topic/expertise/resourcing/planning/marketing/doing/sharing/reviewing and evaluating.
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Workshop A9
A9: Training for tomorrow: changes to the solicitor qualification
Presenter: Liz Walters, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Qualifying as a solicitor has always been a popular career choice but some students can be put off by the cost of relevant
training and the difficulties of securing practical training places.
This year we have proposed radical changes to the way in which an individual can qualify as a solicitor which we hope will
eventually improve the range of choices available to students wishing to train as a solicitor. We propose that, in the future,
all intending solicitors would have to undertake a common assessment that would test their competence to practise as a
solicitor through a series of practical knowledge and skills based assessments. The introduction of such an assessment will
enable us to relax the requirements about how someone studies and trains to be a solicitor to provide more choice and
enable students to tailor their training to their individual circumstances.
In the workshop we will set out our proposed changes and what they might mean for anyone thinking about a career as a
solicitor in the future. We will ask for your feedback on the proposals, which are still subject to consultation and approval,
and on the potential impact on students.
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Workshop A10
A10: Happier and more successful? Connecting graduate attributes and wellbeing
Presenter: Bryony Enright, University of Bristol
This workshop encourages debate in relation to innovative thinking around graduate attributes and wellbeing. It draws
together two current debates around student wellbeing and work-readiness of graduates.
The theme ‘Strategy in action’ is addressed in a number of ways. The workshop suggests that an innovative approach to
graduate attributes could address student wellbeing as well as making them more employable, thus allowing graduates to
impress while also having a positive influence on themselves and others. It emphasises this as a whole institution
responsibility and the strategic role of the Careers Service in this.
Discussion will be based on research from Adam Grant’s 2013 book, Give and Take, which suggests attributes such as
kindness, generosity, empathy, honesty and compassion can drive individual success in the workplace. It combines this
with ground-breaking insights from consultancy, Happiness Works, which proposes that employee wellbeing is paramount
for business success.
Attendees are asked to discuss the following provocations:

how does student wellbeing fit into the current structure/strategy of your service?

Where do attributes such as kindness, generosity, empathy, honesty and compassion fit into skills-sessions?

Do employers value these attributes?

How are we preparing students to be happy in their future careers?
The workshop will interrogate the potential of this approach to nurture happier, more successful employees as well as more
supportive colleagues. Strategically, this could enhance the economic sustainability of employing more resilient graduates,
with less potential for burnout and with the attributes to not only enter but improve tomorrow’s world.
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Workshop A11
TUESDAY AM
11.45 - 13.00
A11: “Nudge nudge!”: prompting a diverse range of student work experience opportunities
Presenters: Kimberley Harris, Jayne Mourinho and Laileng Fong, The University of Warwick.
In order to improve the quantity and quality of work experience opportunities that will equip students to be “work ready”, the
University of Warwick’s Internships Development Team (IDT) has created an innovative online portal that supports
employer confidence across the language and practice of creating, recruiting for and delivering work experience.
The IDT have developed a simple triage pathway that suggests student engagement formats that match specific business
needs and highlights where value can be added for both employers and students for mutual gain, influencing employers to
consider a broader range of opportunities for students and building more holistic relationships across the University.
Presented with (employer-defined) key information in a “single page app”, the user chooses how much detail to access.
Either:

“fast track” through key considerations and obligations, identify the work experience model that will work best for
them, and access helpful checklists and information around designing and delivering a good practice model of that
experience.
or
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explore added-value information around the business benefits of providing opportunities for students, models of
student engagement, wider employer services available, and link to good practice in their existing provision from
the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Association of Graduate Recruiters.
The resource launches to external audiences in Autumn 2016 and the IDT are seeking to share their model and discuss
how the portal could be adapted for use by other HEIs.
Down
es
Sports
Hall
Workshop A12
A12: Employability and English students: ‘Why would I want to be doing this when I should be reading
Blake?’
Presenters: Dawn Weatherston and Jos Harrison, Newcastle University
At Newcastle University, the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics has been a hard to engage subject
area, with low take up of employability yet high demand for last minute one-to-one guidance as these students approach
graduation. ‘Deferred career decision makers’ these students often exhibit a lack of confidence and knowledge about their
future career options.
This year the careers subject team worked in close partnership with the school to deliver a new innovative initiative, the
Triple E Challenge (Employability, Enterprise and English); a two day, compulsory, timetabled event where 175 English
students worked in teams to provide creative solutions to a real live problem facing the NHS. The aim was to get students
excited about the value of their degree in an unfamiliar, commercial context and kick-start the process of career research
and decision making.
The event has subsequently been highlighted by the school as a major employability initiative for their second years.
Featured on the school’s website, it is now used as a promotional tool and is set to be an annual event.
In this interactive workshop presenters will:

present the background, rationale and strategy underpinning this intervention;

provide participants with first-hand experience of a sample of activities and materials from the Triple E challenge;

share student feedback from questionnaires and a focus group;

pose questions aimed to facilitate discussion on the validity of such a high profile intervention within the context of
broader careers provision for English, and other humanities student.
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Workshop A13
A13: Machine learning, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence in careers
Presenters: Iain McLoughlin and Salil Pande, VMock
“Cleanin’ Out My Closet” Eminem
With support from machine learning, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence students and graduates can now equip
themselves with insight and knowledge to better position their academic knowledge, personal skills and key abilities in the
competitive graduate labour market.
Today, technology is available that supports, influences and directs a student’s career strategy and provides a solution to
one of the most time-intensive processes within careers, CV reviews. Using algorithms, data science and a propriety
scoring engine Salil, Kiran and Iain from VMock will show you how it is possible to innovate, influence and impress your
students and recruiters.
This workshop is in 2 parts. The first will ask you to clean out the closet (apologies to Eminem) and take a critical look at
what is typically written in a CV; asking whether it showcases content and a student’s profile or is superfluous and
unnecessary. Using data analytics from VMock we’ll score the CV against format, word choice, quantified results etc.
The second part of the workshop will look at the match between CVs and graduate job descriptions and consider the
importance of career fit, first impressions and soft skill attributes to students and recruiters. In an incredibly tough labour
market we want to take the luck out of the job search and make every application a powerful one.
There will be time for questions throughout. It is a participative workshop and we’ll be delighted to meet and answer any
questions you have before, during and after this workshop.
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TUESDAY PM 14.30 – 15.45
Workshop B1
B1: Creating the 21st century careers adviser
Presenters: Liz Holford , Guy Townsin and Alexandra Hemingway, University of Portsmouth
Do we have the skills and training needed to work with the challenges 21st Century students bring?
Research is telling us that our students are struggling with a range of challenges and then we talk about careers…
This workshop will focus on two of the key themes for this year’s conference namely: innovate and influence
This workshop will enable us to reflect on our practice, our profession and our possible training needs. Examining a range
of research, which will include learned helplessness, social isolation and lack of engagement, we will explore what we are
currently doing which helps and hinders our work with students. We will aim to put together an identikit 21st century
Careers Professional, looking at what might be effective skills and behaviours and possible training needs. We will
exchange ideas on influencing the discussion in our work place and in our profession and ways to be innovative and
creative to address the demands of our students.
We will share the new Education Strategy of the University Portsmouth and the ‘Hallmark’ of a University of Portsmouth
Graduate.
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TUESDAY PM
14.30 - 15.45
Workshop B2
B2: Potential.ly and Graduate+ a survey for student self awareness and action.
Presenters: Lesley Taylor, Gilliane Millane, Birmingham City University and Dr Norbert Morawetz,
Potential.ly
The Graduate+ programme is a new high profile initiative at Birmingham City University to engage students in taking
responsibility for the development of their employability skills.
A key element of the programme that addresses students across diverse disciplines is the highly engaging ‘potential.ly’
questionnaire, which assesses students’ personal preferences across 25 traits. The results of the questionnaire drive a
range of practical interventions and student outcomes, and are also used to help those students become more self-aware
and successful.
This interactive session will outline the initial challenge, development of the solution, and how experiences and the need to
bring diverse stakeholders together shapes future development of the system by way of an innovative and dynamic
relationship between the program designers and University colleagues.
It will show how questionnaire insights can be used to measure students’ self-awareness of their attributes and motivation.
This has the opportunity of informing the provision of learning resources on university-wide level to meet the identified
needs. In addition to institutional learning, the presenters will also share best practice and lessons learned of user
experience design for online questionnaires.
The session will include feedback from a Graduate who undertook and used the questionnaire and how she used it in
understanding herself in relationship to others within a team. Gillian was also involved within a dedicated focus group,
which helped to shape further developments.
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Workshop B3
B3: Teaching academic employability: a discipline-specific versus holistic approach?
Presenters: Dr Helen Standage, Dr Sean Seeger and Lynne Jordan, University of Essex
A particular challenge for current careers educators is to market employability as an integral part of HE. One strategy to
achieving this end is to root employability into the intellectual heart of university life rather than present it as an extracurricular feature for secondary consideration by students and academics alike. To encourage the perception of
employability as being a discipline within its own right with intellectual substance, the University of Essex has introduced
credit-bearing employability modules that either: a) adopt a generalized approach to teaching employability with an
emphasis on career-related theory, or b) adopt a degree-specific approach whereby intellectual links are made between
employability content and the home degree subject.
In the workshop, both teaching models will be outlined and compared statistically across three outcome measures: student
engagement, achievement and satisfaction. Furthermore, teaching methods within the ‘degree-specific’ model will be
explained with specific examples given on the academic connections made between employability and the disciplines of
history and literature. Qualitative data on student perception of the value of such intellectual links for personal and
professional development will be presented.
Finally this innovative approach that aims to encourage students to apply their academic understanding to all aspects of
employability will be opened up for audience discussion.
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Workshop B4
B4: Horn grabbing, bullet dodging, wooing and winning: using influence to circumvent impediments to
innovation
Presenters: Lorna Froud, University of Reading and Ollie Leggett, IE Design Consultancy
TUESDAY PM
14.30 - 15.45
With strategy clear and in hand, this workshop explores the 'delicate, real-world challenge' of driving through disruptive
change within the constraints of sometimes powerful and highly political university structures.
Information will include:

how to innovate within university brand guidelines;

how to influence internal communications teams;

how to impress upon the inevitable detractors the importance of making an exception for the careers service;

how to drive students to action through innovative communication.
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Workshop B5
B5: Changemakers: influencers and innovators of tomorrow
Presenters: Mark Blaber, Laura Swallow, Lisa Slaughter, Declan Mee, Sabrina Altariva and Tas Dakri,
The University of Northampton
In 2013 The University of Northampton was the first UK University to become an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus. This
international accolade reflects our commitment to social enterprise and the excellence of the opportunities this gives to our
students. Our Changemaker Campus commitment to the student experience enables all students to develop the skills
required to stand out in the employment market and to be the change leaders of the future.
In September 2018 the university will move to a new Town Centre campus. The innovative £330m Waterside Campus will
transform a 58 acre brownfield site in Northampton’s Waterside Enterprise Zone. The move will involve a change in how
students are taught and how the university engages with the community. In preparation, our courses have to be, “Waterside
Ready”.
In this workshop we will discuss how being a Changemaker Campus enhances our student’s experience to help them
distinctively stand out when applying for graduate level roles. We will also explore how this will link to the innovative
approaches to the delivery of learning and teaching (including employability) at our new Waterside Campus.
By the end of this workshop the participants will have a better understanding of the following:

what is a Changemaker Campus and what this means to the university, students and the local community;

how a Changemaker graduate gains an influential competitive edge within the graduate labour market;

the wide range of Changemaker initiatives, challenges and activities that take place;

how the Changemaker ethos supports our new innovative Waterside Campus.
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Workshop B6
B6: Personalisation en masse: scaling up reflective career learning
Presenter: Becci Hubbard, Nottingham Trent University
‘
Imagine: you are invited to support the development of a Personal and Professional Development Module for over 2000
students. You have just three months to prepare, 4 lecture slots allocated to you and self-directed resources to create.
What would you do?
Drawing on the experience of the Nottingham Trent University’s Employability Team’s work with the Nottingham Business
School on NTU’s ‘Personalisation’ strategy, this workshop will explore the opportunities and challenges of designing and
delivering a programme of career learning that provides a reflective and individualised experience for a large cohort.
As part of a ‘Personal and Professional Development Module’ for year one and two, the team has created innovative ways
of engaging a large number of students, influenced the school in the direction and development of the module and
impressed the students, school and wider university through taking the lead on a high profile key strategic objective.
The workshop will also critically consider the extent to which meaningful careers work can be achieved when working with
large cohorts, and reflect on how the university as a whole is building on this work to find new innovative ways to integrate
careers education into the curriculum.
Through sharing our progress, practice and pitfalls we will challenge participants to consider how they could scale up and
develop their careers education delivery.
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Workshop B7
B7: Upskilling graduates with the tools of career development!
Presenters: Sally Harding and Rebecca Nethercott, University of Chester
Graduate Head Start (GHS) at Chester, a unique and bespoke programme for unemployed graduates and those who feel
they are not fulfilling their ambitions, has evolved since its inception in June 2010. As well as interactive workshops, GHS
includes optional extras such as a five-week unpaid placement, the ECDL and postgraduate level credits.
Innovative in tackling graduate underemployment and underachievement, GHS is now at another exciting turning point of
revision, integration and connection as it seeks to address new thorny issues such as overcoming apathy, raising aspiration
and empowering action in the reactive graduate. This session will explore how we seek to address these areas with which
some graduates struggle and influence their outcomes. We’ll also discuss how the programme has changed over the years
to meet the needs of graduates and some of the challenges we overcame along the way.
Some of the lessons we’ve learned working with graduates also inform our work with students, so we’ll examine some of
the crossovers in provision and how it can influence strategy at all levels. Please share your experiences of working with
graduates in this session and explore the opportunities we can create to support our graduates in an ever-changing and
increasingly complex world.
Bring along your experiences, concerns, ideas and, together we can share good practice and innovate some further ways
to tackle the difficulties we all face in developing confident, employable and work-ready graduates.
An inform bative, discursive and practically useful session for everyone.
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Workshop B8
TUESDAY PM
14.30 - 15.45
B8: Bringing enterprise to life through digital story-telling: students as co-creators to produce active
student engagement
Presenter: Alison Sharp, University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham’s mission is to make important things happen (Strategic Framework 2015-2020), enhancing
economic impact.
This influential workshop will demonstrate how we have used students as co-creators, building an entrepreneurial culture
on campus: making enterprise more visible; more clearly articulated and by showing that gaining enterprise attributes is
achievable for everyone.
The workshop describes how a small student PR team was established, representing the five Colleges. The workshop
outlines:

how it was funded and created;

the training provided to produce results from day one;

the impact of their digital story-telling.
Our findings highlight that digital story-telling can be a strong learning tool, delivering a powerful narrative through words,
images, video and music (Matthews, 2014).
After just six months of operationalizing the strategy, the PR team’s digital stories of making things happen, (QAA, 2012)
have influenced other students to write their own commentary through the blog ‘B-Enterprising’. Academics have been
impressed, now accessing the PR team to draw out the enterprising behaviours of their students.
Through practice, we’ll demonstrate how we trained our students to understand the concept of entrepreneurial thinking and
effectual reasoning, from strategy to immediate self-negotiated action, that empowered them to develop their peers in the
area of enterprise.
Attendees will come away with:

knowing how to set up and train their own enterprising student teams to be self-directed, achieving immediate
results;

practical examples to facilitate training with students;

information to be able to write funding bids to change internal culture leading to innovative practice.
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Workshop B9
B9: Encouraging students to take action
Presenters: Elizabeth Wilkinson and Amanda Conway, The University of Manchester
Using theories around influence and behaviour change, the University have recently redeveloped their “My Future model”
and self-reflection questionnaire for students which provides a comprehensive strategic framework for their work with
students.
The new look self-reflection tool takes an innovative approach and now enables students to drive their own development;
see how they are doing and what they can do now. It aims to build confidence in students by looking at small steps and
specific actions that make a difference.
This workshop will explore the model, the research that shaped the framework and the rational behind the new selfreflection tool. It will also discuss the ways that Manchester are embedding this approach into mainstream services and
delivery.
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Workshop B10
B10: Innovative approach to building a transnational careers support
Presenters: Veejay Mistry, Regent’s University London
TUESDAY PM
14.30 - 15.45
Providing comprehensive support for students entering the global labour market has become an integral part of
employability and internationalisation strategies for all HEIs.
A consortium of 5 universities is currently collaborating on creating a transnational careers support. This will not only
support students and graduates with access to up-to-date and reliable information and assistance, but also allow career
advisors to facilitate IAG whilst keeping in regular contact with country specific colleagues. There are specific outputs which
will be beneficial for the wider careers community to access via the creation of a platform that includes internships, graduate
jobs and country specific LMI. This project also addresses entrepreneurship; the set-up of a summer school with the focus
on bringing academics, professional services, students and entrepreneurs together; to provide a practical approach to
learning about various conditions for starting a business within a European country.
We believe this is an innovative approach to sharing knowledge and good practice whilst ensuring stakeholders have
access to current, up-to-date country specific information. As there would be a network of members from each institute
(European partners) to get in touch with, we can ensure to have reliable information. But also, encourage other HEI’s the
possibility of becoming a part of this network, which we hope to grow post funding.
This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
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Workshop B11
B11: Mental Fitness – the key to employability
Presenter: Matt Smeed, Sisu Psychology
The world of work is changing – according to a recent survey 98% of organisations have experienced a major change in the
last 5 years, and stress caused by excessive pressure is costing UK businesses millions of pounds a year.
As the landscape changes, employers are increasingly looking for a broader range of soft skills when hiring graduates.
They are moving away from using past achievement as a yardstick about what people can do in the future, and are starting
to look into characteristics such as resilience, ability to deal with change and goal orientation. These are the skills that will
allow graduates to thrive in a challenging workplace.
Sisu Psychology have developed a new model of Mental Fitness. This highlights the 7 key areas that students can work on
to proactively build their soft skills in the areas above – making them less likely to become mentally ill, more likely to
successfully complete their studies, and crucially make them more impressive to graduate employers.
This workshop will start a discussion about what soft skills graduate employers are truly looking for, how these can be
measured, and what students and universities can do to build these skills at an early stage.
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Workshop B12
B12: Enactus prepares undergraduates for the world of work through practical, real-life social action
projects. Our goal is to develop future responsible business leaders. How can you support them?
Presenters: Andrew Bacon and Rosie Connolly, Enactus UK and Naomi Oosman-Watts, Newcastle
University
We will explain how Enactus prepares undergraduates for the world of work through practical, real-life social action
projects. We will present an overview of our leadership programme and training and development opportunities. We will
explain how we work with business to inspire and equip future responsible leaders through social innovation. A recent
graduate will demonstrate how Enactus helped them to innovate, influence and impress. An alumnus will explain how
Enactus led them to start up their social enterprise. We will present the voice of our 3000 student community.
The workshop will include short videos and a panel discussion with Q&A.
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WEDNESDAY AM 11.30 – 12.45
Workshop C1
C1: Closing the gap: working with undergraduate students from widening participation (WP)
backgrounds to improve their employability outcomes to meet those of their non WP peers.
Presenters: Caroline Everson and Janet Willis, The University of Manchester
The University of Manchester Careers Service has set out to improve the employability outcomes of students from WP
backgrounds through the development of bespoke services and activities informed by the use of contextual data. Our
research has shown that on the majority of WP measures, students from WP backgrounds are less likely to be in positive
destinations (i.e. graduate level work and/or graduate level further study) six months after graduation when compared with
non-WP students. The aim of the University of Manchester Employability Strategy for WP students is to achieve a year-onyear increase in the percentage of WP students in positive employment destinations as recorded in DLHE, and to narrow
any gap between WP and non-WP students in achieving successful employability outcomes.
This workshop will enable delegates to gain insights from a university careers service approach to supporting students from
widening participation backgrounds. With an examination of embedded activities and targeted approaches, along with the
use of data, we will outline our strategic approach to working with widening participation students and engagement with
colleagues to maximise OFFA funding. Delegates will have the opportunity to discuss and share examples of good
practice.
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Workshop C2
C2: (Almost) everything you want to know about the graduate labour market (and a little more
besides)
Presenter: Dr Charlie Ball, Graduate Prospects Ltd
What’s actually happening in the graduate jobs market? Are we back to where we were before the recession? How
has the EU referendum changed things? And how is the data landscape changing?
Join labour market expert Charlie Ball as he tackles all of these questions in a session examining the rapidly-changing
labour market, and the evidence base around it, followed by a Q&A. Charlie will equip you with some of the answers
to student questions about their job opportunities, give you some eye-opening insights into where the real skills
demands are for graduates, and show how the ever-expanding data landscape can be used in an effective, innovative
way to drive practise and improvement. And there will be a quiz.
If you have any particular questions you want Charlie to answer, get in touch, and he’ll do his best to answer them.
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WEDNESDAY AM
11.30 - 12.45
Workshop C3
C3: Enhancing Chinese student employability
Presenters: Esther de Perlaky and Siobhan Qadir, University of Warwick
Strategy in action
UK HE is an attractive proposition for Chinese students and their families. This strategic, collaborative project,
delivered by the University of Warwick, together with AGCAS and Institute for Employment Research, researched
Chinese student, alumni and employer perceptions with the aim of providing evidence-based employability and
entrepreneurship support for UK-educated Chinese students before, during and after their studies in the UK. The key
outcomes from this project will be shared to help HEIs be more strategic, innovative, influential and impressive in
terms of supporting Chinese students’ employability.
Innovate
For the first time in the UK, this innovative project enabled UK HEIs to share their Chinese graduate destination data
providing detailed information from 22 different UK HEIs to be incorporated into the research findings. These findings
will be shared to help careers staff and careers departments to be more innovative and influential when supporting
Chinese students.
Influence
This workshop will communicate the key outcomes of this research project, enabling individual HEIs to take the
research findings and resources and best use these to support their own Chinese students’ employability needs; as
well as influence their department’s and their own HEI’s Chinese student strategy. The workshop will also look at the
appetite for opportunities to influence the Chinese employability landscape further.
Impress
This workshop will enable individual delegates, departments and HEIs to look at how they can best support their
Chinese students and their employability needs to help prepare students to confidently enter tomorrow’s world.
This workshop also builds on the AGCAS 5th July Careers Practitioner’s workshop.
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Workshop C4
C4: Data + people = strategy in action
Presenters: Hannah Pearce and Katie Hill, University of Bristol
Using management information in our Employability Partnership Agreements to impress and influence is a key part of
seeing Bristol’s new strategy in action. It has been a valuable tool in building relationships, facilitating discussions and
informing potential innovations.
The workshop will explore how management information is presented and discussed with stakeholders. We will
principally focus upon the conversations we have had with academic colleagues, but will also consider other
stakeholders too, such as the colleagues we work with in the service itself.
The workshop will introduce Bristol’s new EPAs, describe some of the questions that have arisen from the data and
how we have addressed them. We want to gain the audience’s thoughts on the levels and types of management
information that can be most useful in determining interventions through discussion of the following questions:

What data do you use to prioritise and plan activities for students?

How do you present data and who is it shared with?

What further questions and discussions have been stimulated by the data you share?

Which data have been most useful for building relationships and planning interventions?
By the end of the session, we want our audience to have shared their opinions on our presentation of data and its
impact, have reflected on different uses and types of management information and leave with some ideas to
investigate further or implement in their own services.
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Workshop C5
C5: How has the fragmentation of careers education and guidance (offered to young people in
schools or colleges) affected the level of ‘career readiness’, which our students have when they
arrive at university?
Presenter: Laura Aldridge, Liverpool John Moores University
Over the last academic year, Laura Aldridge (Careers Adviser) has carried out an innovative HECSU funded careers
research project to find out about a sample of LJMU first year students’ past experience of careers education and
guidance. Her research has involved using quantitative methods (such as the completion of a survey by students) and
carrying out semi-structured interviews with a cross-section of students. She has also interviewed careers
practitioners (working in a school or college setting). In this workshop, Laura will share the findings of her research
and the important implications, which this poses for Higher Education Careers Services. She will show how her
research exposes the vastly different experiences, which our students have of careers education and guidance before
they come to university. This lack of consistency in our students’ past experiences may well have a bearing on how
well our students engage with careers support once they are at university. This research will therefore encourage
workshop participants to consider our students’ prior experiences of careers support. The research findings also
underline the importance of early intervention with our students from Level 4 onwards.
This research project has also raised questions about how a lack of early careers support may have an impact on how
likely a student is to discontinue from a HE course. Laura will also share her experience of being a first time
researcher and how this has influenced her practice.
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Workshop C6
WEDNESDAY AM
11.30 - 12.45
C6: Keep calm and carry on analysing: good data vs. bad data analysis
Presenters: Mona Vadher, City University London and Kate Croucher, FDM Group
For many graduates, the potential career options are becoming increasingly varied. Retention by graduates is subject
to greater scrutiny and employers must ensure they deliver ‘value for money’ and get a greater return on their
investment.
Analytics help employers maximise the effectiveness of their recruitment campaigns. It is clear that employers must
demonstrate that their campaigns add value as they are increasingly in competition for budget allocation internally and
good quality graduates externally.
Similarly, analytics help universities understand the impact their employability strategies are having on the number
and quality of graduates applying to graduate programmes so that they may target their interventions more effectively.
That is why it is mutually beneficial and vital for both parties to provide tangible evidence about which campaigns are
effective and why. Universities need to know what works (and subsequently what doesn’t) in order to recruit the right
people for organisations.
Universities and employers have a common interest here and both need to be innovative and work together in order to
promote routes to place the most suitable graduates into the right graduate roles. Ultimately this will widen the talent
pool and result in fulfilled and productive employees, contributing over time to successful organisations. Employers
are acutely aware of the skills their businesses need for future growth: for universities, employability skills
development must be driven by employer needs. The best outcomes are produced where employers are actively
involved e.g. in the design and delivery of on-campus careers’ events and working in partnership with universities.
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Workshop C7
C7: Opportunities and Obstacles to work in Germany – insight in German Career Service work
Presenter: Krischan Brandl, University of Wuerzburg, Career Service Network Germany
Abstract: Krischan Brandl (Career Center, University of Wuerzburg and vice-president of the csnd) will first describe
the German labour market and the situation/work approaches in German Career Services today. The group will
afterwards explore innovative opportunities and ideas for students from Great Britain and Germany how to apply and
work successfully in the respective other country.
1. German labour market and German career services
Krischan will describe the situation for graduates in Germany, analyze differences, weaknesses and strengths
compared to the British preconditions. He will also present the main findings of a survey by the career service Network
Germany (2014/15) among all German career services to illustrate their situation. In addition he will provide the
audience with representative innovative examples from his own and other German institutions how they prepare their
future graduates by using innovative strategies. Furthermore, he will describe the CSND’s strategies how to equip its
members with the needed skill set.
2. Opportunities and obstacles
The aim is to develop a rough road map for students from Great Britain (and Germany) who want to start working in
the respective other country. Based on the participants’ work experience, the information from the speech and
Krischan’s support, the participants will discover and develop new ideas (and maybe cooperations) how to properly
equip our students and enable them to consider applying for interships or jobs in Germany/Great Britain
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Workshop C8
C8: Graduate career readiness – an in-curriculum employability case study from Australia
Presenters: Rohan Holland, Readygrad and Jen Clark, The University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (Faculty of the Professions), in consultation with employers, identified a need for its
students to be better equipped with more industry-relevant skills required to successfully make the transition from
university to work. The Graduate Career Readiness course, established in 2013, is designed to assist students to
firstly assess their skill level, and then via a broad range of carefully designed learning activities and careers
workshops, the students develop these skills and increase their employability. Critically, 80% of the content is
delivered by industry experts!
Partnership
The Faculty identified Readygrad as an industry specialist core provider for the program. In partnership, an innovative,
blended learning approach was established to include:
1. Self-paced online learning modules (Pre-work - 4 hours):
2. Jobready Group Session Bootcamp – Compulsory Core Workshop (Group Session - 8 hours):
3. 1 on 1 Feedback and Assessment (30 minutes): CV and Cover letter assessment and discussion.
4. Recruitready Group Session (3 hours plus pre-work): A fully simulated recruitment process.
Learnings
98% of participants would recommend this program to others. 71% of participants offered an internship (50% offered
more than one!). 86% felt that the course directly contributed to winning an internship. 83% felt that the course directly
contributed to winning a graduate position
Co-presented by Rohan Holland (Director – Readygrad) and Jen Clark (Career Development Manager – The
University of Adelaide), learn how industry know how is integrated in this elective, the employment outcomes and the
latest results.
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Workshop C9
WEDNESDAY AM
11.30 - 12.45
C9: Learning from failure and success
Presenters: Gareth Hill, Swansea University
This interactive workshop will consider how careers and employability services can excel through:

innovation;

influencing key staff and students;

reflecting and learning from failure and success;

evaluating and seeking further improvements.
Poor student engagement/participation can be caused by a number of factors. This means that careers and
employability services need to think creatively about their service offer and how to overcome barriers to engagement.
What are the solutions?
How can we develop effective relationships with staff/students, to gain their engagement?
This interactive workshop will share an important case study of ‘failure’ of our service where no students from a
subject area would attend careers session:

sharing key innovations e.g. we put into place including small group guidance - how did this work?

What did we learn from these and what risks did we take?

How did our strategy develop?

After a period of success how can employability be ‘grown’ in a University with limited resources?
Learning Outcomes

analyse what can be learnt from failure within a careers and employability service;

consider possible solutions to increase student engagement and par ticipation sharing best practice;

understand what are the key factors operationally and strategically in increasing attendance and participation;

reflect upon the barriers that limit the growth of a careers service, and share best practice in overcoming these.
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Workshop C10
C10: Utilising employer engagement and partnerships to develop a core module in ‘Career
Entrepreneurship’
Presenter: Glenda Martin, Ulster University
Career Entrepreneurship is a new 20 credit point compulsory module which has been delivered to 103 local and
international 2nd year Accounting and Finance students at Ulster.
The module, designed by the Employability Department in partnership with employers focuses on developing student
employability skills. 10 employers contributed to the design and delivery of this module which included significant
investment of time and financial sponsorship from our lead partners Deloitte and BDO.
90% class attendance and 23% increase in securing placements is testament to the impact of this module on students
who participated. 79% of students achieved 60%+ as a final mark and 100% recorded an increase in their
employability skills.
The innovative learning methodology utilises a combination of technology based assessment, flipped classroom
techniques and open space learning which challenges students to step out of their comfort zone, identify their
personal brand and articulate their skills confidently and professionally.
Key elements of the module include the submission of a video elevator pitch, participation in a mock interview and
taking part in a simulated assessment centre where employers assessed key graduate qualities.
The module attracted extensive media recognition at local, national and international level also resulting in its
development for 2016/17 Chinese University partners. It is currently being replicated with 4 other schools across the
University and has attracted extensive interest from new employers wishing to partner on the module.
This workshop will share good practice, provide ideas and help you consider how employability might fit in your
learning programme.
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Workshop C11
C11: The new Planner and how you can help build it
Presenters: Sarah O’Donnell, Chris Rea and Jen Redman, Graduate Prospects Ltd
Planner is all about equipping your students and graduates to understand their career development options and to
make the right choices.
Different versions of Planner have been available for more than twenty years and careers services have played a
central role in its evolution.
We are now embarking on a new iteration. It will look different, behave differently and may even have a new name but
as ever it will be built on the foundations of more than 400 job profiles produced and published in partnership with
AGCAS.
The new Planner tool has been developed in line with user experience (UX) principles. We will explain how this
process was managed and share some of the findings of our research.
Delegates will then get to work on a set of tasks based on the new tool to help us gather additional insights into the
user experience. The outcomes of the exercises will feed into our development programme so participants will be
making a direct contribution to the creation of an innovative guidance tool.
The workshop will also demonstrate how placing the user experience at the heart of all development projects will help
colleagues deliver products and services that meet the evolving needs of all parties – careers advisers, students and
graduates.
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Workshop C12
WEDNESDAY AM
11.30 - 12.45
C12: Resilience: a millennial speed bump
Presenter: Shelley Morgan, Lancaster University
This dissemination workshop aims to share good practice and the findings of the Lancaster University Graduate
Resilience Research Project.
Lancaster University Careers, supported through the HECSU Research Fund, is currently completing a piece of
research to understand issues surrounding the impact of graduate resilience and some of the knock on effects on
employers.
In this context, our research specifically refers to graduates who have left a graduate level role less than 6 months
after starting it. We define resilience as the ability to overcome barriers and adapt to problems in the workplace as
they arise and the research covers the following:

addressing unrealistic expectations of the workplace/ role;

using a logical approach;

thinking innovatively;

taking ownership;

not giving up at the first hurdle;

finding appropriate solutions.
Resilience includes, for example, work-readiness, softer skills, communication, time management, the ability to
prioritise, and making decisions. The inability to adapt to the expectations of the workplace has considerable cost and
time implications on the employer.
We will propose a set of recommendations to try to tackle this issue before students graduate
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Workshop C13
C13: Understanding UK employment visas and supporting international students in the UK job
market
Presenters: Justin Richardson, University of Liverpool and Nicky Dean, Network Rail
This session will look at how international students can work in the UK after their studies and how careers
professionals can support them.
Nicky Dean, a practising Immigration lawyer, is the in-house Immigration and Compliance Specialist for Network Rail,
will talk through the different visa routes that international students can use to work in the UK after their studies, and
will also introduce a new forum on LinkedIn, for university staff and employers to receive relevant updates on
recruitment of international students and graduates, and to use as a platform to share questions and information with
each other around this area. Nicky has for several years worked closely with a number of University careers services
and has been very active in promoting support for international students to work in the UK. She will discuss how she
has worked with universities to help international students’ access job opportunities in the UK.
Justin Richardson, a careers adviser from Liverpool University and member of the AGCAS Internationalization Task
Group will also share and highlight other tips and resources for advisers working with international students aiming to
stay in the UK to work after their studies as well as encouraging participants to share their own tips.
This session will highlight good practice across universities and how universities can support international students to
make an impact and impress employers in the UK’s job market. It will aim to help advisers to support international
students to navigate the complex visa routes and the employment market.
Downes
Sports
Hall
WEDNESDAY PM 14.15 – 15.30
Workshop D1
D1: Interviews live: an innovative model of interview skills training
Presenters: Charlie Cunningham and Stephanie Redding, The University of Warwick
We have developed an innovative model of interview skills training. This consists of a live event where students
(audience of 60+) watch employers interviewing student actors and coach ‘candidates’ live on stage. Students then
pair up for action learning and interview clinics to put their learning into practice. This model has developed from
Warwick’s strategy of ‘student as collaborator’ and is encouraged and financially supported by Warwick’s Institute of
Advanced Learning and Teaching (IATL), our project funder. Our aim is to integrate students and employers into the
delivery of training and to break down barriers between the two. In addition, our student actors are involved in
developing ideas and structure.
The model is preparing students to confidently enter tomorrow’s world by demonstrating live how employers interact
with candidates. The use by the audience of voting software and scoring sheets allows them also to influence the
result of interviews. These results can be compared with employer’s scores to identify interesting differences. We
believe students are impressed by the credibility this training has by way of the employer voice. Equally, they are
impressed by their ability to disagree, question and collaborate with employers and other students in this model.
We are able to share good practice with other innovators across the university in an open forum through IATL. This is
allowing us to develop our ideas and get input from a range of teaching practitioners.
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Workshop D2
WEDNESDAY PM
14.15 – 15.30
D2: Careers registration: feedback and learning about two different approaches
Presenters: Philippa Hewett & Victoria Wade, The Careers Group
Last year, SOAS and RVC shared their approaches to starting Careers Registration and what they hoped to gain from
it. SOAS was concerned with quantity and RVC was concerned with quality – so SOAS aimed to get every student at
all levels to complete a very short questionnaire voluntarily and RVC aimed to get a single cohort to undertake a
compulsory and detailed questionnaire.
Getting Careers Registration to that point required a good deal of influence within out institutions, and using it has
offered us opportunities to impress both academic and professional services colleagues. SOAS’s IT team designed an
SSRS database which has been cited as an example of good practice by the IT community, and results have been
made available to the whole School. The RVC set up an Employability Working Group with key stakeholders, including
lead academics, to shape the operational and strategic aspects of the project. Staff and skills tutors were given
training on the questionnaire before it was rolled out to students with positive results.
In both cases we had very limited resource to make things happen and so needed to work smarter, not harder.
We have found that having real, in-life Careers data is starting to transform our relationships with Academics who are
currently wondering how to manage the TEF and see Career Registration as potentially offering an innovative and
strategic answer to some of the questions it raises.
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Workshop D3
D3: Careers services for international students: how international-oriented HEIs in Europe support
the career development of international students
Presenter: Erik Zeltner, Entre2C
The rising number of international tertiary students and their successful transition from higher education into the
graduate labour market, including the utilisation of their international experience on a globalised market after
graduation, is not only a challenge for the students but has also become a critical factor for host universities and
careers centres.
This development and a lack of quality in the careers service provision for international students in European countries
like the UK or Germany raises the question of the current state in careers services in higher education and the service
provision for international students.
In the course of a presentation of case studies from three international-oriented European HEIs, I will provide an
overview of the situation and evolution of the careers services of HEIs in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK with a
special emphasis on the careers service provisions and its strategies offered to international students.
In cooperation with the audience, we will share good practice and will gain deeper insights on:

how careers services for international students have evolved differently in each country;

careers services that are offered to the students;

strategies for marketing and services;

different expectations of international students regarding careers services;

environmental conditions, trends and developments that have an impact on the careers service provision for
international students.
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Workshop D4
D4: Your Future Plan – a university-wide strategy for employability engagement
Presenters: Nicki Castello and Jo Evans, University of Gloucestershire
How can we make sure that all students are motivated to develop their employability and not just the keen ones? How
can we get them to think about career planning from day one at university?
How can we engage academic staff that think that student employability is nothing to do with them?
How can we ensure that employability development becomes an integral and valued part of every student’s university
experience?
At the University of Gloucestershire, ‘Your Future Plan’ encourages all our students to ‘Explore, Decide, Achieve’ in
the three domains of work experience, skills development and career management. Through active collaboration
between personal tutors, academic staff and the Careers and Employability team to develop our employability
practice, we aim to empower students to become confident architects of their own future.
‘Your Future Plan’ is the cornerstone of the University’s new Employability and Employment Strategy. It furthers our
ambition to develop ‘a defined, cohesive and more comprehensive approach to employability’ (HEA Employability
Framework 2013), to provide all our students with the opportunities and support they need to develop into highly
employable graduates.
Our key innovation is the involvement of personal tutors in monitoring their students’ employability development, using
a Future Plan framework and questionnaire developed by the Careers and Employability team.
Our strategy aims to influence academic practice, professional service development and student behaviour, so that
employability and career development becomes a prized feature of the student experience at UoG.
Come and find out about the impression we have made so far.
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WEDNESDAY PM
14.15 – 15.30
Workshop D5
D5: Increasing the supply of innovative work experience opportunities
Presenters; Anamika Bhatt and David Barker, The National Centre for Universities and Business
The BIS FutureTrack report (2013) shows undergraduates who had work experience during university were more
likely to be employed, have greater confidence and earn higher salaries than those that did not. When looking at the
opportunities available to these students, it is clear that existing online work-experience platforms are sub-scale. A
landscape analysis in November 2015 of 20 work experience providers revealed no more than 2,600 opportunities
listed. Against the backdrop of 2.2m students, this number does not provide volume.
BrandU – a platform created in collaboration to extend reach. We’ve consulted with universities to understand the
challenges and see how we can work together to address social mobility issues and solving the shortage of provision.
We’ve held student workshops to gather intelligence around work experience in order to design opportunities students
would value. Together with our partners we have developed an innovative work experience platform launching to pilot
universities early 2017. BrandU will be a student app that will feed in opportunities from universities along with
additional work experience that the National Centre will curate.
We currently have 5 universities signed up so far and we’re looking for at least 15 for the pilot.
In the workshop, delegates will:

Innovate: Hear from two pilot partners sharing why the BrandU innovative functionality will benefit their
students.

Influence: See a demonstration of the prototype, participate in a discussion and feed back to influence
product design.

Impress: Be a trailblazer. Join the pilot group where they can test the prototype with their students.
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Workshop D6
D6: Selling fun
Presenters: Siobhan Bennett, Dr Nathalie Dalton-King and Ian Scrase, The University of Warwick
The key to a successful outcome for a student is to enable them to tell their own unique story to potential employers.
We know from research (Kings-Warwick project) that employers look for a good degree, work experience, extracurricular activities and the ability to communicate the learning from these experiences effectively. At Warwick we instil
the value of the entire student journey, including activities students do just for fun. Anecdotal evidence also tells us
that students regularly underestimate non work experience activities despite the fact that research shows the tangible
benefits of extra-curricular activities in enhancing employer perception of other work experience.
Our workshop will discuss the ways in which Warwick is trying to engage student in the benefits of extra-curricular
activity and how to articulate this to employers through our innovative ‘Tell Your Story’ campaign. We will look at how
we help students to impress, when it counts, by being able to talk confidently about how they have engaged in
university life.
We will also discuss how the ‘Tell Your Story’ initiative seeks to influence students to continue or take up these
valuable experiences and understand that having fun can lead to success further down the line. We will also
demonstrate the innovative use of our e-portfolio platform (MyPortfolio) to enable students to record, reflect and
articulate their story in a unique way.
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Workshop D7
WEDNESDAY PM
14.15 – 15.30
D7: UTS BAcc Programme and Readygrad: A collaborative partnership to build employability skills
with students through a blended, integrated programme
Presenters: Rohan Holland, Readygrad and Michelle Cook, University of Technology Sydney
The Bachelor of Accounting Programme (BAcc) at University of Technology, Sydney is a cooperative education
programme in accounting. It is an intensive course offered in conjunction with major employers. Students complete a
compulsory first major in accounting and receive a scholarship and full-time work training. Historically the course has a
graduate employment rate greater than 95 per cent. The programme identified a need for its students to be better
equipped with more industry relevant employability skills required by the employers who consider them for graduate
programmes.
The programme, delivered by Readygrad, in consultation with UTS BAcc Programme, comprises of a blended
learning approach to both recruitment and job readiness skills which builds through the three-year programme to
provide skills for students in a logical sequence:
Year 1 - Workshop - introduction to graduate recruitment process and business etiquette.

Workshop - Interview skills (followed by 1 on 1 mock interviews with feedback).
Year 2 - Workshop - Cover letter and resume (followed by 1 on 1 review session with feedback).

Group programme - Recruitready programme (including full simulated graduate recruitment process with full
assessment centre) - Workshop - Personal elevator pitch.
Year 3 - Group Programme - 1 day Jobready Bootcamp (part of live in camp) to build jobready skills.

Workshop - Building resilience and receiving feedback.
Employment Outcomes, tracking employment outcomes, feedback and improved engagement of those students
involved in the programme currently is underway and will be shared in the presentation.
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Workshop D8
D8: How employers develop graduates
Presenter: Rebecca Fielding, Gradconsult
The skills employers seek in graduates are constantly evolving and so are the training processes they use to develop
graduates. The recent AGR Development Survey 2016 outlined the skills that employers identify to be lacking in
graduates; these include commercial awareness, dealing with conflict and self-awareness.
Rebecca has a wealth of experience developing graduates for employers such as Heinz, Asda and The Co-operative
Group.
She will shine a light on the latest techniques used in graduate development; these insights will allow you to:
• Develop innovative career development activities to develop the nuanced skills that employers value.
• Influence graduate attribute frameworks and course design to reflect these requirements.
• Engage employers in the skills agenda by understanding their challenges.
By designing career development activities based on the latest graduate development techniques, you will provide
your students with a distinct competitive advantage and impress employer clients by providing genuinely work-ready
graduates.
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Workshop D9
D9: Innovation toolkit: An introduction to the latest employability tech and trends
Presenter: Tom Lakin, Career Design
There has never been a more exciting time to work in the employability and careers sector – constantly evolving
technology allows students to create a personal brand and engage with employers in ways never previously possible.
This session, led by an ex-corporate recruiter and leading innovation consultant, will showcase the latest tools and
approaches that can be shared with students. This session provides both tactical and strategic insights ranging from
how to leverage employer review sites like Glassdoor to understanding the significance of the Contextual Recruitment
software being adopted by graduate recruitment teams.These tools will be framed by a review of the latest trends in
graduate and early careers recruitment.
Innovation = Introduction of new tools and how these can be embedded in to careers work practice.
Influence = This session is restricted to products and trends which have a direct impact on students so all content is
designed to resonate with them.
Impress = This session is the result of my consultancy work with some of the largest graduate employers in the UK
and provides employability practitioners with a commercial viewpoint.
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Workshop D10
D10: Developing an institutional framework for employability
Presenter: Shauna McCloy and Damian McGivern, Ulster University
Ulster University have developed an institutional framework for employability that specifically addresses the
challenges of fully embedding employability into the student experience regardless of programme, level or mode of
study. The framework for employability articulates the concept of employability in a way that is easily understood by
academics, students, employers and awarding bodies and provides a clear, visual answer to the simple question of
what employability is. The framework will present flexible approaches to the delivery of employability at various
stages of the student journey such as; ‘pre-entry’, ‘during’ and ‘post-university’ and supports a partnership approach to
the design, delivery and assessment of employability interventions. Within the framework new opportunities have
been identified for the development of assessment tools and research into the impact of various employability
interventions.
This workshop offers participants a structure and process for defining and developing effective approaches to
embedding employability into the student experience. Participants will be challenged to think about how employability
is presented and articulated within their own institution and how the development of a framework approach might
support this.
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Workshop D11
WEDNESDAY PM
14.15 – 15.30
D11: Are Skills Awards about participation or achievement?
Presenters; Maxine Sims, University of Bristol and Gemma Seabrook, Royal Holloway, University
of London
Completion of the Bristol PLUS Award is by an interactive group workshop where students are required to participate
with their peers in order to pass. The Royal Holloway Passport Award also requires students to attend a final
interactive workshop in order to gain their full award. In both Awards, opportunities are provided for students to reflect,
articulate their skills and experience to peers and provide feedback. We believe an interactive workshop is more
innovative than a 1:1 concluding appointment, presentation or written portfolio because:

The session concludes the Award and students are also required to create an action plan and given tools
and signposts to continue to develop beyond the Award.

Students are required to actively participate in order to pass so the session itself is another opportunity for
students to develop their group work, communication and networking skills with students outside of their
discipline.

The interactive nature of the workshop allows for the personalization of skills.

Feedback has shown that students enjoy the opportunity to share and learn from other’s experiences.

Using the workshop format is time and resource efficient - up to 18 students (RHUL ) or 10 students (Bristol)
in one hour. Versus individual assessment, marking or 1 to 1 appointments.
This workshop would take the format of two case studies followed by a discussion around the workshop title.
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Workshop D12
D12: Going beyond DLHE – a case study of a large scale graduate survey
Presenters: Eddie Tunnah, The Open University, Jessica Howlett and Mark Leung, i-graduate
At the Open University we have found that the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey is
insufficient to give us the information we need about the careers progression of our graduates. This is largely due to
the nature of our students, many of whom are already in employment and the issue for them is often career change or
career progression, DLHE isn’t good at measuring either. For this reason in 2015 we commissioned i-graduate to
design and conduct a survey of over 50,000 OU graduates.
At a time of increased interest in graduate outcomes, e.g. HESA’s current DLHE review, we would like to share our
experience of undertaking a large scale survey. We needed to be innovative to account for the student body at the
OU and that presented a number of challenges, both in terms of the data collection and the interpretation of what
success in terms of goal achievement looks like for people with very different goals, backgrounds, motivations and
challenges.
The survey also looked at awareness, usage and satisfaction of careers and employability services at the OU. It also
asked about how well their qualifications had helped respondents develop a range of employability skills, as well as
capturing what people might be willing to give back in terms of alumni engagement. This participative workshop will
explain how the survey was conducted, from both the OU’s and i-graduate’s perspectives, and how it has been used
to influence strategic developments at the university.
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THURSDAY AM 10.45 – 12.00
Workshop E1
E1: Preparing tutors for the employability agenda
Presenters: Guy Townsin and Liz Holford, University of Portsmouth
How do you encourage academic tutors to confidently engage with the employability agenda?
Do these statements from academics sound familiar?
‘I don’t have the right skillset to support my tutees’
‘I don’t have the knowledge to be effective when delivering an employability based tutorial’
This workshop will focus on two of the key themes for this year’s conference namely: innovate and influence. The
careers team at the University of Portsmouth has designed an innovative Moodle based resource to support academic
tutors delivering employability related tutorials. For the first time at Portsmouth academic tutors have access to a
range of resources, based on the DOTS model that can be used with all year groups from freshers to finalists and
postgrads.These resources deliver a range of learning outcomes and come with easy to use instructions, ideas for
activities and downloadable handouts.
The tutor toolkit was conceived in order to influence the employability agenda at Portsmouth by providing academic
colleagues with an easy to use resource that they would feel confident to use. The toolkit has been evaluated on
several occasions in order to gauge if tutor confidence has increased. Additionally, feedback has identified that
academic tutors are using these materials effectively.
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Workshop E2
THURSDAY AM
10.45 – 12.00
E2: Forget graduate attributes, it is all about mindset!
Presenter: Rebecca Fielding and Kylie Cook, Gradconsult
Why do some graduates do much better than others? The ones that do well navigate through the rough seas of
starting a new job, understanding the business needs to deliver time and time again. They aren’t afraid of tough
challenges and when things don’t go well, they learn from their mistakes and grow. In corporate hallways, they are
called “the superstar graduates”.
Through his work employing and developing many hundreds of graduates for employers such as Arriva, Mouchel and
Enterprise and as Board Member for AGR; Charlie started to see patterns in the way superstar graduates responded
to certain situations. The pattern was like a golden thread running through the waistcoat of success; these graduates
had an unwavering belief that their personal potential was unlimited. This is the essence of a growth mindset.
Charlie believes this the missing ingredient in employability provision. If students can understand their mindset and be
supported to develop associated non-cognitive attributes such as grit and resilience; this will positively influence their
ability to impress employers when they enter the graduate market.
This workshop will explore the work of mindset researchers such as Professor Carol Dweck and give practical insights
into how it can be applied to career development activities.
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Workshop E3
E3: Taking the next step in the relationship – merging careers, development and alumni
Presenters: Eleanor Merrick and Julie Powell, University of Roehampton
We are all aware of the benefits that alumni can bring to an institution’s career strategy, but with a focus for many
universities on generating income from their alumni are these areas truly working in partnership, and how do careers
and development teams work together?
At Roehampton we believe we are one of the first UK universities to merge all three functions together, forming our
new Alumni, Development and Careers department in August 2015. While this is an emerging trend in the US this
workshop will discuss and share examples of how this formal partnership can support the aims of all three areas at a
UK institution.
Discussion points will include:

looking at how we make the most of resources;

developing events and communications differently;

targeting donations to support employability and progression initiatives;

creating a broader employer engagement strategy that ties in a number of strands including placements,
income generation, sponsorship, mentoring - of students and applicants and input into the curriculum
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Workshop E4
E4: Bridging the academic engagement gap
Presenters: Mona Vadher and David Seymour, City University London
Academic by-in can be hard but is necessary to develop targeted, dynamic and purposeful innovations in order to
enhance employability. Collaboration is fundamental.
Innovate
Every year, 30,000 students start a law degree, competing for 5,500 training contracts, a few vacation schemes and
500 pupillages. Unsurprisingly, not every law graduate ends up being a lawyer. The industry is hugely competitive and
the anticipated legal reforms are making it even more so.
Influence
At City, the Employer Engagement team collaborated with academics from the City Law School to launch a creative
and innovative pilot, which built on complimentary skills, knowledge and expertise.
The Micro-Placement Programme (MPP) focuses on career exploration (outside the legal sector) and allowed us to
work cohesively to set up and refine processes. Academics assisted in the interviewing process and mandatory
workshops delivered by our careers consultants, which made the recruitment process competitive.
Impress
It is the only MPP in the UK to be corporately endorsed and supported by a professional body, the Institute of
Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). We formed new partnerships and relationships with
employers receiving over 1000 expressions of interests and 120 projects!
In addition to meeting City’s strategic employability objectives, the scheme has been designed to specifically support
students from a Widening Participation background, who are statistically more likely to be underemployed or
unemployed after graduation, appealing to organisation’s Corporate Social Responsibility agendas.
It has recently been shortlisted for the Vice Chancellors’ Awards, under the “Best collaborative project between a
School and a Professional Service” category.
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THURSDAY AM
10.45 – 12.00
Workshop E5
E5: Helping students to progress through placements: what if it goes wrong?
Presenters: Suzanne Maynard, Leeds Beckett University and Seamus McConomy, Ulster University
As HEIs face the challenge of globalising the mindset of their students to prepare them to be innovative and influential
in tomorrow’s increasingly global economy they find themselves under pressure to source larger numbers of
placement opportunities both at home and overseas. The expectation that all learners be provided the opportunity to
undertake a placement during their degrees has gained momentum across the HE sector with demand for varied
global provision often overtaking the time needed to prepare for the challenges of an unpredictable and volatile world.
The need to globalise the mindset of students to keep pace with a more global economy, whilst also ensuring their
safety in a world where security threats can occur outside known conflict zones, provide unique challenges to the
AGCAS community.
As HEIs we need to keep students safe whilst sourcing innovative opportunities for our students to impress. To do this
we need impressive planning and we need to quickly know what to do when things go wrong, no matter where in the
world our students might be.
Our interactive workshop is designed to help AGCAS members reasonably new to organising varied placements both
at home and overseas. The AGCAS Placements and Work Based Learning Task Group will encourage discussion of
issues and share experiences of things going wrong on placement and the innovative strategies put in place by
institutions to tackle issues. We would like members to share our "What if it goes wrong" strategy and create their own
scenario and action matrix to use.
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Workshop E6
E6: Innovating to enhance employability in nursing
Presenters: Katie Whitehouse and Lisa Abbott, Birmingham City University
This workshop will showcase a range of innovative approaches to the employability enhancement of student nurses.
Birmingham City University (BCU) academic and careers staff have worked in partnership to develop an innovative
strategy to engage with key employers across the West Midlands and beyond, creating a Nursing Partnership
Employability Group (NPEG). We will share the ethos and success of this Group in influencing recruitment and
selection preparation and practice, workforce planning needs and the transitional needs of students.
Nearly Qualified Days (NQD) have been developed as an integral part of the Nursing programme plan, with a key
emphasis on seizing the poignant moment during the final weeks of the students programme of study to recognise
and celebrate their success. NQD activities are focused upon reflection of the student journey so far, as well as
empowering the students to be future thinking for a successful career in their chosen profession.
As part of the nursing curriculum, we have taken a practical, fun approach to developing employability attributes.
During this workshop we will provide a hands on creative opportunity for delegates to experience how we develop
student resilience awareness and build students confidence to understand and articulate their transferable skills and
attributes with passion.
We will share our journey in development of these activities and resources. We hope to inspire delegates to be
innovative and work collaboratively with stakeholders to streamline the transitional journey for students, creating a
positive learning experience and preparation for future employment.
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Workshop E7
E7: Using international collaboration for internal influence
Presenters: Lizzie Mortimer, The University of Edinburgh and Diane Gill, University of Edinburgh
Business School
When embedding employability in the curriculum is central to both the UG and PGT Student Experience strategy. How
do separate teams make this happen? At Edinburgh, we’ve created opportunities for joint innovation. We use these to
learn together and provide a combined force to influence strategy.
In this workshop, we'll demonstrate how we’re collaborating to influence both the student experience strategy in the
Business School and emerging strategies across the University. Enthused by a pan-institution visit from Aarhus
University, we recognised the value of creating a space to jointly learn from and be inspired by another perspective.
Moreover, combining those thoughts when translating it to the contexts we operate in at Edinburgh strengthens the
overall outputs. After a successful Erasmus bid, in June 2016, we are making a return visit to Aarhus University,
School of Business and Social Science and then on to Copenhagen Business School.
In the workshop, we'll share our learning from the visit, reflect on the benefits (and challenges) of the cross-university
collaboration and encourage participants to think about opportunities to innovate and impress in their environments –
what they could do and who they could infuence.
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Workshop E8
THURSDAY AM
10.45 – 12.00
E8: Successful partnerships with academic colleagues: a case study with the History Department
at the University of Manchester showing how employability is embedded throughout the student
journey
Presenters: Louise Sethi, Dr Aashish Velkar, Professor Julie-Marie Strange and Muneera Lula, The
University of Manchester
The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester has a tailored employability strategy to cover its constituent
Schools. The History Department is an excellent example of this strategy in action, as a collaborative approach
between the Careers Service, the academic department, current students and alumni, enabling impressive careers
and employability actions to take place across the student lifecycle, from open days through to post-graduation. The
session will be jointly presented by academics, students and careers staff.
This workshop will explore the excellent working relationship between all stakeholders, and how this has worked to
refine existing practices both within and outside of the curriculum. History students can go down a wide array of paths
after University, and the employability opportunities being provided to them enable students to be confident and
excited about what they can do in the current graduate labour market.
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Workshop E9
E9: Creatively curated careers – how we connect, inform, and inspire students with industryleading “creatives”
Presenters: Lucy Everett and Helen Edwards, The University of Edinburgh
Follow the journey we took from identifying creative industries as a strategic priority to winning the AGCAS Excellence
Award for Employer Engagement in 2015. With the creative industries being a growing but challenging sector to
engage with in Edinburgh, high levels of interest amongst students and low engagement from our Edinburgh College
of Art (ECA) students, we identified Creative Industries as a strategic priority for the Careers Service in 2012.
Drawing on staff creativity, networks and relationship building skills, we created the Creative and Cultural Careers
Festival (CCCF). The vision was to connect students with industry-leading ‘creatives’, inform them about opportunities
in the sector, (painting an honest picture of the challenges and rewards) and inspire them with success stories through
multiple, vibrant events. Over 1,000 students, 22 events, 95 speakers and 73 different organisations impressed and
influenced students and professionals alike. Three years later, it is a well established: “bringing together of people,
ideas and the occasional drink in order to create a buzz around creative and cultural careers and the opportunity to
meet peers and creative practitioners.”
This session will:

give you an understanding of how we engaged, influenced and inspired students, staff, employers and the
wider University in an innovative festival that caught everyone’s imagination;

stimulate thinking about how you could develop these ideas within your own institution.
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Workshop E10
E10: From confidence to competence. How can a skills inventory help to generate effective
evidence.
Presenter: Becka Colley, Edge Hill University
Students often over or under assess their levels of confidence and produce weak evidence to back up their claims.
This session will provide an overview of how a skills and personal reflective activity (SaPRA) can be used to help
students become more effective at communicating their skills and experiences on applications and at interview.
The session will demonstrate how SaPRA helps students to manage the process of identifying, evidencing and
effectively articulating their skills by accurately assessing their levels of confidence, generating evidence and
developing action plans. SaPRA is being embedded across the university within the curriculum and as part of the
personal tutoring system.
SaPRA is built and managed within CareerHub. There will be an opportunity to try out the tool during the session
(please bring a mobile device or laptop with you!).
The session meets the conference theme of “Strategy in Action – Innovate, Influence and Impress” by addressing how
we are preparing students to confidently enter tomorrow’s world
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THURSDAY PM 14.30 – 15.45
Workshop F1
F1: Behind the virtuous circle: the benefits and challenges of supporting alumni work shadowing
placements for first year students
Presenters: Patricia Durkin and Roisin Copeland, Queens University Belfast
THURSDAY PM
14.30 – 15.45
This workshop demonstrates strategy in action through the Queen’s City Scholarship programme, which gives first year
students exposure to global career opportunities, meeting the University’s Vision 2020 Internationalisation priority.
Queen’s Careers, Employability and Skills (CES) want to share our experience of managing this programme and hear
how other services manage similar activities.
The programme prepares students (from first year) to enter tomorrow’s world by giving them:

work shadowing placements with alumni throughout the world;

early, practical experience of recruitment methods - with feedback;

networking opportunities with students and alumni;

responsibilities for giving back;
it equips students to be innovative, influential and able to impress through: training, practice and constructive
feedback on applications and video interviews;

a requirement to disseminate learning, promote the programme and fundraise to enable future student
participation;

encouragement to realise global careers and bring back a global perspective to the Queen’s community.
Our practice in this programme is innovative, influential and able to impress because we:

work collaboratively with Alumni, our Alumni office and academic staff;

demonstrate outcomes - with more students undertaking placements and graduate roles outside Northern
Ireland;

engage large numbers of students at the beginning of first year and maintain that engagement.
Workshop participants will:

learn more about the programme and how we manage it;
watch video clips from stakeholders;

see evidence of impact through increases in City Scholarship placements and student engagement;

hear about challenges and how we’re addressing them.
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Workshop F2
F2: Employability in the Sciences
Presenter: Kelly Vere, Science Council
Given the increasing focus on employability and the value of practical skills in science, the Science Council, (as the
umbrella body for professional bodies in science) is working with a number of universities and employers on an innovative
project that endorses year-long industry placements against the national professional standards of “Registered Scientist
(RSci)”. RSci standards cover the breadth of scientific disciplines – from food science to sports science to bioscience and
beyond. The Science Council national registers cover five key areas of competency: A) Application of Knowledge and
Understanding, B) Personal Responsibility, C) Interpersonal Skills, D) Professional Practice and E) Professionalism. The
student, having completed their year in industry, is assessed for RSci status and, if successful, gains nationally
recognised registered status for the skills they have gained on placement. Crucially they enter their final year of studies
having achieved Registered Scientist status, demonstrating their skills and continued commitment to professional
development and their links to professional networks - thus improving their employability. Our pilot project shows that the
alignment of work experience to RSci standards also offers a framework for employers and HEIs, ensuring the quality of
placements and a positive student experience.
The skills acquired on work experience are formally recognised and the RSci award has external currency, extending
beyond university as something graduates can build on as they progress their scientific careers, preparing them for
tomorrow’s world. This workshop will explain the scheme and showcase case studies from a number of partner
universities.
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Workshop F3
F3: The changing world of employer engagement
Presenter: Mike Grey, Gradconsult
The graduate market is competitive for students but also for universities, it has become clear that in order to sustain and
grow positive career outcomes for students that careers services must be prepared to innovate in the methods they use to
engage employers and through the services they offer to graduate recruiters. Excellent employment engagement is about
proactively developing partnerships, not providing a reactive service through being passive receivers of employer
requirements.
Despite the often negative media coverage of universities ability to prepare students for their future careers, there is a
plethora of activity going on across the sector and a wide range of emerging practice that is having real impact.
This workshop will examine some of the excellent initiatives that have been launched in recent years but also some of the
persistent issues that can create a negative perception of careers provision amongst employers.
Mike Grey is a Senior Consultant at Gradconsult and delivers training on engagement between universities and
employers on behalf of AGCAS and AGR. Before joining Gradconsult, he managed a number of employability schemes in
Higher Education. Most recently, he launched and developed the award winning EC Futures provision at Coventry
University and he was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Prize at the National Undergraduate Employability Awards
2016.
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Workshop F4
F4: Forming working alliances: using coaching skills to develop academic and employer
engagement to improve employability success
Presenters; Carolyn Parry, Career Alchemy, Gary Argent, Graduate Transitions and David
Kilmartin, Dublin Institute of Technology
As employability imperatives continue to become all the more important, the successful Careers Services will be those
who are most skilful at influencing both academic staff and employers so that they engage effectively based on shared
interests and objectives.
This workshop extends the use of career coaching concepts from the Working Alliance to provide a practical approach
to ensuring clarification of roles and goals, identifying appropriate topics and tasks and ensuring the effective
development of phases and bonds to enhance and deliver effective employability outcomes.
The concept of overlapping challenges will be used to explore and agree common ground between careers
professionals, academics and employers. This agreement will lay the foundation for mutually beneficial conversations
which use the principles of career coaching to focus on outcomes that support students.
Delivered by AGCAS national career coaching trainer and Founder Director of Career Alchemy, Carolyn Parry, and
former graduate recruiter and Director of Careers Gary Argent, this interactive session is packed full of useful tried and
tested techniques and approaches to create strong working alliances, developed as a result of combined experience
of 47 years in HE careers and 34 years in industry/recruitment.
Attending this workshop will equip heads of service and relevant staff with a framework within which to develop,
innovate, and influence effective interactions to achieve outstanding employability outcomes for students, academic
staff and employers.
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Workshop F5
THURSDAY PM
14.30 – 15.45
F5: Influencing recruitment
Presenters: Jane Artess, International Centre for Guidance Studies and Emma Pollard, Institute for
Employment Studies
In November 2015 the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) published two reports of research
undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and HECSU aimed at better understanding of graduate
employers’ recruitment and selection practices.
The research was commissioned to inform BIS about changes in how employers see their demand for graduates and
their recruitment and selection practices, and also to shed light on whether the government’s ‘social mobility agenda’
is influencing employers’ practices.
The research was primarily qualitative, with its core consisting of in-depth interviews with a large and diverse sample
of employers, including small firms. Two workshops were held with a range of graduate recruiters to understand what
they do and why. A number of stakeholders were also interviewed including Heads of Careers Services and
representatives of professional bodies, policy bodies, graduate recruitment organisations, employer bodies,
organisations supporting students and graduates, and academics. Analysis was also undertaken of key employer,
student and graduate surveys, alongside a detailed review of existing research literature.
Through a combination of presenter inputs and guided group discussion, participants in this workshop will be able to:

update knowledge of innovations in graduate recruitment and selection, including the role of work
experience;

understand employer perspectives of key challenges;

assess a new model derived from the research;

consider how to influence graduate recruiters’ diversity and inclusion practices;

share experiences of working with graduate recruiters;

help students and graduates to impress potential employers .
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Workshop F6
F6: Providing career enhancing activities for all students – the challenges and solutions
Presenters: Alexandra Hemingway, Liz Holford and Guy Townsin,, University of Portsmouth
At the University of Portsmouth the new University Strategy includes a requirement for all students (of all levels and
modes of study) to undertake a career enhancing activity by 2020.
This institutional support for employability is very welcome and presents many opportunities but also certain
challenges. We believe that many other university careers services face similar situations.
This discussion-based workshop will help delegates to address questions including:

What constitutes a career enhancing experience and what innovative approaches can be used to achieve
objectives?

How do we influence local employers and community organisations to support this initiative without
‘saturating’ the market?

How can academic colleagues best support this agenda?

What examples of good practice could be recommended to influence key contributors?

How can we impress and encourage students to take part in ‘extra’ activities?
The workshop will provide a summary of practical solutions to enable delegates to progress institutional employability
strategic objectives by identifying innovative approaches to building a range of activities that would develop
employability skills. Examples could include assessed and embedded interventions, extra-curricular links, campus
based and distance learning initiatives in addition to alumni and peer mentoring projects; developing strategies to use
influence with academic staff and external partners to build engagement with the employability agenda; exploring
ways to make community and employer links sustainable; identifying strategies to impress students concerning the
importance of employability and to help them engage more fully in employability learning, particularly in extracurricular activities.
126/1
THURSDAY PM
14.30 – 15.45
Workshop F7
F7: Working with international students (for new staff)
Presenters; Liz Robertson, Oxford Brookes University and David Levinson, University of Glasgow
Are you new to working with international students in a careers capacity? Are you in the process of putting together
your own personal strategy or approach to working with international students within an HE careers context? Perhaps
you are responsible for putting a strategy into action for your whole service?
Liz Robertson and David Levinson from the AGCAS Internationalisation Task Group will lead this workshop which
aims to boost your confidence in approaching this important element of all of our work. The workshop will provide an
opportunity for participants to discuss issues, challenges and opportunities involved in working with international
students; to share their concerns and to learn from others.
We will explore the challenges involved in supporting international students who may be looking to develop their
careers in the UK and / or in other countries. This will include highlighting sources of information and what you need to
know about UK visa regulations.
We will consider how culture may impact on how careers guidance is delivered and received. We will also consider
examples of good practice of employer engagement and innovation in supporting international students.
We aim to help you to be a positive influence on the international agenda in your own service and to enable your
international students and graduates to be innovative and to impress others when making applications.
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Workshop F8
F8: From DLHE to TEF – Using destination data to influence and impress
Presenters; Zoë Mitton and Matt Jones, University of Huddersfield
The University of Huddersfield Careers and Employability Service faces a particular challenge common to many
AGCAS services across the sector – namely how do we extend and maintain our influence with only limited resource?
One of the tactics we have embraced to address this challenge has been through the judicial and targeted use of
relevant data. In particular, being able to produce meaningful data around destinations – enabling instant and direct
access to specific enquiries at course/subject/dept/faculty level. This has not only propelled the careers service into
the key strategic conversations across the university, but has also raised our profile enormously. This shift has seen
us become the gateway to the data rather than the owners of it and, as such, we are now regarded as a source of
expertise in destinations data, instead of an admin function to simply collect it.
We have also used it to support recommendations or create leverage with senior colleagues; careers advisers use
robust destinations data to consult effectively within their caseload; and our employer team uses it to inform and
targeted their work. Potentially the most significant recent development has also seen our approach to data place us
at the forefront of the university’s response to new imminent challenges, such as the Teaching Excellence Framework
(TEF).
Find out more about how we use data to influence and impress at our workshop, where we will also showcase one of
our data platform.
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THURSDAY PM
14.30 – 15.45
Workshop F9
F9: Innovative use of OFFA funding
Presenter: Dr Kate Daubney, University of Chester
The Careers and Employability of Chester team would like to share its experience of running innovative OFFA-funded
projects and invite colleagues from other institutions to share best practice on how to influence students by enhancing
their employability potential.
The Chester Employability Fund (CEF) is an innovative, targeted OFFA-funded project which aims to provide funding
to current University of Chester students to enable them to carry out activities or purchase items to enhance their
employability such as driving lessons, interview clothes and training courses. These seemingly small interventions can
have huge impact and influence over student attitudes and engagement with their employability. The Fund is targeted
towards students in receipt of specified University bursaries and sanctuary scholarships as well as care leavers and
young carers. Since the pilot in 2014-15, 140 students have benefited from the fund.
Other OFFA-funded projects we run include our Graduate Head Start programme, The Chester Difference Award,
Warrington Discretionary Fund and Venture. These projects do not specifically target students from WP backgrounds,
but are aimed at increasing engagement, retention and employment prospects amongst students with such
backgrounds.
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