Annual Conference 2018Workshop Descriptions

All workshops are in The Forum unless stated otherwiseFree choice on the day – seating is on a first come, first served basis

TUESDAY AM 11:45–13:00A1: Enabling disabled students to thrive in the Fourth Industrial RevolutionPresenters: AGCAS Disability Task Group members Christian Jameson-Warren, Loughborough University and Keren Coney, Keele UniversityRoom 1Findings from ‘What Happens Next? 2017 – A Report on the First Destinations of Disabled Graduates’ indicate that disabled first degree graduates were less likely to obtain a permanent role than non-disabled graduates.

While the Fourth Industrial Revolution may dramatically change the workplace, disabled students can feel positive about the future. This workshop addresses:

Challenging any negative mindsets disabled students might have developed about their own potential and future. Help identifying realistic work goals in an unpredictable future.

Equipping advisors to help students identify and feel confident about the skills developed and strengths associated with their disability that would interest employers in a changing workplace, and how to present them clearly.

Latest information about technological changes that enable participation for all. An OECD report from 2017 states that technological progress is likely to lead to increased flexibility and greater opportunities for under-represented groups, such as disabled.

Support available in the workplace and helping disabled students take ownership of their own support network.

Reflecting on our practices and attitudes as advisors.

The workshop will also include examples from both Loughborough University and the AGCAS Disability Task Group.

A2: Future-proofing through developing “agile and responsive” studentsPresenter: Morag Walling, King’s College, LondonRoom 2Students’ ability to be agile and responsive to a fluid and changing graduate market relies on their ability to be highly self-aware of what they actually offer as a result of the degree they have taken. Integrating employability into the curriculum, particularly through extracting the knowledge, attribute, skills and experiences they gain, ensures that students leave university more aware of how what they offer meets the requirements of professional work. It also sets them up well for getting on not just getting in.

This workshop is based on the innovative approach taken by King’s College, London a Careers Group member. By working within the quality assurance framework of the institution employability considerations are now core to any new programme development. This makes engaging with employability in the curriculum structurally unavoidable in the approval process and thus of the student experience, ensuring equality of opportunity for all outside of engagement with the careers service.

Key insights will be shared along with specifically developed tools that have proved instrumental in working with academic and other key stakeholders, both at a strategic and practical level. This includes tools to support academics to “extract” the employability value of what they already teach, curriculum design considerations that enhance employability and how this focus works alongside “added” employability opportunities.

In an employment market that is not subject specific and an employability climate where what will be valued in the future is unclear “agile and responsive graduates” works for individuals, business and society.

A3: Future-proofing PhDs: Supporting postgraduate researchers to find their “fit”Presenters: AGCAS Research Students and Research Staff Task Group members Holly Prescott, University of Birmingham and Bryony Enright, University of BristolRoom 3Universities themselves have ‘a pivotal role to play’ in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Horowitz and White-Burke, 2018). At the heart of universities are researchers, responsible for ‘developing new technologies; grappling with the broader consequences of the 4IR; and educating the next generation.’ Consequently, as crucial ‘engines of innovation,’ postgraduate researchers (PGRs) have become all the more strategically important to universities, with many citing increased recruitment of PGRs in their institutional strategies (Mellors-Bourne et al., 2014).

On the other hand however, UK academic research is undergoing a simultaneous revolution. Lack of job security discourages many new-generation PGRs from staying in academic research, whilst The Royal Society suggest that only 7 in 200 UK PhDs will secure a permanent academic post (2010).

Effectively supporting PGRs therefore offers HE IAG professionals a key opportunity to demonstrate our value by responding to the needs of this strategically important cohort and, in turn, in supporting PGRs to effectively respond to rapidly-changing worlds of work and academia. However, in careers services often geared towards UG support, colleagues can feel less confident with PGR clients. This workshop therefore aims to increase this confidence by giving participants a deeper understanding of: the strengths that PGRs can bring to near-future labour markets; opportunities that exist for PGRs in emerging career areas interested in PhD-level skills; and the challenges and threats that PGRs might face in navigating these labour markets, thus helping PGRs to find meaningful and satisfying applications of their research and other higher-degree skills in the world of the 4IR.

A4: An Interview with DeathPresenters: Marianne Savory and Marc Steward, Leeds University Business SchoolRoom 4Subject knowledge and soft skills may be the future of the successful graduate, though not just the standard communication and presentation abilities; our students need to be enterprising, creative, adaptable and commercially savvy. Developing and measuring these soft skills can be challenging, but perhaps one of the starting points should be the format of delivery in the curriculum.

‘An Interview with Death’ was a cross faculty project in the form of a ‘who dunnit?’ theatrical play involving students from two very separate faculties; The Business School and The School of Cultural and Creative Industries. Creative students took the roles of five candidates at interview to an audience of international and UK based business students. The audience had to deduce who the successful candidate was with the additional task of deciding who the killer was! Questions and networking amongst the students occurred for this purpose.

The creative industries are very competitive, so it was important for these students to gain an understanding about business-related courses and job roles in order to broaden their perspectives in their job searches. Similarly, the business students could understand the importance of creativity and the need to be confident in “selling themselves” to future

employers. Body language, cross cultural communication, confidence, adaptability and commercial awareness were some of the many discussion points and outcomes explored at the end of the play. Two students noted that this workshop should be compulsory – great feedback from a pilot voluntary attendance session.

A5: 4IR: Utopia v DystopiaPresenters: Ann Duff, David Levinson and Gail Angus, University of GlasgowRoom 5Are you ready for the future? As a professional, how do you feel about the challenges posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution? As a service, how are you adapting your delivery to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving graduate labour market and a generation of students who are into tech-everything?

In this workshop, we will encourage participants to think creatively about helping our graduates to prepare for new types of jobs for employers who don’t yet exist using technologies that have yet to be invented! The workshop will enable both some critical reflection of what we do currently and the sharing of best practice about adapting to the future.

As practitioners, we have to respond to the changing landscape and this may highlight feelings of both excitement and anxiety. The changes around us are redefining our profession and fundamentally changing the way that we deliver our services. We need to adapt to future-proof our own profession.

A team from the University of Glasgow Careers Service will present our ideas in this area. We recognize the threats to a traditional model of providing careers services and are embracing digitalization as a core method of delivery, not just an add-on. Expect a lively debate and some differences of opinion! Our aim is to identify some tangible takeaways to bring back to your own professional practice and to help your service to meet the challenges ahead with optimism!

A6: How understanding the context of careers education, information, advice and guidance in schools – and exploring the impact of this on student perceptions of and engagement with careers services – can help inform agile, responsive careers work in HEPresenters: Clare Matthews, Jenny Livesay and Claire Roethenbaugh, University of BristolRoom 6This workshop aims to give HE Careers staff a better understanding of the ambitions and constraints of careers work in schools. It invites them to consider the impact of this on their work and how they can address some of the issues raised in their practice. We will address:

How does the state of careers guidance in schools and the landscape of choices available post-18 affect our careers work in HE?

How does student perception of their school careers experience impact on their engagement with their university careers service?

What can we learn about our students' job readiness and how we might best support them into graduate roles when they graduate?

How might the apprenticeship levy and the increasing promotion of degree apprenticeships and school leaver schemes affect our students?

Does it matter that the latest government strategy does not extend to university-level careers advice?

A7: Finders Keepers: Developing new student opportunities in SMEsPresenters: Emmie Studencki, Nottingham Trent University and Kylie Cook, GradconsultRoom 7Currently 34% of graduates find their first graduate role within an SME, in the future world of work, agile SME employers are going to become even more important to the graduate labour market. Working with them strategically to support their ability to recruit and retain graduates is an important way to future-proof our provision.

This project is about demonstrating our value to the local business community by being agile and responsive to their specific needs. We are helping SME employers to translate complex labour marketing information into pragmatic strategies for graduate attraction, recruitment and retention. NTU’s answer is TMC: a series of 12-hour interventions with local, high growth SMEs. A diagnostic tool is used to identify key areas for improvement in the business’ attraction, selection or retention activities. We explore the business need and design bespoke solutions that can be devised and delivered in a short timescale. This is a great opportunity to develop institutional relationships with businesses and understand labour market information.

We have seen a trend with blue-chip companies moving towards an account-based marketing approach to maximise ROI with their clients. Inspired by the theory, TMC offers bespoke solutions to SMEs whilst also mapping appropriate products and services from NTU against the business needs. During this interactive session we will share:

Approach/methodology Funding and supplier details Case studies Benefits for NTU Trend analysis (what obstacles SMEs are facing) Project learning and suggestions for institutions considering similar projects

A8: GDPR and Careers – three months on…Presenters: Jane McAllister and Zalika Shand, Birmingham City UniversityRoom 12Survive and thrive post GDPR. This workshop aims to provide opportunity to discuss, share and explore together issues relating to the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how we can futureproof our services and stakeholder links.

By responding to the data protection revolution, the aim is to provide an overview of the changes and share good practice with AGCAS members that will enable us to sustain and protect our stakeholders in moving forward with the new GDPR. Discussion points:

GDPR and the Graduate Outcomes Survey Building and maintaining employer contacts post GDPR Email advice and guidance in a post-GDPR era

A9: What role might creative practice play in enhancing the employability of all graduates in the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Lessons from a skills award case study at Goldsmiths, University of London Presenter: Laura Brammar, The Careers Group, University of London and AGCAS Skills Awards Task Group member Dr Katarina Lezova, Goldsmiths, University of LondonRoom 11The need to develop ‘creative capacity for the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (Wilson, Lennox, Hughes and Brown, 2017) has never been more acute. Indeed, creativity is number 3 in the World Economic Forum’s list of ‘Top 10 Skills of Employment by 2020’ (WEF, 2016). But how does creativity fit into the wider employability agenda and how might careers guidance professionals use creative practice with all their cohorts to foster broader career learning and self-reflection?

This workshop draws on a study focusing on the use of a creative element in a skills award at Goldsmiths, University of London. It considers how engaging students, both those studying creative and non-creative disciplines, might use creative practice and associated writing tasks to reflect more widely on their personal and professional development. The workshop will feature examples of the students’ creative outputs in addition to extracts from

their reflective writing. These examples not only demonstrate how students used creative practice to identify their wider skills, but also illustrate the ways that such creative practices can be woven into guidance approaches, such as narrative career counselling (McMahon, 2017).

By the end of this interactive and engaging workshop participants will have considered the following questions:

Why is encouraging our students’ creativity important to their employability within the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

How can careers professionals provide an opportunity for students’ to explore their creativity within a skills award context, regardless of their academic discipline?

What role might creative practice play in providing agile and responsive careers support in the future?

A10: Robots as Peacemakers? Academic and careers service partnerships through the lens of the Fourth Industrial RevolutionPresenter: AGCAS Quality Director, Dr Nalayini Thambar, University of NottinghamRoom 10It is a truth universally acknowledged that as careers professionals we can be most effective when we have strong partnerships with our academic colleagues. Many of us have experienced the challenges of fostering these partnerships; balancing tensions between subject content and employability in the curriculum, engaging in debates about the purpose of a university and the value of education and sometimes struggling to find common ground that goes beyond a pragmatic acceptance of league tables.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution provides us with an opportunity to boost our existing partnerships, start new conversations and open doors that align employability with research as well as teaching and learning.

This workshop will provide food for thought and some examples for you to consider, while giving you an opportunity to reflect upon your current academic partnerships and consider new opportunities for alignment between research, teaching, learning and employability.

TUESDAY PM 15:45–17:00B1: Brexit means what? Future implications, challenges and opportunities for UK HE student international mobilityPresenter: Miguel Rodriguez, University of DundeeRoom 1In recent years, UK universities’ focus on graduate employability and development of transferable skills helped student internationalization to become firmly entrenched in HE. With two thirds of employers stating that international experiences would improve an applicant’s employment prospects, student internationalisation was regarded as an effective route to boost student’s cultural intelligence and to enhance graduate employability. Then 23 June 2016 happened.

Two years on from the UK’s vote to leave the EU, there is still much uncertainty about the impact Brexit will have on the Higher Education career and employability agendas. However, what seems to be clear is that Brexit will significantly affect a large number of Higher Education students, both directly (home and EU students alike) and indirectly (through the sustainability of currently active mobility programs).

This workshop will explore how career and employability services can tackle the Brexit uncertainty in regard to student international mobility, exploring relevant issues and recent findings in order to come up with some strategies – some of them already in practice at the University of Dundee – that will help AGCAS members to better help the students most affected by the 2016 groundbreaking political decision.

By the end of this workshop, delegates will be able to feel more ‘future-proof’ against the implications of Brexit on Higher Education careers and employability services in the UK, as well as to feel more confident when considering what ‘Brexit means Brexit’ actually means for the international mobility and employability of the students they support.

B2: Creating shared value through a partnership approach to fostering employability at Nottingham Trent UniversityPresenters: Angela Vesey and Debra Easter, Nottingham Trent UniversityRoom 2There has been a revolution of thought in relation to Employability over the last decade. A recent literature review on Employability for the Higher Education Academy (Artess, Hooley and Mellors-Bourne, 2017:7) acknowledged a change in the discourse of employability from simply a list of graduate skills and attributes towards a discussion of ‘identity’ with the employability issue becoming not simply about the acquisition of skills, ‘but rather in helping students to transition from the identity of a student towards that of a graduate worker and citizen’.

This is a view which has informed the core approach of NTU’s Employability strategy to ‘future-proof’ employability provision recognizing that successful achievement of such graduate identity demands the cultivation of a meaningful partnership between two key NTU functions; the Academy and the Centre. Employability Managers, who are also Principal Lecturers within each School act as brokers to nurture the symbiotic relationship between on the one hand, NTU School academics utilizing their subject specialism to act as ‘transformative agents’ enabling students to make connections between theory and practice and to ascribe employability ‘discipline’ meaning, and on the other, professional career education and guidance colleagues from the Central employability team with their antennae of sophisticated employer and professional networks and their generic and level specific targeted employability curriculum resources.

The aim of this workshop is to share practice demonstrating NTU’s agility and responsiveness in an increasingly complex employability landscape, utilising a partnership approach to facilitate career development in the curriculum.

B3: An evidence revolution: Who knew that data could be so interesting?Presenters: Victoria Crowe and Sarah Ebbett, The Open UniversityRoom 3The workshop will outline the ways in which the Open University (OU) Careers Service is now using data to help prioritise work and measure effectiveness. Our newly expanded service includes an Analyst, who is revolutionising how we collect, interrogate, monitor and use data so that we can help our unique students more effectively.

To begin with, an interactive quiz on Careers service measures and key performance indicators will be hosted. This will lead to a reflection on and sharing of the challenges and benefits in using data in this way. The OU context will be presented and our new approach to measuring effectiveness will be shared. Data tools and dashboards will be demonstrated to show how we are using data-driven insight to plan and prioritise service delivery.

The workshop will end with an opportunity to reflect on how transferable this may be other services, however large or small. We will share our learning during this first year of our new approach. To quote our Head of Service, “who knew data could be so interesting?”

B4: Follow on from keynote – Automation or Augmentation: The impact of AI on the world of workPresenter: Rob McCargow, PwCRoom 4More to follow shortly.

B5: Graduate employment trends on a national and regional level

Presenters: Charlie Ball, HECSU and AGCAS Director for Regionalisation, Paul Gratrick, The University of ManchesterAlumni AuditoriumThe workshop will provide members with an overview of graduate employment trends on a national and regional level.

Once given an overview of the data, those in the audience will be able to look at their regions data in more detail and be given time to discuss strategies on how they as single institutions (or as a regional block where appropriate) could approach these challenges.

By knowing where skills gaps are and which graduate sectors are growing/shrinking (and where), members will be able to adapt their strategies for the future and relay insight back to their senior managers that could inform their institutions recruitment and overall and employability strategies.

B6: Length Matters: Research into the impact of shortening guidance appointments on practice. What are the implications for Graduate Outcomes?Presenter: Emily Róisín Reid, The University of WarwickRoom 6This workshop presents the published HECSU-funded research into ‘the impact that the shortening of guidance appointments is having on practice’.

To cope with increased demand on careers services, institutions have responded by reducing the length of appointments, yet (until now!) there has been a lack of research into the impact this is having on the effectiveness, quality and depth of the guidance appointment.

This workshop addresses the conference theme of the need for evidence-based practice to future-proof the profession. This presents the findings of this research for consideration and, crucially, action. This new research finds that while ‘shorter’ guidance remains ‘effective’ i.e. has ‘outcomes ’– that ‘length’ impacts on the value and depth of these outcomes. This is relevant to the ongoing dialogue around the Professionalisation of Career Guidance. Implications and service ramifications are discussed/explored.

B7: Building a data savvy careers service: How data is revolutionising our professional practicePresenter: Fiona Cobb, The Careers Group, University of LondonRoom 7The volume, velocity and variety of data we are generating is rapidly increasing (Shacklock, 2016:2). The Careers group are leading a HEFCE-funded project, delivered by a consortium of HE careers services to investigate the use of Careers Registration as a tool for measuring learning gain in employability. Careers Registration is the process of adding 2–4 careers focused questions to compulsory student registration and re-enrolment to track progress in career thinking and employability. This data gives us the opportunity to map employability journeys of particular student cohorts (e.g. widening participation students), and explore links between career readiness and academic success, or measure the impact of employability interventions. As part of this research, in November 2017 the Careers group launched a survey to HE careers staff to contribute to understanding of how careers staff are using data (especially careers registration data) to inform their activities. In this session we will discuss the findings of our survey in the context of the big data revolution, and key transformations in availability and uses of large data sets for our professional practice.

B8: Supporting the professional development of researchersPresenters: Kelly Preece, Kate Foster and Chris Wood, University of ExeterRoom 8Postgraduate research and study is seen as a gateway in to an academic career, but research from Vitae in 2011 showed that 3.5 years after graduation, just over 1 in 5 (22%) doctoral graduates are working in academia. At the University of Exeter we aim to take a holistic approach to the development of researchers,

working with teams across the university to develop their research skills, alongside their wider professional development. At the heart of this is a focus on career management and wellbeing, providing opportunities to develop research, career and wellbeing related skills in tandem. This includes the following core initiatives:

Incorporating career management and professional development planning workshops into our PGR inductions

Access to career management workshops, webinars and 1-2-1 careers consultations Wellbeing workshops on key skills such as managing stress, confidence and resilience Our Early Career Researcher Networks

This overall goal is to prepare researchers to be agile and responsive in the ever changing working environment, and prepared not only for a career in one particular sector, academia.In this workshop we will present the range of services and initiatives currently on offer at the University of Exeter, and lead discussions on:

How can we prepare researchers to be agile and responsive, and prepared for career in multiple sectors?

How can we as researcher developers be agile and responsive to meet the needs of researchers, working alongside them to develop new initiatives and support?

How can we utilise data from National surveys as an evidence base for our future efforts and ongoing effectiveness (such as Destination of Leavers in Higher Education, Postgraduate Research Experience Survey, Careers in Research Online and Principle Investigators and Research Leaders Survey)?

What are the key challenges we face in supporting the professional development of researchers?

B9: Delivering careers guidance at a distance – can phone, Skype and email provide a positive choice not a last resort?Presenters: Lynne Johnson and Jackie Pickles, The Open UniversityRoom 9How do we demonstrate our value by being agile and responsive in a rapidly changing world? We are all aware that the student population is changing as increasing numbers study online, often combining paid work with studying or living at “home” and commuting to university for lectures.

We need to offer an alternative to face to face workshops and one to one interventions if we are to provide a Careers Service offer to all students including those on degree apprenticeships, part time and distance courses, and our graduates who have moved away. At The Open University all our careers guidance provision is at a distance. We would like to share with participants how using e-guidance, telephone and skype interventions can be seen as a positive choice with tangible benefits for both students and institutions. We will cover how we ensure that we maintain the standards and quality of Careers Guidance provision delivered in this way, and whether we need any different skills or techniques to deliver successfully in this way.

If we can develop our “Distance Guidance” offer effectively we can enable our services to stay relevant and accessible to all students and recent graduates in the face of change.

B10: Towards Consensus: Constructing a CV analytic rubricPresenters: Ben Simkins and Keren Coney, Keele UniversityRoom 10Supporting undergraduates and graduates to develop highly effective CVs is an important aspect of Careers and Employability work within Higher Education. However there is a distinct lack of research into CVs and what makes them effective. The small body of research that is available is generally US centric and focused on résumés. A review of books on the subject (specifically written to support students to construct their CVs) revealed that they contained no reference to academic research. Rubrics are an assessment tool that can facilitate feedback and accurately and specifically

communicate the elements that make up an effective CV through detailed descriptors.

This workshop will outline the results of an innovative HECSU funded research project that aims to develop an analytic rubric for CVs that is informed by the expert opinion of graduate employers. It is hoped that the rubric can be used to move our knowledge, from the collective hunch, to research informed evidence-based practice.

By attending this workshop, practitioners will learn about a highly useful tool which can be used to clearly communicate the physiology of an effective CV to students and graduates, and also to identify the developmental tasks necessary for improvement. In this way, practitioners can gain knowledge of a way to enhance the quality of their provision and to develop further employability-related expertise.

B11: But can a robot do this? Digital skills and careers information workPresenters: Rosalind Kemp, The Careers Group, University of LondonRoom 11As technology changes the way we work, how do our skills compare? What do we need to learn or relearn about information work in order to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution? This session will give participants the opportunity to critically reflect on their digital and information skills and consider our next steps to becoming proficient, robot-defying careers professionals. Participants will:

Anonymously share fears and hopes/opportunities relating to these skills and our work which will be followed by discussion of the themes that emerge.

Complete a short self-assessment of their skills relating to different areas of digital literacy and information work and compare results to earlier discussions.

Share ideas and resources around how we can improve in those areas that are lacking, promote ourselves in the areas where we’re experts, and support colleagues in the same situation.

WEDNESDAY AM 09:10–10:25C1: Remaining relevant: Helping our students navigate global careers in a shifting worldPresenters: Sarah Cooper and Natalia Mudd, University of BristolRoom 1Participants explore why home and international students aspiring to a global career should choose a UK university education in the light of Brexit and the rise of Asian HE institutions.We will debate three key challenges:

1. Attracting prospective students with a globally competitive Careers Service offer.2. How home students can develop intercultural awareness and agility beyond Study and

Work Abroad options.3. How international students can recognize and articulate their strengths and gain valuable

work experience while they study.Whether students aspire to work for a multinational organisation, develop new export markets within an SME, collaborate with international research partners, or leverage technology to take their start up to the world, a global outlook is essential. Yet, CBI/Pearson 2017 shows our graduates lack the international cultural awareness critical for a successful global career.

After the conference we will distribute a summary report of the discussion and feedback, together with contact details of participants who have expressed interest in being part of an ongoing network of career professionals sharing expertise in any of the three debated areas. Our intended outcomes, for and beyond the time-scale of the conference, are to:

Share and encourage analysis of a range of evidence of the importance of a global outlook.

Facilitate critical reflection on how to ensure our Career Services offerings are fit for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

Share good practice and create sustainable networks of practitioners with experience and/or interest in enabling international and home students to embark on a global career.

C2: Like, doing something you really love: Exploring the career conceptions of Gen-Z studentsPresenter: Steven Mowforth, Coventry UniversityRoom 2If Generation-Y were considered digital pioneers, Generation-Z (born after 1995) are true digital natives. They will have never consciously known a world without the internet and smart devices, and are totally at home with emojis and hashtags. They are said to be, “curious, kind, creative and worried about the future” (Combi, 2015); as well as, “loyal, compassionate, thoughtful, open-minded, responsible, determined” (Seemiller and Meghan, 2016).

This interactive workshop will invite participants to explore how our youngest clients conceive the idea of ‘career’ and what their employability concerns are for the future. The discussion will be grounded in a research project recently conducted by Coventry University Careers.The first part of the session will be a presentation of themes obtained from three focus groups. There will then be a group discussion where participants will be able to contribute their thoughts and opinions, along with their own experience of working with Gen-Z. We will explore how insight into this client group will help to shape and futureproof our CEIAG practice.

The workshop will conclude with a summary of the discussion, along with a description of the next phase of the research, including how members will be able to contribute to it. Anonymised – unless otherwise agreed – output from the session may contribute to published outputs (e.g. articles) on related themes.

C3: From steam to the internet of things: Decoding and translating the revolution…but there has to be a graduate job in itPresenter: Pauline Maden, University of NottinghamRoom 3The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is set to transform the way we work, and the skills we need to perform and keep pace with advancing technology. How as careers professionals can we ensure that we know enough about emerging and enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing and advances in medical technology and medicines to inform and inspire our students about the expanding horizons of what is possible but also ground it within the existing graduate job market?

This workshop will present a case study of how, over the course of a year, the Science Careers Team at the University of Nottingham took a comprehensive approach to translating the complexities of enabling technologies.

C4: No-one left behind: Careers education responding to an evolving worldPresenter: Caroline Smith, University of DundeeRoom 4Whilst automation and the use of technology are becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of work, conversations with employers also suggest that the need for high level transferable skills will remain important in order to access and progress in the labour market after graduation.As the University of Dundee has seen a significant growth in the number of students from a widening participation background, we have been keen to address the needs of this cohort of students, and make sure that they will not be ‘left behind’ in the future labour market. Joining university from a range of backgrounds and often with competing demands on their time can mean that these students need extra support to get the most from their time at university. We also wish to encourage them to consider their future plans in a constructive and professional manner. What do they need to consider to maximise their chances in a turbulent and fast paced future graduate labour market?

We have responded to this need by creating a module for the university’s Widening Participation

Summer School. This module, now in its second year, aims to prepare this cohort of students to develop the necessary skills to be more professional from the beginning of their university journey, and into the labour market.

C5: What do graduates do?Presenters: AGCAS Education Liaison Task Group member Claire Guy, University of Plymouth and Charlie Ball, ProspectsRoom 8/9What do graduates do? And where do they do it? And how?Join Claire and Charlie for the popular workshop examining the current data on the graduate labour market, what it means – and how you can use it to inform guidance, set institutional agendas, and bust a few myths along the way. Labour market information doesn’t have to be boring! Come along and see what you can learn. And get your thinking caps on, because we’re bringing the quiz back (again)!This is a workshop demonstrating the value, power and flexibility of labour market information in a changing world. It will give a clear-eyed, evidenced state-of-the-nation view of the current graduate labour market and equip attendees with the tools to use that information effectively.

C6: Developing cost effective, robust and acknowledged training programs for students, alumni and employersPresenters: Darrin Beattie and Katie Blundell, Newcastle UniversityRoom 6Related theme: How do we demonstrate our value by being agile and responsive in a rapidly changing world?The CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey of 2016 reported that:.

78% of those surveyed make use of external training providers. 88% of respondents had made use of private providers while 46% used further education

colleges. 24% of respondents were satisfied with the cost of university programmes.

In 2016, Newcastle University Careers Service supported Newcastle University Students Union to develop a Leadership programme for students that was endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management. In 2017, this programme developed into a Level 3 Award accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and undertaken by 30 students holding volunteer leadership roles within Newcastle University Students Union. Level 3 CMI awards are intended for aspiring or new line managers and encompass knowledge ranging from team leading to project and resource management. The qualification appears on the students Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). This workshop seeks to:

Share our experiences of working with external accrediting bodies to develop and maintain a leadership programme.

Explore whether there is an appetite within university careers services and their partners to develop cost effective, robust and acknowledged training programmes that while primarily aimed at students, have the potential to appeal to alumni and employers seeking to engage with “external” training providers.

C7: Five characteristic labour market experiences of migrantsPresenter: Dr Ebun Joseph, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-RCSIRoom 7Despite Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups across Europe reporting higher levels of discrimination in employment, there is ongoing ambivalence about the significance of race in relation to BME workers in the labour market, resulting in minimal interventions by service providers.

By examining the trajectories of migrants in Ireland, this workshop will highlight five characteristic labour market experiences where whiteness and racial discrimination work in tandem in influencing labour market mobility. Semi-structured interviews of very educated, first

generation migrants-all of who were European citizens at the time of the interviews provide data from which the accounts of migrants of Nigerian, Polish and Spanish descent are juxtaposed.The workshop will show that although individuals progressed from all groups, the typologies in the interviewees’ trajectories shifts attention from individual to collective outcomes, revealing whiteness as a hidden resource that advantages whites. It also illustrates the prevalence of an ascription of deficiency to Black workers and their credentials in ways in which Black African descent is a predictor of more pernicious labour market experiences against white European descent. Following Critical race theory’s counter-storytelling, this workshop will give attendees a sense of the participants and their lives. It will highlight key points at which BME make career decisions which influence their career progression, the mechanism through which many remain un[under]employed.

C8: Lessons for career development from the Industrial Revolution, in a (post) Post Industrialist AgePresenters: Emily Róisín Reid, David Molyneaux and James Goodwin, The University of WarwickRoom 5Digital Revolution, Hourglass Labour Market, Ageing Society, Big Data, Brexit (hail return to ‘Industry’), [insert-any-other-headline-here]: us careers professionals are seemingly beholding the dawn of a new era, with ‘Revolutionary’ changes transforming our work landscapes. Or, are we instead stood gazing at the ever-changing horizon, which remains as distant no matter the strides to reach it?Same change, different day? Our workshop seeks to extort the key precepts from the ‘Industrial Revolution’, demonstrating the link between technological and social advancement, and that major challenges we face now have ultimately emerged previously. It consequently propounds that lessons from the past can inform our response as guidance practitioners to socio-technological advancements of the future: acting as meta-agents, managing transitions of others on both micro and macro levels.Research shows that career guidance generates economic, human and social capital (among others: Hooley and Dodd, 2015), and with announcements in the Budget, and renewed focus on ‘Industry’, the need for guidance has never been greater. By striving to reach new horizons as career practitioners, especially regarding pressing for policy-level change and for greater social mobility, we pave the way for change that truly would be Revolutionary.

C9: Using digital resources to facilitate the delivery of careers workshops in a compulsory first year placement pilot modulePresenters: Jenny Clark and Ian Osborne, University of ExeterRoom 11We have a new generation of readers in universities who require a much more visual mode of academic and personal development delivery. Papson (2014) celebrated students as creative assemblers and recommended that as educators we need to consider how we stimulate a new digital craftsmanship.Running a compulsory pilot placement module at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus has provided us with an opportunity to consider digital resources that we can use within the career development delivery to enhance this curriculum pathway and develop an interactive experiential approach to learning. Using Padlet, Kahoot, InterviewStream, resources on our Virtual Learning Environment (ELE) and evaluating through an online Critical Incident Questionnaire on Careerhub we have been able to develop a fresh approach to our delivery which is more spatial and visual and it has also allowed us to blend topics that have previously been delivered separately.

We are by no means experts but it would be interesting to share our experiences with other careers professionals in this interactive session.

C10: Cutting through the noise: How can we use data to shape our practice and inform our stakeholders?Presenters: Jai Shah and Fiona Cobb, The Careers Group, University of LondonRoom 10HE institutions are collecting an abundance of data. Engagement data; WP and socio-economic

indicators; TEF metrics; Careers Registration…we could go on. With our existing careers service obligations, how can we best utilise the time we have available to make sense of this data? Why do we need it? and why does it matter?

At The Careers Group, University of London, we have both a central research unit, plus enthusiastic colleagues across our member services making use of our data. Data often plays a crucial role for our services to advance their relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders. Using a mix of tools and methods, we are going to explore some of the approaches that we have used to our benefit, and share best practice.

In an academic environment, careers services are required to demonstrate evidence led practice. Responding to both the needs of our stakeholders, and internally our own teams means making the best use of our data as possible. Proving our ongoing effectiveness includes making informed strategic and operational decisions with data. This doesn’t necessarily mean easier decisions, but hopefully ones that provide better impact on the investment of resources, time and money.

Being agile, and responsive to ever growing HE data, enables us to explore new and innovative ways of delivering our support to our students and graduates. Cutting through the noise, what do we learn from our data and how does this shape our narrative and conversations with our stakeholders.

Please bring a mobile device with internet access to engage with some of the interactive elements of the workshop.

WEDNESDAY PM 11:30–12:45D1: Supporting widening participation and social mobility in an uncertain worldPresenters: AGCAS Social Mobility Working Party members Iona Colvin, University of Leicester and Caroline Everson, The University of ManchesterRoom 1What does social mobility have to do with career success? What is success anyway?And what skills do students really need to navigate unknown and uncertain pathways? As more students from WP groups are accessing higher education courses, what is the role of HE careers services in supporting the progression and outcomes of all students and enhancing social mobility? What are we preparing them for in the light of a changing labour market, and what knowledge, guidance and skills do they really need?

Led by colleagues from the AGCAS Social Mobility working party, this workshop will include case study presentations and workshop discussion about what we are doing to enhance equality of opportunity and outcomes in an uncertain world, and how good practice and ‘things that work’ can be developed and shared within the AGCAS community. It will also include discussion around how data and other evidence is being used to prioritise our future efforts and prove our on-going effectiveness. Attendees will be invited to offer examples, opinions and ideas for discussion. Workshop outputs will include suggestions for the AGCAS Social Mobility Working Party to consider as it develops recommendations for the Board. How might AGCAS best support its members and their students to help enhance graduate mobility and equality of opportunity? You will also takeaway knowledge and ideas to enhance practice in your careers service and services for your students.

Come and be part of the biggest conversation of the day.

D2: Resilient Futures? Developing and enhancing graduates’ career resiliencePresenters: Ann Smart, Northumbria University and Tracy Scurry, Newcastle University Room 2This research informed workshop seeks to examine the role of HEI careers and employability

professionals in developing and enhancing graduates’ career resilience. Drawing on the findings of a recently funded HECSU project, the workshop will combine academic and practitioner perspectives to equip participants with knowledge of the current debates in this area. By the end of this workshop participants will be able to:

Understand the notion of graduate resilience and current debates in this area. Evaluate current practice to consider how graduate career resilience is developed. Identify barriers (individual, institutional, societal) to developing graduate career

resilience. Devise strategies for developing graduate career resilience.

The workshop relates to the conference theme by considering the notion of resilience in the context of the changing nature of work and the need to prepare graduates for this shifting landscape. In particular the workshop will consider strategies and practices that careers and employability professionals can implement to help develop resilient graduates who are able to be agile and responsive in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

D3: “Will a robot take your job?” How susceptible are our jobs to computerisation?Presenters: Peggy Vazoura, University of Gloucestershire and Dr Phillip Smith, University of Birmingham Room 3Careers advisers are required to demonstrate skills such as empathy, rapport building, communication, listening skills. But how relevant or unique to humans are these skills going to be in the not so distant future? In this “new brave world” how do we need to adapt in order to offer the kind of support our clients may expect from us?The workshop will discuss how the Fourth Industrial Revolution is impacting the role of careers advisers and the challenges and opportunities presented by automation.

The debate will be guided and informed by an academic from the University of Birmingham School of Computer Science who has an interest in artificial intelligence and ethics. The workshop will:

Ask how relevant the current job description of careers advisers is. Discuss and debate on the challenges and opportunities automation presents to our

profession. Learn from and share knowledge with an academic on the topics of automation, machine

learning, artificial intelligence. Invite us to think how we need to adapt in the “brave new world”.

D4: What do Masters graduates do?Presenters: AGCAS Postgraduate Taught Task Group member Julie Blant, University of Nottingham and Charlie Ball, ProspectsRoom 8/9The popularity of the government’s new postgraduate loan scheme means Masters degrees have become more popular than ever. But do they really improve graduate employability? How big is the Masters graduate labour market? And are there any specific areas of the economy where a Masters degree is particularly valued?

Join Charlie and Julie as they unpack the data on a popular but under-examined area of the HE sector – the Masters graduate jobs market. This is a workshop designed to showcase how good quality LMI can supply the tools to answer some crucial – but less understood – guidance questions.

D5: Employability research, creating internships, Design Thinking and preparing for the global workplace: a look inside the UKCISA resource bankPresenter: Julie Allen, UKCISA Room 5This session will outline a selection of the projects and research in the employment strand of the

scheme funded by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) to encourage innovation in international student support. The session will draw on reports and outline key recommendations for how colleagues in the sector can learn from and adapt the ideas in their home institutions.

D6: There’s digital marketing jobs out there! How we can equip students to take advantage of the digital marketing revolutionPresenter: Luke Lynch, University of NottinghamRoom 6According to Yahoo and Enders Analysis (2017) content marketing spend is set to rise by 180% by 2020, and recent labour market reports suggest that demand for digital marketing talent exceeds supply. Being a “digital native” is not enough for today and tomorrow’s graduates to enter the digital labour market. They will need to be able to learn, re-learn and apply industry relevant tools and methodologies as the industry constantly evolves.

This workshop will present a case study of how the University of Nottingham Careers and Employability Service is collaborating with digital marketing agencies to create opportunities for students to build and demonstrate credible, industry relevant skills that are starting to have a positive impact on their job prospects.

D7: Sustainable Futures: Using panel events to build staff and student knowledge of rapidly developing industriesPresenters: Gareth Hughes and Peter Evans, University of BristolRoom 7In a world undergoing a Fourth Industrial Revolution it can be difficult for students and Careers Services to understand rapidly changing job markets, emerging sectors, and new skills requirements.

Developments such as big data and AI are transforming the way many businesses operate and the kind of graduate roles available. Additionally, increasing public awareness of pollution, health, and other environmental issues is driving changes in both consumer behaviour and the types of work many graduates desire.

How can Careers Services keep pace with the current rate of change?

One answer we have explored at Bristol is connecting directly with employers to host events that combine student-employer engagement with researching up-to-date labour market information. Whilst hardly revolutionary, we argue that this approach offers an efficient way of ensuring students both have access to relevant employers, and quality careers information and advice.This workshop addresses how we sought to stay abreast of changes in sustainability, conservation, and renewable energy through a series of panel events held as part of our new annual Environment and Sustainability Week.

Come along to hear about and discuss how we think Careers Services can use this kind of event to help students gain information and access opportunities, and staff to develop their knowledge of these and other sectors in a less resource-intensive way than traditional sector-based careers fairs. We will invite the audience to reflect and discuss this idea with us, and how we might use and improve on such events in the future.

We will also share some key resources regarding these sectors.

D8: Employability and Widening Participation: Raising aspirations and creating opportunityPresenters: Kate Foster and Jo Blakely, University of ExeterRoom 4We would like to discuss how careers services are responding to the educational revolution of widening access and social mobility by:

Sharing our experience of developing employability support for Widening Participation students, and

facilitating discussions on some of the ongoing challenges the HE sector faces in supporting and responding to the employability of WP students and graduates.

Exeter’s ethos is to provide enhanced and bespoke support to this group of students, to enable them to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential. This support is in addition to the generic initiatives and activities available to all students. The support has been particularly developed through:

The appointment of two dedicated WP Careers Consultants working across campuses. Obtaining student views through focus groups and online surveys. Building and maintaining relationships with Student Support Services. Developing partnerships in the wider Student Employability and Academic Success team

and across the University, both in Professional Services and the Students’ Guild. Working closely with external partners such as the social mobility charity, upReach.

In this workshop we will discuss briefly the national and Exeter Widening Participation employability agenda and present the range of services and initiatives currently on offer. We will also share our ideas for future developments and facilitate discussions on the key challenges that careers services are facing in supporting the employability of WP students. These include:

How do we identify WP students and do we need to prioritise certain groups? How can we improve communications with WP students to ensure that they are aware of

the enhanced support available to them? How can we better utilise data and information (eg from DLHE and Career Registration) to

develop and evaluate activity and measure impact? How can we develop internal and external partnerships to help support WP students and

graduates?

D9: Beyond the data: How influencing theory can be applied to the employability agendaPresenters: Mike Grey, GradconsultRoom 11 Key to developing the ability to be agile and responsive to the changing needs of students and employers is the ability to influence the employability agenda internally.

There is now a mountain of data that can inform the employability agenda and educate institutional colleagues about the career intentions, decidedness and outcomes of student cohorts but beyond the utilisation of this data the need to influence stakeholders has never been more critical to the success of a careers service.

This workshop will explore a range of influencing theories applied to the careers service context. It will illustrate some shortcuts that help people make decisions, help you too consider how you can use stakeholder mapping to better understand your influencing challenges and provide practical guidance on how to adapt your influencing style when working with people with different working styles.

D10: Skills and Competencies: Practices of ExcellencePresenters: Norma Guerra Gaier, NACERoom 10Career readiness competencies are driving changes in curriculum development, assessment, experiential opportunities and employer expectations and requirements.

This session will share specific examples of practices with implications for careers services professionals as well as engaging participants in roundtable dialogue regarding the barriers and opportunities for preparing for a future that demands attention to the skills gap and implications

for employability.

THURSDAY AM 10:45–12:00E1: Doing more with lessPresenter: AGCAS Placements and Work Based Learning Task Group member Su Maynard, University of LeedsRoom 1Graduate Outcomes Survey, TEF, REF, the new Office for Students, Careers Registration Data, lack of resources, increased expectations from our ‘student consumers’...some of the factors demanding our profession to “do more with less”. Basked in the same pressure to deliver and demonstrate the impact of our services, the members of AGCAS Placements and Work Based Learning Task Group have had to critically reflect on their practice and adapt them to meet these demands, and to future-proof their existence. Creativity, in addition to the traditional channels of engagement, helps:

increase the number of engaged students online provision that supports students through the different stages of work based

learning enhances learning and student experience streamlining of processes achieves more from the same amount of resources provision of student career planning pre and post work experience ensures that students

are better placed to answer graduate voice questions.

These are some of areas which will be covered in our workshop.

E2: Generation Z – they have the App, but without a map – comparing and contrasting the needs, wants and employability outcomes of our UK-educated Chinese and South East Asian studentsPresenters: Esther de Perlaky and Nicola Watts, The University of WarwickRoom 2Generation Z who are stereotypically cast as being unable to conceive a world without technology and are seemingly after instant gratification come under scrutiny in this lively presentation which looks at the preconceptions and realities of Generation Z students as they explore their global mobility options.

With App, but without a map looks at key milestones in a UK-educated International Student’s journey, from arrival through to graduation and beyond into employment. Drawing on findings from a UK HE-wide research project that compares and contrasts the employability outcomes of Chinese, Hong Kong and South East Asian students who have studied in the UK.

This presentation also looks at the issues of managing labour market information with an increasingly shortening shelf-life, as well as looking at how we can use this research to prioritise HE’s future efforts and on-going effectiveness to support and enhance our international students with their employability.

E3: Engaging students and academics using Career Registration survey data, technology and cake!Presenters: Oliver Laity and Matthew Taylor, University of Exeter Room 3The Career Registration survey is a powerful tool that allows HEIs to tailor the provision they offer according to their students’/graduates’ self-assessed stage on the career planning journey. Since the survey’s introduction the University of Exeter’s careers service has been looking at innovative ways to use this data to provide a tailored service both to students, graduates and academics.

Four years on this survey has grown from a single question being asked annually, to an eight question survey taken both at enrolment and graduation. All careers marketing is now underpinned by this data with the goal of cutting out a lot of ‘noise’ and providing a truly bespoke

experience.

This workshop aims to explore the ways that Career Registration is currently being used (e.g. bespoke marketing, dashboarding, and so on), as well as future technological implications (e.g. incorporating machine learning/recommender engine/data warehousing).

E4: Student Success: Collaborative action to improve student outcomes in the changing HE landscapePresenters: Paul FitzGerald, Anna Flatt and Sally Hall, University of Leicester Room 4This workshop will address the work of the newly created Student Success Team here at the University of Leicester to respond to the changing landscape of Higher Education with the introduction of the TEF and Graduate Outcomes. We aim to work with academic departments to positively impact well-being, retention and Employability through:

Using data on student career readiness, student engagement, graduate destinations and student retention to inform relevant, bespoke, student support interventions at department level.

Embedding student support into curriculum so students engage with this as ‘part of their degree’.

Collaborating with all areas of student and academic services to create a combined curricular and co-curricular offer of student support.

This workshop will discuss how The Student Success Team is structured, comprising of a sub team of data advisers who support the team to ensure that all of the interventions we negotiate with academic departments are based on supporting evidence. With the challenge of limited resource, this helps us prioritise our efforts in the areas where support is most needed. Ongoing work for the Success Team as a whole will be constant qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the impact of our approach.

Finally we will look at how this approach is being used to work towards important metrics today such as TEF, NSS and Graduate Outcomes. We will introduce the idea of Education Excellence as the vehicle for developing this work across the institution.

E5: Widening Participation in Practice: Rise to the challenge of supporting disabled students into employmentPresenters: Helen Cooke and Emma Knox, MyPlus Room 5In 2017, 13% of students in HE had a disability; this figure will continue to increase. In order to support all support all students as they transition from education into employment, Careers Advisers must understand the specific challenges facing disabled students and enable them to overcome these. Based on research undertaken into ‘Openness’ and ‘How disabled students search for work’, this workshop will provide delegates with the opportunity to build their understanding about this talent pool enabling them to successfully support them as they search for jobs, make their application and navigate the recruitment process. The workshop will:

Highlight the current challenges faced by disabled students seeking employment. Discuss the importance of diversity, and specifically, disability to employers, including

what they are doing to attract and recruit disabled applicants. Build disability confidence among delegates in order that they can support this significant

minority going forward and share best practice among colleagues. Delegates will be provided with tangible resources to take away and use with students to guide and direct them towards their future career. E6: Micro-placements: levelling the employability gap through short-term,

work-based learning projectsPresenters: Mona Vadher, Wendy Browne and Wiktor Lewandowski, City, University of LondonRoom 6Gaining a degree in this competitive market doesn’t necessarily level the playing field for graduates when it comes to job seeking. Couple this with employers changing the way they recruit, with almost half of top UK firms introducing questions about candidates’ private education and parent’s jobs in their recruitment processes. It is clear that employers and universities must adapt to continue to collaborate effectively. Therefore, how can we tackle the problem of balancing educational attainment, developing core employability skills and enhancing social mobility after graduation?

City’s Micro-Placements Programme (MPP) seeks to enhance students’ career exploration on social mobility and employability to selected students from seven degree programmes. Part of the Catalyst Project, Levelling the Playing Field, MPP, offers work experiences between two and five weeks focused on a specific project. From its launch, they received 865 student expressions of interest, processed 552 applications and selected 320 students of whom 53% were from disadvantaged backgrounds, including black and minority ethnic (BAME), low SES and disabled students.

Through MPP, City have also worked strategically with employers to raise awareness about social mobility and the disadvantages of recruiting from a narrow pool of talent. The programme encourages employers to understand the importance of soft skills development such as communication, innovation and confidence for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The long-term outcome is to close the gap between graduate level outcomes for students from WP backgrounds.

E7: CANCELLED

E8: Does Experience Work? Exploring the value of student work experience in the graduate labour marketPresenters: Lynsey Russell-Watts and Eilidh Steele, The University of EdinburghRoom 8This session presents the results of our two research projects on work experience: one ASET-funded project examining students’ motivations for working, the number and patterns of hours they work and the impact it has on their other activities, and a HECSU-funded research project exploring the value of student work experience from the point of view of students, recent graduates and employers.

Although as careers advisors we send students lots of positive messages about work experience and the ways it can help ‘future-proof’ their careers, most of the evidence that supports this is personal and anecdotal. Our research substantiates a number of theories around the usefulness of work experience, as well as providing evidence that work commitments are not necessarily detrimental to students’ academic performance.

Where subject knowledge and skills may require continual updating, the capabilities, mindsets and behaviours developed through practical experience support students to become adaptable, agile actors in the labour market in various ways.

As well as sharing our research findings, this workshop will provide colleagues with an opportunity to reflect on their own practice, and to explore how they can use the research to enhance their effectiveness in supporting.

E9 students: Career theory, models and delivery: are we ready for Industry 4.0?Presenter: Nigel Royle, University of the West of ScotlandRoom 9This workshop is based on an MSc research project I am undertaking entitled “Challenges for Higher Education Career Guidance arising from rapid automation and its impact on the labour

market for Scotland’s graduates”. The introduction will suggest some of the key issues arising from rapid automation as they affect labour markets and graduates in particular. It will also briefly provide a refresher on career development theory and guidance models. The workshop poses questions for participants to consider:

1. Underpinning Career Development theory and Guidance Models Using prompt cards, participants will consider what rapid automation means for career development theory and guidance models. What are the assumptions they make about jobs and labour markets, which ones are more relevant, can they be adapted or do we need new theoretical bases to work from?

2. Inequalities arising from automation Career guidance services have always had a part to play in challenging inequality in career decision making and access to job markets. Given the potential that automation has for increasing polarization and inequality, is there more that career services could do to challenge or mitigate this negative impact for our clients?

3. Impact on Career Guidance in the Future What will be the impact of rapid automation on the demand for career services given potential effects of automation and are these being planned for? Again prompt cards will be used to provide a structure or this discussion

For example: one possible policy response envisages universal income. In an environment where there is a guaranteed income how would this impact demand for career services?

E10: “Give them a fish…or teach them to fish?” Empowering students to navigate employer engagement activityPresenters: Lucy Everett and Sharon Cant, The University of EdinburghRoom 10This workshop will mull over some of the big questions of how we future-proof both ourselves, as careers services, and our students:

How can careers services add value the plethora of “careers” information available to students?

How do career services facilitate effective decision making for our students who are sifting through this data?

Come and hear about two initiatives The University of Edinburgh Careers Service have trialled, using cross-Service input, with the aim of empowering students with critical thinking and information literacy.

With a guiding principle of student-led decision-making, a move away from passive consumption of information, and opening their eyes to the wealth of opportunity, we revised our international employer engagement policy and the presentation of our Careers Fairs.

We don’t claim to have all the answers but this session will cover what we have learnt from using these tools and then stimulate discussion on how, collectively, careers services can add value to the student experience by building self-reliance. Participants will leave:

Understanding of some examples of best practice. Confident to make decisions on how to present careers information in order to empower

student decision-making. New perspectives and hopefully a handful of new ideas for changes to policy to future-

proof your careers service.

THURSDAY PM 14:30–15:45F1: Mental Health: creating a revolution. How to grow the self-confidence, aspiration, and interpersonal skills for students with mental health conditions

Presenters: Todd Eden, LeadNow and TBC from The University of ManchesterRoom 1In parallel to the revolution in the careers landscape, there’s a growing revolution in awareness of mental ill-health. In the spotlight and making unwelcome headlines is the HE sector.

An institution that ‘wins’ in the graduate labour market of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, loses if it fails to address the growing number of students suffering from mental health conditions. The ‘double-win’ is to enable students with depression, schizophrenia and anxiety to thrive in this Fourth Revolution.

This workshop demonstrates how ‘leadership’ programmes that have been proven to work for the most advantaged students can be subtly adapted to achieve the same outcomes for students suffering from depression, schizophrenia, or anxiety. Using a case study from The University of Manchester, LeadNow will reveal the secrets to facilitating an event that shifts student self-confidence and aspiration for ‘life-after-uni’.

F2: Everyone Else Is Taken: Career fluidity and personal branding in the 21st CenturyPresenters: Simeon Smith and Gareth Hill, Swansea UniversityRoom 2On one hand the ever-changing labour market accelerates towards the unknown territories of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, on the other our Gen-Z students and graduates expect society and their employers to support and nurture their own complex self-identities.

The key to success in this challenging landscape will be not solely in achievement, but in communication. How each graduate chooses to brand themselves and frame their values, skills and interests will be key to finding their place in the labour market. This workshop will look at:

Identity – How to efficiently communicate a graduate’s worth to an employer in a career-fluid world.

Personal Branding – How to use narrative and new technology to create a compelling story.

Self-development – How to use day-to-day activities and other interests to future-proof a graduate’s personal brand.

Community – How to connect and collaborate to extend a personal brand both online and in person.

Productivity – Practical tips on what this looks like in practice.

F3: Fear and Loathing in the HESA Graduate Outcome SurveyPresenters: Helen Hicks, University of Exeter and Glen Crust, Independent Career Development ConsultantRoom 3The HESA Graduate Outcome survey, released in July 2018, replaces DLHE from 2019. Alongside familiar employment outcomes, it measures ‘subjective wellbeing’ (SWB), the extent to which the lives of your university’s graduates feel meaningful, worthwhile, satisfying, happy, anxious and socially connected. This game-changing innovation challenges the dominance of universities’ economic outcome measures with accounts of life quality – the principal goal of public policy.

The workshop introduces graduate SWB pilot study league tables for academic disciplines and job titles, then illustrates how all Higher Education Providers can respond to this data. It demonstrates a student activity that engages participants in measurably improving their life-wide autonomy, occupational choices and productivity, in improving higher education quality, and in increasing institutional NSS scores. This work also acts as an inclusive, scalable upstream mental health intervention.

It challenges expectations and extrinsic motivations of school leavers who were taught-to-the-test, responding to students’ preferences: goals and attitudes using Schwartz’ Basic Human Values (part of the European Social Survey since 2002), complementing roles and skills using

Myers-Briggs Type and Belbin’s teams. These workshops can be led by career development staff collaborating with academics, academic skills and counselling colleagues. Bring your smart-phone!

Participants will be able to:

Use SWB data to prioritise provision for courses and student subgroups. Collaborate with academics, academic skills and counselling colleagues to deliver and

evaluate workshops that… measurably improve students’ engagement, life quality, autonomy, productivity and

career development and… enhance institutional graduate employment, SWB and NSS scores.

F4: Maximising Resources: Delivering careers education within a New Zealand tertiary institutionPresenters: Jackie Dean, University of OtagoRoom 4Travelling back in time to 2011 when I took over as Manager of Otago University’s Career Development Centre in Dunedin New Zealand, you would see a work environment with students heavily dependent on one on one career counselling and academic staff not always grasping the relevance of what we do.

Fast forward to 2018, with numbers visiting the service rising, and seven staff delivering to 20,000 students in three different cities. We are moving towards more one to many delivery, ensuring that students are well prepared to see us before they see us, partnering with departments to run careers events, using greater numbers of employers to deliver careers messages and peer learning to deliver up-to-date, relevant careers education.

The workshop will begin with an overview of the tertiary sector in NZ, an outline of our journey to make the changes detailed above. This will then be followed with a practical exercise showcasing one of our peer learning workshops, our CV tutorial. The workshop will conclude with an open forum for all attendees to share their own best practice in tackling the challenges of working smarter. Please bring a current CV with you (not necessarily your own) and some ideas to share.

F5: Out at university; in the closet at work. How can careers services help LGBT students to thrive in employment?Presenter: Sean Russell, getoutstayoutRoom 5An increasing body of research and anecdotal evidence shows that LGBT students are more likely to take a break from studies or drop out; report lower levels of wellbeing and higher anxiety and less likely to engage with student services. Many ‘out’ students at university return to the closet on graduating.LGBT students in the future will have higher expectations of HE in terms of support and guidance. Employers are increasingly targeting this group of students. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to:

Learn about the issues facing LGBT students. Be challenged about their assumptions. Critically evaluate examples of current practice in: employer engagement, information,

advice, guidance and teaching. Learn about LGBT student/employer mentoring scheme at the University of Birmingham

and how graduate employers recruit and support LGBT graduates. Ensure their service has equality, inclusivity and diversity at the heart of their practice. How to influence and collaborate with colleagues in: student unions; academic

departments; recruitment and admissions; alumni. Develop an action-plan for their service.

F6: The increasing rise of employability through enterprise and

entrepreneurshipPresenters: Mona Vadher, City, University of LondonRoom 6Millennials are the future of the UK and a survey conducted by the HSBC showed that aside from strong drivers such as being your own boss, more and more millennials are using social enterprises as a means of creating a positive impact on their communities. To say this is a revolution is too soon, but in recent years there has been a clear increase in momentum on the subject of enterprise and entrepreneurship. With this in mind, how can we, as career professionals, respond to the increased traction and future-proof our students to set them on the right entrepreneurial path to ensure their success?” So, what is a social enterprise and how does it impact communities? Hear how City’s won the AGCAS Award for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, through collaboration via their social enterprise festival.