Agenda

We are back with our face-to-face Conference! We will kick things off with an interactive icebreaker allowing you to explore with peers your role and objectives for the day.

• What the revised OfS B Conditions expect on skills and resources for student success following graduation
• How the role of employability, skill development and careers service support will be considered within course quality
• What the new B3 Condition would expect on baseline requirements on progression
• How the OfS will design, develop and use progression data indicators and what this will mean for institutions
• The role of progression baseline indicators within the new TEF

What do graduates do? What are their routes to progression? How has their university experience prepared them for the world of work?
This session will analyse the latest Graduate Outcomes findings and assess what we know about the state of graduate employability. The session will consider:

• Core trends in progression routes and how graduates enter the labour market
• The value of careers support and skills development at university
• Motivators for employment choices and perceptions on satisfaction and experience
• How careers professionals can operationalise Graduate Outcomes insights to inform service delivery

This session will offer the latest analysis on the expectations of employers and how careers support can reflect the realities of a rapidly evolving labour market. The ISE will share insights on:

• Demand from employers and how the graduate employment market is developing
• How employers are recruiting graduates and their approaches to interview, assessment and entry
• The skills needs of employers and how they find the graduates they are looking for
• How attitudes, behaviours and skills can be successfully demonstrated

• The B3 conditions and in particularly the progression outcome of having 60% attain a positive outcome proposes a significant challenge for many universities in the UK
• We know from our own research that many students do not engage extensively with the career service during their time at university and many of them fail commonly used psychometric tests
• Our research also indicates that embedding employability within the curriculum can be successful at increasing intentions to apply for internships and enhance their career planning
• The challenge for universities is how to implement effective employability initiatives into the curriculum whilst taking with them university staff and students. This talk will address each of these points

As we move closer to the post-pandemic landscape, how should we re-position our work to enhance the prospects of our students and graduates? This session will consider the evolving role of Careers and Employability Services in the context of:

• Student needs following their disrupted experience
• The complexity of transition from student to employee
• The challenge of building fulfilling careers in a hybrid working environment

Exploring key evidence on how students respond to employability support within their degree, this session will examine what works for students and what models of teaching deliver the greatest impact. The session will consider:

• Module and content design on employability within a programme
• Student responses to employability teaching approaches
• How practical support and skills-based guidance can be embedded
• Ideas on when employability-focussed teaching works and when it doesn’t

Following the morning sessions, you will have the opportunity to reflect on learning points and unpack action points for practice within your careers service. You will be able to participate in one of the discussions:

This conversation with some the UK’s leading graduate employers will allow you to unpick evolving approaches to recruitment, the scale of market demand and what employers are looking for in their future intakes. The session will consider themes including:

• Trends in recruitment and demand
• Expectations and skills needs of new graduates
• Changes in assessment and interview practices
• Diversity and inclusion

• Building effective careers support into access and participation planning for disadvantaged students
• Examining evidence-led interventions to deliver successful outcomes for widening participation students
• Exploring common barriers to engagement and success and how careers service can deliver a tailored approach
• Assessing how to deliver impact for students at risk of struggling to progress or enter further employment

This series of flash talks will allow you to explore specific interventions for careers team and gain valuable case-study insights on delivering impact for specific groups entering the employment market.

Each flash talk will have the objective of offering 3 core takeaways to support your service delivery.

This interactive workshop will allow you an opportunity to re-examine how careers services interact with students throughout the lifecycle. The workshop will:

• Breakdown the stages of engagement with careers teams
• Evaluate the evidence-base for interventions and careers service activity
• Analyse what isn’t working in supporting effective progression

You will then swap your challenges with peers and take a ‘flipped’ approach to the employability journey, considering how the student journey can be reassessed, what new ideas should be adopted and how ineffective approaches can be reinvented.

Be prepared to share bold thinking and new ideas!

*Programme subject to change