HEADS OF SERVICE CONFERENCE
Changed forever?
6–8 JANUARY 2021
ONLINE VIA REMO
HEADS OF SERVICE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Wednesday 6 January 2021
@AGCAS #AGCASHOS21 PAGE 1
HEADS OF SERVICE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Thursday 7 January 2021
@AGCAS #AGCASHOS21 PAGE 2
HEADS OF SERVICE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME Friday 8 January 2021
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SPEAKERS
Wednesday 6 January KEYNOTE
KEYNOTE Rena Levitt Dr Diana Beech College Head of Chief Executive Computations Sciences London Higher Minerva Schools
As Chief Executive of London Higher, Diana is
Rena Levitt is a professor of mathematics and the College
responsible for leading the organisation’s aim of being a
Head for Computational Sciences at Minerva Schools at
voice for London’s universities and higher education
KGI. Levitt earned her Ph.D. in pure mathematics from the
colleagues. Diana joined London Higher from the
University of California, Santa Barbara in 2008. Prior to
University of Warwick, where she led the institution’s
joining Minerva, she was a member of the Department of
Government affairs function.
Mathematics at Pomona College, where she specialised in the design and implementation of inquiry-based and active
Diana has previously worked in government as a policy
learning mathematics courses, and developed
adviser to three Ministers of State for Universities,
programmes designed to support underrepresented
Science, Research and Innovation, advising on all
students pursuing degrees in STEM fields. Levitt joined
aspects of Higher Education policy. Prior to this she was
Minerva in 2014 as a founding member of the academic
the first Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Higher
team and led the initial design of Minerva's STEM
Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and she has published
curriculum and assessment system. Over the past five
widely on several aspects of UK higher education policy.
years, she has taught mathematics to hundreds of Minerva students in synchronous virtual classrooms using active-
Diana holds a PhD in German from the University of
learning techniques. During this session, Rena will
Cambridge and has held academic positions at
introduce participants to Minerva’s educational model,
universities in Canada, Germany and the UK.
including the technology used to facilitate classes, the Forum platform.
KEYNOTE PARALLEL SESSION ONE Rachel Kim Dr Brooke Storer-Church Senior Coach and Head of Skills Global Director Office for Students Minerva Schools
Rachel joined Minerva’s Coaching and Talent
Dr Brooke Storer-Church is the Head of Skills at the Office
Development team in February 2019 to provide coaching
for Students, with strategic responsibility for developing
and career strategy to students eager to learn more about
and managing activities within the skills policy portfolio.
themselves and who they are becoming through the
Current work includes AI postgraduate conversion
Minerva experience and beyond. Rachel firmly believes
courses, building a mature students intervention strategy,
that everyone deserves a chance to pursue their own
shaping impact measures for student involvement in
definition of success and happiness as well as to have a
knowledge exchange, and developing interventions to
coach who both champions and challenges them on that
expand nursing provision. Previous responsibilities
path. As Global Director she leads a team of coaches and
include leading postgraduate policy and programmes
programme managers who support Minerva students and
(2014-2016), overseeing Government reviews of STEM
alumni around the world. She also closely partners with
provision (Shadbolt and Wakeham, 2015), launching the
leaders across the schools to align our efforts in support of
Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund (2016-
our students towards integrated learning outcomes.
2017), and leading assessments of the new IoTs on
Rachel will share the opportunities and challenges of
behalf of the Department for Education (2018-2019).
leading career services within this unique institutional model and context.
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SPEAKERS
Wednesday 6 January
PARALLEL SESSION ONE PARALLEL SESSION ONE
Angela West
Roddy Macdonald
Skills and Employability
Head of Higher Education
Manager
and Science Division
Higher Education Funding
Scottish Government
Council Wales (HEFCW)
Roddy Macdonald is Head of Higher Education and
Angela is the Skills and Employability Manager at
Science at the Scottish Government. He is responsible for
HEFCW. She has specific responsibility to develop
policy on issues related to universities, student support
degree apprenticeships in Wales, as set out in the Welsh
and well-being, widening access, governance,
Government’s Apprenticeship Policy and five year action
research, international, science and Brexit.
plan.
He has worked for the Scottish Government for over 20
Angela has over 20 years experience of managing
years on a wide range of policy issues, including
widening participation and work based learning in the
education, economic development and planning. Prior to
post-16 sector, with a focus on developing academic and
the civil service he working in a university and in
vocational learning pathways to higher education.
consultancy.
Angela earned a BA Hons in Education and Training, and Postgraduate compulsory education and training (PCET) from University of Wales, Newport concentrating on strategies for professional practice.
PARALLEL SESSION ONE
PARALLEL SESSION ONE
Edwyn Williams
Graeme Wilkinson
Head of Strategic
Director of Skills
Engagement (Employability)
Department for the Economy
Welsh Government
Northern Ireland
Edwyn is Head of Strategic Engagement in the Graeme Wilkinson is the Director of Skills in the Employability and Skills Division in Welsh Government. Department for the Economy. His role includes the He is currently working on the Skills and Employability development of a new Skills Strategy (2030) for priorities identified in “Prosperity for All”, the cross Welsh Northern Ireland, the delivery of a suite skills related Government Employability Plan and the Covid programmes and the development of a new framework Commitment to Skills and Employability. for those young people (16-24) not in employment, education or training (NEET). Edwyn’s team also lead on the Shared Apprenticeship scheme and the Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales Prior to taking up this post, Graeme led the EU exit project raising the profile of vocational skills. His team preparations as Director of EU Relations in TEO and as also lead on the Business Skills Gateway, the online Brexit Director in DAERA. portal for skills development support for employers, the Wales Essential Skills Toolkit, which is the online essential Graeme is a Chartered Accountant and has spent the skills assessment and the Wales Union Learning Fund majority of his career in the Public sector. (WULF).
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SPEAKERS
Wednesday 6 January
PARALLEL SESSION ONE PARALLEL SESSION ONE
Frances O'Hara
Vivienne Patterson
Head of Careers Service
Higher Education Authority
Department for the Economy
Republic of Ireland
Northern Ireland
Frances O'Hara has been Head of the Careers Service in
Vivienne Patterson has been Head of Skills, Engagement
the Department for the Economy, and formerly the
and Statistics at the Higher Education Authority (HEA)
Department for Employment and Learning,
since 2016. Her responsibilities include the management
(DEL) since 2010. Frances qualified as a careers adviser
of both Springboard+, a national upskilling and reskilling
from the University of Ulster in 1991, working in the
programme and the oversight of national apprenticeships
Coleraine area. She also worked in employment service
in higher education. Her role in the HEA involves active
policy from 2002- 2005 (DEL), Head of Primary Care
strategic engagement with agencies such as EI, IDA,
Development, Department of Health, Social Services and
IBEC and AmCham to strengthen the relationship
Public Safety from 2005- 2009 and Head of the
between higher education promotion and future
European Social Fund (DEL) during 2009-10.
employment and innovation. In 2018, she sat on the steering groups for the Review of Guidance in Education and the review of the National Training Fund. Vivienne also manages the new Human Capital Initiative
PARALLEL SESSION TWO
announced in budget 2019.
Laura Yeates Vivienne is a member of the CAO Board of Directors, the
Head of Graduate Talent Clifford Chase
Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, the Apprenticeship Council, the National Training Fund Advisory Group and the Technology Skills 2022 High Level Steering Group.
Laura Yeates is Head of Graduate Talent at the global law firm, Clifford Chance. She oversees the graduate
PARALLEL SESSION TWO
recruitment and development teams, both of which have
Jonathan Black
won awards for ground-breaking initiatives. She joined
Director of the Careers Service
Clifford Chance in 2006, having previously worked at
University of Oxford
J.P. Morgan in both the graduate recruitment team and also in a generalist HR role.
She is a Fellow of the CIPD, a Trustee of the Bridge Group, an Opinion Leader for People in Law and a
Jonathan has been director of the University of Oxford Careers Service since 2008. Prior to this he held a
member of the National Student Pride Steering number of senior commercial roles at Booz & Co, Committee. In 2020, she founded the Sustainable Recruitment Alliance and is currently Chair of the Alliance steering group. She is also a former Board Director of the
Harcourt Brace, and Times Mirror and was co-founder of an internet start-up successfully sold to Elsevier.
Institute of Student Employers and member of the Advisory Board of The Apples & Pears Foundation.
Jonathan is a Professorial Fellow and Tutor for Welfare at New College, is Chair of Oxford Hub, and writes the regular ‘Dear Jonathan’ careers column in the Financial Times.
PAGE 6
SPEAKERS
Wednesday 6 January PARALLEL SESSION TWO
PARALLEL SESSION TWO
Sarah Wenham
Jane Campbell
Faculty Employability and
Head of Student Careers
Placements Manager
University of Leeds
University of Leeds
Jane Campbell is Head of Student Careers at the
Sarah Wenham joined the University of Leeds Student
University of Leeds a post she has held for the last 6
Careers Service as a Faculty Employability Manager in
years. She is a careers guidance professional with over
2018 and also has a university-wide responsibility for
25 years’ experience in various sectors including higher
curriculum development. Prior to this, Sarah was an
education, further education, adult education and
academic course leader at Sheffield Hallam University
schools. At Leeds, Jane has lead on developing faculty
for 18 years in their Department of Sport, having
employability and data/insight teams, digital
previously spent time working within the sport
transformation of the service and supporting the building
development industry. At Leeds, Sarah has led on the
of stronger partnerships between local employers and
service's curriculum transformation project which includes
universities in the City. Widening participation is
developing a service-wide curriculum resource which is
important to Jane and she has helped Student Careers
used within module delivery across the university. In
develop a team of staff and interns working in this space
addition, she is currently leading a project on surfacing
to improve outcomes for all students. Jane is on the Board
skills within the curriculum which involves partnership
of the Institute of Student Employers.
work with academics, employers and students.
PARALLEL SESSION TWO
PARALLEL SESSION TWO
Jo Howell
Andrew Davis
Head of Careers and
Head of Employer
Employability
Engagement
Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University
Jo Howell is the Head of Careers and Employability at
Andrew has a breadth of experience that covers both
Birmingham City University. After working in recruitment
public and private sectors: having managed a family
she trained as a careers adviser and has worked in both
SME; reported to the main board of a multinational
FE and HE delivering a series of European social fund
company and delivered government employability
(ESF) and other externally funded employability projects.
programmes for third sector organisations, FE and HE
She is responsible for the management and delivery of
institutions in the UK. He also has considerable
careers and employability services for students and
experience of devising and delivering employability
graduates at BCU, leading a team of 30 with a focus on
programmes in the Middle East. He is currently Head of
delivering high quality services, embedding delivery
Employer Engagement at Birmingham City University,
within the curriculum, creating work experience,
where he bids for and manages a portfolio of externally
mentoring and extra-curricular skill development
funded contracts supporting graduate and student
opportunities, raising student aspirations and improving
employability.
graduate outcomes.
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SPEAKERS
Wednesday 6 January PARALLEL SESSION TWO
PARALLEL SESSION TWO Neelam Thapar Sara Flack Head of Careers and Graduate Outcomes Employability Programme Manager London Metropolitan Birmingham City University University
Sara has been working in the fields of careers,
Neelam has 30 years experience in higher education in
recruitment and employability within the West Midlands
placements, careers guidance and embedding
for over 25 years. Qualified to distinction level in careers
employability in teaching and learning. She became
guidance (MA in Education: Guidance), she is currently
Head of Careers and Employability in 2014 with
employed as the Graduate Outcomes Programme
responsibility for the strategic leadership and
Manager at Birmingham City University. This involves
development of CEIAG provision to students and recent
developing and managing the graduate offer and team
graduates at London Met where 96% of students come
as well as the professional mentoring and volunteering
from at least one underrepresented group.
programmes of delivery. She loves nothing more than
Neelam has a MSc in Education and Training and
supporting our diverse graduate population to maximise
Diplomas in CEIAG, Personal Performance Coaching
their graduate opportunities.
and Neuro LInguistic Programming and spent over 10 years as volunteer trustee of the United Kingdom Thalassaemia Society with responsibility for co-leading a national Asian Awareness Campaign and is now an Ambassador for the charity and a member of the AGCAS Nominations Committee.
PARALLEL SESSION TWO Vanessa Airth Head of Work Based Learning; Policy and Practice London Metropolitan University
Vanessa has worked in higher education since 2001 and has 16 years’ experience of developing and delivering work based learning/employability programmes. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Master's Degree in Learning and Teaching in HE and is responsible for the management and strategic direction of work based learning in all curricula at London Met, including apprenticeships. She is experienced in the leadership of work placement and professional skills modules.
Her previous experience includes public relations, arts fundraising and retail banking.
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SPEAKERS
Thursday 7 January
KEYNOTE
PARALLEL SESSION
Dr Paul Greatrix
Gabi Binnie
Registrar
AGCAS Policy and
University of Nottingham
Research Manager
Dr Paul Greatrix is Registrar at the University of
Gabi Binnie joined AGCAS in August 2019. Prior to this,
Nottingham. Prior to this he was Deputy Registrar at the
she worked for Gradconsult, managing graduate
University of Warwick and held a range of other positions over nearly nine years there. Before joining Warwick in 1998 he was at the University of East Anglia
recruitment programmes for SME and corporate organisations, and in student-facing roles within the Kingston University Careers Service. Gabi is responsible
for six years and started his higher education career at for supporting the delivery of the Research and Staffordshire University. As Registrar he is responsible to the President and Vice-Chancellor for the academic administration of the University. As well as being Secretary to the statutory bodies of the University and a
Knowledge and Advocacy strands of the AGCAS strategy, including managing the AGCAS research programme, developing policy recommendations and
member of the University Executive Board, the Registrar
raising AGCAS’s external profile. She has previously
manages the provision of a broad range of professional
been a Sabbatical Officer at Sheffield University
services for prospective students, current students and
Students’ Union and has a particular interest in supporting
staff.
students during the transition period from student to graduate.
Paul read English Language at the University of Edinburgh, and holds a PhD from the School of Education at the University of East Anglia. He is also a long standing member of the AUA, a member of the AHUA Executive and currently Chair of the HUMANE
PARALLEL SESSION Phillipa Hewett
Round Table. He blogs regularly on Wonkhe as
Head of Careers Service
Registrarism and hosts a regular podcast, University
SOAS, University of
PARALLEL SESSION
Registrars Talking About Stuff.
London
PARALLEL SESSION
After a career specialising in international change
Billy Reed
management, training and internal communications via
Head of Student Experience,
facilitation, with a little detour into international
Engagement & Retention
operations processes, Phillipa made a fairly radical
SOAS, University of London
change in 2010 and retrained as a primary teacher with Modern Languages (French and Spanish). She had a
A Higher Education specialist who has worked in education for over ten years, undertaking senior roles within widening participation, student experience in
wonderful few years with the children and this sparked her enthusiasm for ensuring that the world of work and the world of education could complement each other.
academic faculties and retention. Has spent the last year at SOAS looking to improve the student experience, engagement and retention.
She now leads the Careers team at SOAS, University of London, and this brings together her leadership development and teaching skills in a most satisfying way.
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SPEAKERS
Thursday 7 January
PARALLEL SESSION
PARALLEL SESSION
Stuart Johnson
Caroline Darrall
Director of Careers Service
Assistant Director of the
University of Bristol
Careers Service University of Bristol
Stuart is Director of the Careers Service at the University
Caroline Darrall is Assistant Director of the Careers
of Bristol, where he leads a team of over 60 staff. He is a
Service at the University of Bristol. She is responsible for
careers professional with substantial experience in
student facing operations and leads the delivery of IAG
service management and strategy and has more than 20
services to students and faculty employability work
years’ experience in careers, learning development and
across 28 academic schools. She works with a range of
training and development. He has a particular interest in
internal partners to ensure careers and employability is
skills development and is the author of two Oxford
an integral part of the student journey. Previously
University Press books on study, communication and
Caroline led student support and careers guidance staff
employability skills.
and projects at the Open University, as well as 20 years’ experience as a careers adviser and manager, delivering careers and other support services to teenagers.
PARALLEL SESSION Rob Taffinder Assistant Director of the Careers Service University of Bristol
Rob Taffinder is the Assistant Director of the Careers Service at the University of Bristol, leading and managing the teams responsible for employer engagement, student enterprise and community engagement including the Bristol PLUS Award. Rob recently joined the University following a career in the commercial sector leading inhouse and graduate recruitment teams and sustainability / CSR teams.
Parallel session descriptions available on pages 15-19
PAGE 10
SPEAKERS
Friday 8 January
KEYNOTE KEYNOTE Glenda Quintini Dr Farouk Dey Senior Economist Vice Provost for Integrative Organisation for Economic Learning and Life Design Co-operation and John Hopkins University Development (OECD)
As Vice Provost for Integrative Learning and Life Design
Glenda is a senior economist at OECD where she
at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Dr Farouk Dey leads
leads a team of economists looking at how skill needs
programs and services that bridge curricular and experiential learning with life aspirations for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral
are changing in the labour market and identifying effective policy responses, particularly in the area of adult learning and on-the-job training. The team
fellows, and alumni across the university’s schools and divisions. In his former role as Dean of Career and Experiential Education at Stanford University, he successfully built and scaled career and experiential
provides advice to countries on their skills-related policies and carries out comparative analysis, covering both OECD and developing countries. Glenda’s team
learning by creating a vision of meaningful work and a
also contributes to the development and analysis of the
networked approach of personalised connections and
OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) and the
inclusive communities. He is now working with education
accompanying employer module on skill gaps. Over
and industry leaders at JHU to launch a new vision of
the years, Glenda has devoted a lot of attention to
equitable access to life purpose for all students regardless of background or social capital using principles of integrative learning and life design.
issues of skills mismatch, skills use at work, work-based learning and automation. Glenda holds a PHD in Economics from the University of Oxford.
PARALLEL SESSION Dineli Mather Pro-Vice Chancellor (Graduate Employment)
Parallel session descriptions available on pages 15-19
Deakin University
Professor Dineli Mather is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate Employment) at Deakin. She is responsible for Deakin’s graduate employment strategy and leads the Graduate Employment Division and DeakinTALENT operations. Prior to taking on this role Dineli has held a number of senior management roles at Deakin including as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, Head of the School of Information Systems & Business Analytics and Director of Work Integrated Learning.
Dineli is a strong advocate of partnerships between universities and employers as a strategy to develop highly employable graduates. She has a strong track record in industry engagement and has developed a number of impactful collaborative academic programs and work-integrated learning partnerships with government, business and industry. As PVC (Graduate Employment) Dineli led the transformation of Deakin Careers & Employment Services to create DeakinTALENT, a digitalfirst service that is available anytime-anywhere to Deakin students for life. DeakinTALENT has been voted the best careers service in Australia by the Graduate Recruiters Industry Association for the past four years.
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SPEAKERS
Friday 8 January
PARALLEL SESSION
PARALLEL SESSION
Gemma Green
Naomi Oosman-Watts
Head of External Relations
AGCAS Director of Data
AGCAS
Insights and Head of Strategic Projects Newcastle University
Gemma Green joined AGCAS in April 2002. Prior to
Naomi is responsible for the delivery of large, complex
this, she worked at The University of Sheffield Careers
University-wide student services projects with the aim of
Service in an employer liaison role and at Sheffield Hallam University Students’ Union. During her time at AGCAS, Gemma has worked in a wide range of
enhancing and improving the coherence of the student experience by joining up the academic, personal and professional aspects of the learner journey. Naomi
communications, publishing and research roles. Working across the Advocacy and Research and Knowledge areas of the AGCAS strategy, Gemma is currently responsible for external affairs, which includes the
provides institutional leadership on Graduate Outcomes with specific expertise in the collection, use and analysis of graduate destinations data. As Data
development and implementation of policy and research
Insights Director for the Association of Graduate
activity and the delivery of AGCAS’s publishing
Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), she represents
programme. She is also the editor of Phoenix, the
the association in discussions and decisions related to
AGCAS journal.
the Graduate Outcomes Survey as part of the HESA Graduate Outcomes Steering Group, and Chairs the AGCAS cross-sector Data Group.
PARALLEL SESSION PARALLEL SESSION Andrew Haxell Clare Dawson Head of Careers and Head of Employability Employment University of Brighton Northumbria University
Andrew joined Northumbria University as Head of Careers and Employment in the summer 2014. After graduating he’d worked initially for eight years in the banking sector – including responsibility for Bank of Scotland’s graduate recruitment and graduate training programme – before joining Newcastle University as a
Clare joined the University of Brighton as Head of Employability in November 2019, moving to the south coast from the West Midlands. She has previously worked in HE careers services at the University of Birmingham, University of Warwick, and for a short time, at the University of Worcester.
trainee careers adviser. He worked at Newcastle in a variety of careers practitioner and management and leadership roles for over 14 years. Since joining Northumbria, Andrew has led the development of the university’s careers and employability support offer to students and graduates. This has included the creation in 2020 of the Graduate Futures service, bringing together careers, placements and enterprise support roles and activities in a new structure to support the employability objectives in the university strategy.
She has worked in careers information, advice and guidance for many years and has loved the opportunity to offer support and influence in people’s lives as they transition into the world of work. As Head of Employability at the University of Brighton, she now has the opportunity to use her expertise to drive strategic direction in the key area of developing graduate employability, whilst enjoying long walks on the beach at the weekend.
PAGE 12
SPEAKERS
Friday 8 January
PARALLEL SESSION
PARALLEL SESSION
Claire Aydogan
Barrie Grey
Head of Careers and
Head of Careers and
Employability
Employability
University of Brighton
Bath Spa University
Claire Aydogan is an experienced head of service and
Having qualified in careers guidance in 2001, Barrie
careers coach. With over 15 years of professional
has had a varied career in both compulsory, further and
practice, Claire has enjoyed exposure to a range of sectors including education, legal, retail, health & social care and the public sector. Before joining higher
higher education. Starting as an adviser during the Connexions era he moved onto heading up careers guidance and alternative key stage 4 learning at a secondary school academy in West Yorkshire. Moving
education, Claire spent over 10 years gaining from there to the University of Leeds, Barrie established a commercial experience in leadership and management roles and set up a successful learning and development business securing contracts with the NHS and West
role in managing aspects of employability including face to face services, resources and data intelligence. Barrie became Head of Careers and Employability at Bath Spa
Yorkshire Police. Claire is also on the board of directors
University in 2017, where he has managed a
for C&K Careers and is a Governor at Westborough
restructuring of priorities to develop an experiential
High School.
approach to employability learning and support. Barrie is a keen supporter of AGCAS activities and has been involved in delivering training and as a committee member.
DEPUTIES SESSION
DEPUTIES SESSION
Paul Gratrick
Stuart Marriott
AGCAS Regionalisation
Associate Director
Director and Employability
Careers and Employability
Business Partner
Service
University of Liverpool
University of Nottingham
Paul Gratrick is the Employability Business Partner for the
Stuart Marriott has worked in higher education since
Faculty of Humanities and Social Science (HSS) at the
2000, starting his career with the Student Services
University of Liverpool, and previously held a similar role
division at De Montfort University focusing on what was
at the University of Manchester. The University is divided
then the ‘First Destination Survey’ and department
into three faculties and Paul oversees a team of Careers
finances. Over the last twenty years, Stuart has been a
Consultants who make up the HSS team within the
Management Information Officer, AGCAS Treasurer and
Careers and Employability Service, working with
Board Member, Employer Development Manager and
academic and professional service staff across four
acting Head of Service, before joining the University of
schools and a wide variety of discipline areas. Paul has a
Nottingham as Associate Director for the Careers and
strong interest in using technology to advance careers
Employability Service in March 2016. At Nottingham,
advisory work and has recently completed a Masters in
Stuart’s portfolio includes business information, finance,
Management at Durham University, where he previously
IT and information security, risk, employer development
graduated with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy.
activity and commercial opportunities.
PAGE 13
SPEAKERS
Friday 8 January
PANEL SESSION
PANEL SESSION
Shawn Vanderziel
Catherine Stace
Executive Director
Incoming-President
National Association of
Canadian Association of
Colleges and Employers
Career Educators and
(NACE)
Employers (CACEE)
As Executive Director of the NACE in the United States,
Catherine Stace is the Incoming-President of the Canadian
Shawn VanDerziel leads the association of 13,000+
Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE)
professionals at more than 3,000 employing
and Head of Career Services at McGill University’s Max
organisations and educational institutions engaged in the
Bell School of Public Policy. Driven by the belief that youth
career development and the employment of college
should have access to high quality career development and
students and alumni. Prior to joining the NACE staff,
experimental learning opportunities, Catherine sits on
Shawn was with the Field Museum of Natural History in
national and provincial boards and committees that focus
Chicago for 23 years, where he most recently served as
on the post-secondary to career transition and youth
Chief Human Resources Officer and as Chief of Staff. His
employment. Catherine is a recipient of the McGill
earlier roles included corporate recruiting with Norrell
University Principal’s Award, and the Canadian Association
Corporation and Associate Director of Student Enrollment
of Career Educators and Employers’ Award of Merit.
at National Louis University.
PANEL SESSION PANEL SESSION
Jonathan Kwan
Alan McAlpine
Executive Director
Associate Director
South East Asian Association
Student Success
of Graduate Employers
Queensland University
(SEAAGE)
of Technology (QUT) With close to 20 years of experience as a career coach Alan is the Associate Director, Student Success at QUT. He leads five portfolio areas that oversee six multidisciplinary teams in each of the QUT faculties. The embedded teams provide support in career development, language and learning and STEM. Prior to this role, Alan managed the Careers and Employment Service for over ten years. He is a longstanding Management Committee member of the National Association of Graduate Career Advisory Services (NAGCAS) and was President from 2010 until 2014. He is a member of the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) Executive, and also sits on the board of Graduate Careers Australia. Alan has over 20 years experience in the career development field with the last 15 being in HE sector. During that time he was part of three citation awards from the Australian Learning and
and management consultant, Jon is the Executive Director of the South East Asian Association of Graduate Employers (SEAAGE), and an external career advisor to the world’s top business schools including Cambridge (Judge), HKUST, INSEAD and NUS. Originally from Toronto, Jon spent eight years in the consulting practice of one of the largest professional services firms in the world, advising clients, part of the Campus Recruitment Team, and most recently with their Global Future of Work Centre of Excellence. Currently, he’s fascinated by the idea of applying design thinking principles to individuals in their careers. He believes this approach will be a game changer, especially as everyone continues to think about the future of work, and re-imagine how careers will take shape in the future.
Teaching Council (ALTC).
Cathy is the founding member and Executive Director of
PANEL SESSION
the South African Graduate Employers Association
Cathy Sims
(SAGEA). SAGEA represents over 300 talent managers
Executive Director
across more than 200 organisations. Her previous
South African Graduate
experience includes HR Manager for leading international management consulting firm, Accenture
Employers Association
(1991 to 2004) and the University of Cape Town as Head of Employer Relations/Deputy Director of Careers (2004 to 2013).
PAGE 14
PARALLEL SESSIONS
Wednesday 6 January 14:00-14:45
FREE CHOICE ON THE DAY
1: Sustainability Presenters: Laura Yeates and Jonathan Black
Laura Yeates and Jonathan Black will be discussing two new initiatives aimed at improving the sustainability of graduate recruitment. Laura will share information about the Sustainable Recruitment Alliance and Jonathan will talk about an initiative at the University of Oxford to provide information about employer sustainability credentials to their students and graduates.
2: Developing and curating curriculum resources during a pandemic – the challenges and opportunities Presenters: Jane Campbell and Sarah Wenham
Student Careers at the University of Leeds contributes to teaching and assessment opportunities within 25 modules across the University. In January 2020, the service proposed to overhaul the curriculum content and delivery style for all of those modules in order to develop a more consistent, relevant and innovative approach to teaching.
The pandemic bought this into sharp focus through the opportunity to work with the Digital Education Service (DES) to create a set of curriculum resources that all staff could access and utilise within their online teaching delivery in 202021. The challenge was one of curating a huge amount of existing content (both online and static) over a period of 2 months, in addition to a lack of technical knowledge by those staff who would be delivering.
Whilst approximately 12 staff members are involved in the actual teaching delivery, we used this opportunity to involve staff from across the service to develop the online teaching resources, thus extending the reach, knowledge and pool of ideas. 8 core content areas were developed and the 40 staff involved were assigned to a specific area where they developed relevant content as a team.
3: Rethinking and redeveloping our graduate offer – The BCU Journey Presenters: Jo Howell, Andrew Davis and Sara Flack
In early 2020 BCU’s employment support service to graduates was reviewed, revamped and redeveloped into our “Graduate Offer”. A team of specialist Graduate Employability Advisers was brought together offering a universal – whilst bespoke – employment advice and support service to recent graduates. During this process, Covid 19 arrived, and its impact on our service delivery and experience of our graduates in finding work is still being felt.
The team link closely with our careers consultants, employer engagement specialists and our OFS Graduate Retune project run in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Aston University. Our graduates can access our volunteering, mentoring and work experience programmes, in addition to meeting and networking virtually with employers through our popular “Meet the Employer” events. Join us to hear our journey, the challenges we overcame, the new initiatives and processes brought in to improve our services to graduates, and how we’ve come to love virtual delivery, data and stats.
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PARALLEL SESSIONS
Wednesday 6 January 14:00-14:45
FREE CHOICE ON THE DAY
4: Delivering social justice: A collaborative approach Presenters: Neelam Thapar and Vanessa Airth
London Metropolitan University was creating new institutional frameworks; Education for Social Justice and Careers Education, underpinned by the longstanding mission of social justice and civic responsibility when faced with the pandemic and new delivery models with students/graduates, academic schools and employers. Successful collaboration, both internally in the university and externally, has been pivotal to the success of initiatives and this showcase will:
identify how the careers and employability and work-based learning services have been involved in a universitywide collaboration to develop the Education for Social Justice Framework to ensure an inclusive curriculum developing values driven graduates
examine a new flexible, inclusive model of work based learning with fully embedded, adaptable careers education that has been developed with students, employers and academics and collaboration between the careers and employability service and work based learning service that are located in different departments in the university
consider the success of bringing together expertise across the university to tackle the inequalities facing London, to improve peoples’ lives and to deliver social justice through the London Met Lab: Empowering London with a module that develops the employability skills of students addressing six key challenges in London
discuss the successes/challenges that have been faced on the journey to date and next steps.
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PARALLEL SESSIONS
Thursday 7 January 15:15-16:00
FREE CHOICE ON THE DAY
1: AGCAS resources survey report launch Presenter: Gabi Binnie Gabi Binnie, AGCAS Policy and Research Manager, will share headline findings from the latest AGCAS Careers Service Resourcing Survey (conducted during November 2020), which explores how the current climate is influencing changes in service provision and what further impact Covid-19 has had on careers service delivery since the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year.
2: Using careers registration data to support retention Presenter: Phillipa Hewett
A key issue, particularly in light of the unanticipated changes to the student experience caused by Covid, is retention. Even if ensuring all students were engaging well with their studies wasn’t the right thing to do, at a time when every fee-paying undergraduate represents over £27k over their student journey, it makes sense to ensure that as few of them as possible leave.
This is clearly a whole-institution issue. However, data to support this activity has not always been easy to access. As Careers Registration covers around 98% of all UG who voluntarily complete it, we wondered if there could be a way to use such a full data set to support retention.
It turns out that there is – though it was maybe not the answer we were expecting.
This workshop will cover what the careers team did to support SOAS’s retention for 2020-21 by identifying ‘at risk’ students, will show some initial outcomes, and will share how we propose to track the outcomes for the students who remained, so we can assess how much impact our intervention had.
3: Having a good crisis: how the pandemic has helped us work more closely, more clearly, and more creatively Presenters: Stuart Johnson, Caroline Darrall and Rob Taffinder
The March 2020 lockdown was a huge shift for everybody. The overnight move to remote working and online delivery was a change everyone had to get used to very quickly. The challenges of delivering equivalent services 100% online, coupled with the wellbeing challenges of remote working, were considerable. Whilst we wouldn’t be so naïve as to think we’ve managed perfectly, we have been pleasantly surprised by how well it’s gone and how many of the practices that we’ve developed over the last 9 months we will continue with when we’re finally back to normal.
The session will include how, as a service, we have learned to work together more closely (with weekly, bi-weekly, or daily check-ins, and supporting staff wellbeing), more clearly (purpose-led with five cross-cutting priorities and supporting task and finish groups), and more creatively (unleashing the creativity of our staff in reshaping our student, academic, and external offers). PAGE 17
PARALLEL SESSIONS
Friday 8 January 10:00-10:45
FREE CHOICE ON THE DAY
1: New models of working – From
2: Graduate Outcomes and reputation
Digital-First to a Digital-Only (locked
management
down) service
Presenters: Facilitated by Gemma Green
Presenter: Dineli Mather
and Naomi Oosman-Watts, with Andrew Haxell, Clare Dawson and Claire Aydogan
When we established DeakinTALENT, to create a 21st
In this session, a panel of three Heads of Service will share
century careers service, designing it as a digital-first
their experiences of how they have talked about Year One
operation was a game changer. In addition to enabling
Graduate Outcomes data at a strategic level within their
scale (we have 62,000 students and just 30+ FTE staff),
institutions. Panel members will discuss their approaches to:
and providing anytime/anywhere access for our
effectively articulating outcomes data to university
students and graduates for the rest of their working lives,
leadership; reputation management in the context of league
we were also able to add cutting edge (digital) careers
tables, TEF and continuous improvement; and increasing
tools to our suite of programs and services. Digital-first
broader institutional engagement with Graduate Outcomes.
didn’t mean we did everything in the Cloud, we
The panel will share their plans for the future in anticipation
supplemented the online services with the usual range of
of Year Two data, reflect on the ongoing challenges and
on-campus workshops, consultations and crowd pulling
unexpected/quick wins in creating a narrative around the
careers expos. Then 2020 happened.
data, and outline their approaches to managing internal expectations.
From being a bit concerned about losing our new intake of international students from China in February, we went into a complete lockdown in early March. Having initially expected to be back on campus, running normal operations, four-six weeks later, we found ourselves in the new-normal for the rest of the year (and continuing on in 2021).
Did we survive? Amazingly, we did much better than survive. We may even look back at 2020 as one of our most successful years. Come and listen to our journey and what we learnt along the way, and most importantly how our Covid experience has made us make a step-change for the better.
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PARALLEL SESSIONS
Friday 8 January 10:00-10:45
FREE CHOICE ON THE DAY 3: A new model of service delivery: how
4: Employment outcomes vs. employability
to seize the opportunities from Covid
– How do we best measure our impact?
and hurdle the barriers
Presenter: Barrie Grey
Presenter: Katy Gordon Given the changing face of metrics and government drive to Since lockdown on 17 March 2020, Goldsmiths
focus on ‘value for money’ higher education, are we in
Careers Service has:
danger of trying to develop our provision to meet metrics we
• shifted the whole service online within 48 hours
can’t always control?
• provided all staff with the technology to deliver online and hugely expanded line management support
There is a significant difference between employment
for staff wellbeing (Watercooler, Daily Catch ups)
outcomes and employability. This sessions seeks to examine
• launched innovations to build student resilience, help
the bigger picture of what we do and how it impacts on key
them engage with online opportunities and recognise all
aspects of employability such as:
is not lost
career decisiveness
• returned to campus from October 2020 with all staff
work experience
on rota to offer both face to face and online booking
skills acquisition.
options • built new networks (Gold Award Breakfast Club,
In doing so, we can seek to change the narrative,
Cuppa and a Chat, Themed Graduate Group
demonstrating how careers and employability services
Coaching) to share experiences and combat sense of
significantly increase employability. This would be especially
isolation
relevant to the work we do with the most vulnerable students,
• persuaded academic colleagues not to abandon
who are less likely to succeed. Something as simple as raising
work placements because they were now remote access
confidence can be the difference between a positive and
• persuaded employers to switch to remote access
negative employment outcomes. Discussion about how we
internships / placements and attend online careers fairs
can measure softer impacts on employability would enable us
• created, consulted on and gained approval for new
to demonstrate added value.
three-year employability strategy. This session seeks to exchange views and ideas on what Many of you may have done similar, but the purpose of
makes students and graduates more employable, how we
this workshop is to honestly examine:
focus on these activities and the methods we use to evaluate
• why some things have worked and others haven’t
their impact. In doing so, we can support AGCAS members to
• what we wish we’d done differently
advocate clearly around this subject, giving them an armory
• what mistakes we have made (and any remedies)
of good practice and success data to create a clear narrative
• whether as Heads we have become invisible to
on the impact member services have on employability.
senior management and how to avoid this where we go from here.
As resources become more squeezed, this session could help develop thinking of how our role in developing employability can also impact on other priorities such as recruitment and NSS. Therefore, creating a case for increased resources.
PAGE 19
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