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Programme

The Summit is a daytime and evening event with a full programme arranged from the evening of Monday 13th March through to and including the evening of Thursday 16th March. To make the most of your time with us we ask that by committing to attend the Summit you commit to our community and avoid making any other plans during the Summit.

Please note that all sessions will be delivered in English.

  • Monday March 13

  • 14:00 – 16:30  Optional:

    The Careers Group will be showcasing some of their practices in repeating 40 minute sessions, enabling delegates to attend up to 3 that interest them during that time. Topics include:

    • Being inclusive by design: implications for careers and employability in curriculum – Aranee Manoharan (King’s College London)
    • Translating institutional strategy into employability in the curriculum – Gemma Kenyon (City, University of London)
    • Transdisciplinary learning to develop employability – Victoria Wade/Laura Brammar (University of London Careers Service)
    • Showcasing activities from our University of London postgraduate module Strategic Approaches to Careers and Employability in Higher Education – David Winter (TCG Head of Research and Organisational Development)

    16:45 – 17:05  Optional:

    Tour of the Summit venue, the iconic Senate House.

    Pre-booked delegates only. This tour will also be available at the end of day, Tuesday, March 14.

  • Tuesday March 14

  • 09:00 – 09:15   Arrival and registration

    09:15 – 10:45  Welcome, Gift Exchange and Awards

    10:45 – 11:00  Tech Talk:

    Early Career Trends. Using Data to Inform Employer Relationship Development and Student Engagement. targetconnect and Cibyl

    Speaker: Mark Mitchell, Chief Education Partnership Officer, GTI

    GTI Group will discuss different strategies on how career services offices can utilise technology and data to inform employer relationship development and promotional drives. Current trends in labour market demand, student preferred sectors, and active employers in the platform will be reviewed. What are some educated guesses on what that market might be like 5 years from now?

    11:00 – 11:10  Coffee/tea break

    11:10 – 12:30  Career Services Across the Globe

    This session is designed to build an understanding and appreciation of careers service structures around the globe and the innovations that are currently underway within them.

    12:30 – 13:30  Lunch 

    13:30 – 13:45  Tech Talk:

    Handshake: Inclusive Hiring Practices

    Speaker: Michael Harbaugh, Director of Education Partnerships at Handshake UK

    Handshake will discuss current and future trends in inclusive hiring practices. What is the landscape to promote DEIB practices in the candidate experience? What roles and partnership opportunities exist for technology, universities, employers, and students to collaborate? What are some of the best practices in DEIB and recruitment? 

    13:45 – 15:15  Creating Developmentally Appropriate Early Career Programming for the Adolescent Brain 

    Featured speaker: Emma Jayne Kilford, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, University College, London

    Adolescence is said to last well into one’s twenties, and that means in our work – with undergraduates, new alumni, and graduate students — we often work with students whose brains are still under construction. How can we use brain science to design services that meet students where they are in their development?

    This session is inspired by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s “The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain” TED Talk and will feature a subject matter expert along with global students who will share what has influenced and informed their career decisions. Delegates will discuss how adolescent brain development impacts student decision making and how to create effective approaches to early career education/programming.

Pre-work: Watch the TED Talk in advance of this session

  • 15:15 – 15:45  Coffee/tea break

    15:45 – 16:00  Tech Talk:

    Symplicity: Strengthening The Essential Bond Between Career Services And Early Talent Recruiting To Thrive In An Evolving Economic Landscape

    Speaker: Matt Small, President & CEO, Symplicity

    The current global economic environment reveals a renewed emphasis on the invaluable relationship between university recruiting & career services as one stretching beyond simply short-term job placement, but toward mutual long-term, sustainable workforce development. No longer enough to rely on outsourced job boards and superfluous postings, today’s economic landscape re emphasises the need for a reimagined approach with jobseekers requiring quality, curated opportunities for their unique skill sets and talents, and increased guidance to meet the demands of evolving organisational needs. It’s up to career centres & employers now more than ever to reevaluate their partnered approach from one of intersection to interconnection within their systems and programming, especially amid the growing conversation around the skills gap, experiential/ work-based learning, and the backdrop of scrutiny surrounding the traditional degree, to ensure equitable and sustainable outcomes, with robust data and tracking to continue driving increased value for all parties.

    16:00 – 16:30  Wrap up and Announcements

    16:45 – 17:05  Optional:

    Tour of the Summit venue, the iconic Senate House.

    Pre-booked delegates only.

  • 18:30 – 22:00   Reception and Dinner at Senate House

  • Wednesday March 15

  • 09:00 – 09:15  Arrival and registration

    09:15 – 10:25  Welcome, Awards, Group Activity and Photo

    10:25 – 10:35  Case Study:

    Practera: Embedding High Quality and Authentic Work-Based Learning at Scale

    Speaker: Beau Leese, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Practera

    90% of employers would hire a candidate that has engaged in work based learning experiences during college over one who has not. Experiential learning is the key to building students employability – the skills most desired by employers including communication, problem solving and resilience. Providing access to these experiences is a key enabler of inclusion and social mobility. Institutions around the world are making it a strategic imperative to provide more of these experiences to students. The challenge for Career Services is in introducing a portfolio of experiential learning programming that is industry engaged, authentic, quality assured, scalable, accessible and customisable – within budget and resource constraints. For 10 years Practera has been partnering with leading institutions & employers in Australia and around the world to embed digitally enabled, student-industry project learning that meets these challenges. At GCCS 2023, co-founder & co-CEO Beau Leese will share case studies of leading practice using Practera, and key findings from Practera’s research into quality in online project learning across >13,500 student and industry participants.

    10:35 – 12:00  Cultivating Curiosity to Navigate the Unimaginable Future of Work

    Speakers:
    • Karina Jorritsma, Professor of Practice, Future of Work Institute, Curtin University, Perth Western Australia
    • Branden Grimmett, Vice Provost for Career and Professional Development, Associate Dean, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Director of the Pathways Center, Emory University
    • Kathleen Powell, Chief Career Officer, Associate Vice President for Advancement, William & Mary

    The automation of jobs. The democratization of content creation. The need for sustainability. Growing demand for social justice. Political and economic volatility. The emergence of Big Data and AI. A global pandemic. These domains have and continue to disrupt our routines, campus life, and workforce roles. What are the next big shifts and how will they affect the world of work? That is a trick question: no one truly knows! The only certainty is that change is inevitable. It is against this backdrop of uncertainty that this session emphasizes approaches to navigating the unimaginable future while also touching on topics of emerging career competencies for students and career services leaders. This session is designed to build capacity for curiosity around three themes: 1) navigating the unimaginable; 2) preparing students to enter the uncertain; and 3) and future proofing career centers to thrive in ambiguity.

    Suggested Reading: Griffin, M., Chapman, M., Hosszu, K., Orchard, M., Parker, S., Jorritsma,K, Gagne, M., Dunlop, P. (2019). MAPNet: Rethinking Work Skills for theFuture. White Paper for the Future of Work Institute, Curtin University, Perth.

    12:00 – 12:45  Lunch

    12:45 – 13:30  Tree planting in Gordon Square

    13:30 – 15:00  INTEGRATING CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYABILITY ACROSS CAMPUS

    FEATURED SPEAKER: Grant McNeill, Head of Employability and Placements at London South Bank University

    As career services around the globe increasingly look to ecosystem models to increase both the scale and depth of student preparation, great examples of career services integration on campuses are both emerging and becoming more established. This session will explore ways that career services can integrate more broadly and deeply with the academic curriculum, use technology and data systems to facilitate integration, and consider additional factors such as physical space that can enhance integration.

    This session will highlight a case study from the LSBU Careers Hub that developed a pilot with Computer Science and Informatics based on new strategic principles of identifying low performing GO areas, identifying the demographics of students most at risk and targeting interventions. This included embedding employability into the curriculum and using digital solutions to enhance delivery. This area has now seen a 28% increase in graduate outcomes.

    15:00 – 15:15  Coffee/tea break

    15:15 – 15:30  Welcome from Professor Wendy Thomson CBE, Vice Chancellor of The University of London

    15:30 – 16:15  Tech Talk and Career Services Closing Session

    Speaker: Nicky Garcea, Co-Founder, President and Global Clients, Cappfinity

    As employers look ahead to attract and retain talent for their intern and graduate roles, they are faced with a cohort of applicants globally that have had an educational experience like no other. Post Covid the full impact on this generation of students is only just being fully realised and our collective learning on how to respond is evolving. Two global themes that seem almost inescapable are mental health and reduction in skills confidence.

    This closing session will cover:

    • Candidates’ perception of their skills
    • Employers’ movement to skills-based hiring
    • Employers’ approaches to increasing candidate confidence through preparation and transparency
    • Identifying the skill-for-skills

    The closing session will provide participants with 15 minutes to evaluate ways to collaborate and scale candidate skills identification and development.

    16:15 – 16:30  Wrap up & Announcements

  • Thursday March 16

  • Employer Insight Day – in partnership with ISE

    Join our partner, the Institute of Student Employers and colleagues at Abbott, Enterprise, Amazon, HSBC, Uber, Skyscanner, Haleon and EY as we discuss some of the more challenging issues facing universities and employers in the recruiting and development of early career talent.

    09:00 – 09:45  Global Insights Into Early Talent Labour Markets

    Begin the day with insights into the global early talent labour market as two leaders in the field, Bryan Quick, Abbott and Stephen Isherwood, ISE, discuss the challenges across multiple geographies, multiple sectors, and multiple employers. Learn about the key themes and goals of a day of conversations about the challenges and opportunities in college recruiting.

    09:45 – 10:30  Salma de Graaff, VP/CHRO at Skyscanner

    How HR Leaders add value for people to thrive

    What Keeps a CHRO awake at night? What does it take to lead a team working internationally? What are the emerging trends that will affect the HR Landscape in the next 5 years. In this session Salma DeGraff will discuss how HR leaders add values to ensure organisations create a culture where people can belong & thrive.

    10:30 – 10:45  Coffee/tea break

    10:45 – 11:25  EDI: A Global Imperative

    Discussion of how companies and organisations create and implement diverse and equitable recruiting practices and inclusive work environments. How does a moral imperative to create equitable practices translate into a strategy aligning with business needs? How do practices differ within countries, regionally, and globally? What is the balance between implementing company strategies globally versus individual yet connected regional initiatives? How can colleges and universities both support these initiatives? Learn strategies and challenges regionally and globally.

    Panel:
    • Bob Athwal, Culture & Belonging Director, Skyscanner
    • Ashley Hever, Assistant Vice President/Director, Talent Acquisition – Europe, Enterprise Holdings
    • Tiffany Noeske, Sr. Talent Acquisition Manager, Strategic Initiatives – Europe, Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, Abbott

    11:25 – 12:00  Small Group Conversations

    • How can we develop talent equitably and globally, given different cultural norms and expectations?
    • What are the expectations of students and colleges in the development of EDI initiatives within corporate environments?
    • How can colleges support employer initiatives and communicate these initiatives to student?

    12:00 – 13:00  The Psychological Contract

    Between reports of layoffs alongside reports of job creation, the employment market continues to be ever-changing. How has the fundamental contract between employers and employees changed, particularly in the early talent space? How can organisations create strategic opportunities for development, internal mobility, and retention. How do universities balance teaching skills necessary for initial post graduate success with qualities needed for long-term career progression. What are specific strategies that can increase connections between employers and employees?

    Watch the video in advance of this session.

    Panel Moderator
    Panel
    • Marie Artim, Vice President, Talent Acquisition, Enterprise Holdings
    • Richard Irwin, Global Talent Acquisition Lead – Future Talent and Programmes, Haleon
    • Cath Possamai, Talent Acquisition Director – EMEA – Stores, Amazon

    13:00 – 14:00  Lunch

    14:00 – 14:35 Small Group Discussions

    • How do graduates view the employment psychological contract?
    • What are employers doing differently to train and retain talent?
    • How can universities and employers work together to prepare students for the 100-year life?

    14:35 – 15:30  Strategic Partnerships

    A fundamental part of higher education is to create prosperous outcomes for diverse graduates and a flexible pool of talent for companies and countries. How can universities and employers engage in more strategic partnerships to meet these goals while increasing social mobility. How can we move beyond operational work to create deeper, integrated partnerships that balance scalability with high touch. What are the biggest barriers in engaging both academic and industry leadership? What specific strategies have been successful in the past, and how can engagement be deepened?

    Panel Moderator
    Panel
    • Dawn Carter, Director, Global Talent Acquisition (Talent Coordination & University Programs), Uber
    • Harminder Dhillon, Global Graduate Recruitment and Development Lead, Global Banking and Markets, HSBC Bank
    • Dan Black, Global Leader, Talent Attraction & Acquisition, EY

    15:30 – 15:45  Coffee/tea break

    15:45 – 16:15  Small Group Discussion Questions

    • What are the biggest obstacles to effective university and employer partnerships?
    • What does a great employer and university partnership look like?
    • How can we partner to prepare students for 2030 careers?

    16:15 – 17:00  Best Ideas: Challenges and Opportunities

    18:00 – 20:00  Closing Reception with small plates at Senate House

  • Friday March 17

  • 10:00 – 11:00  Optional:

    Opportunities to tour the career services at University College London, SOAS and King’s College London.