Reflections and insights from three summer conferences

In recent weeks, AGCAS President Paul Gratrick has attended three sector conferences: National Association of Colleges and Employers , AGCAS and Institute of Student Employers . In this blog, he shares highlights and findings from each event.

The conference planning stars aligned for me last month as I attended three conferences across the global higher education careers and employability space. I’m enormously privileged to be the President of AGCAS , and representing members at sector conferences is something I don’t take for granted. I’m also grateful for the understanding of my employer so that I can attend so much in a short space of time. I’m very proud of the reciprocal relationships that AGCAS holds with related organisations in the UK and abroad. Our mutual exchange of conference invitations for Presidents and their equivalents is a great indicator of our collaboration and the joint missions we share.

This blog is a summary of my June conference tour. I’ve gone for a highlight reel approach and noted the various presenters should you wish to look them up and find out more – I’m sure they’d be delighted to hear from you and to discuss their work.

First stop…Phoenix!

Having never been to the West of America, an invite to Phoenix, Arizona for the National Association of Colleges and Employers conference was too good to turn down. With over 2,300 people in attendance, seeing a three day conference of this scale was fascinating. Thank you to Shawn VanDerziel and Stephanie Pallante for your invitation and hospitality. The conference lanyards were also fantastic and the ability to add ribbons according to your background was great, and a fab conversation starter (especially for a nervous networker like me).

NACE Day 1: Given the geography and travel times, the first day is quite relaxed with time built in for exploring, 'first timer' sessions and a chance for conversations with suppliers and sponsors in the exhibition hall. The first day also affords time for the various Affinity Groups to meet up and I headed to the one for colleges of under 5,000 students. Their key challenges are developing faculty relationships, employing students to ease the burden on resources and in bid writing to secure more funding.

There was a keynote at the end of the day from Soledad O’Brien, an American broadcaster who co-anchored CNN's American Morning from 2003 to 2007. She’s had a fascinating career but what stood out was her championing of diversity in university education and admittance, and how the end of race-based affirmative action in US college admittance was a step backwards. Say what you like about the Office for Students here in England, but having a regulated Access and Participation Plan that strives for fair admissions isn’t something to be taken for granted.

NACE Day 2: The second day saw your typical mixture of keynotes and workshops. Of the ones I was able to get to…

Dr Ayman Moustafa from Khalifa University in Dubai talked about his PhD research into career theories and evidenced how one was shown to have more impact on career competencies. If career theory is your thing then definitely look him up! I’m a big data fan, and so Lee Hameroff’s overview of the PowerBI dashboards and staff SharePoint sites that he’s built to share careers data with the wider university community at the University of Connecticut was a highlight. Their quick turnaround of simple data to evidence impact was really strong.

Kiana Pina from Palo Alto College talked about their on-campus welcome and onboarding activity. What really stood out for me was the focus from her career team on budgeting, course credits and financial management as the starting point for their interactions with students. The careers content came later after this initial induction into the world of student finance.

Glenda Darrell and Emily Hoey from North Caroline State University held a great session on confidence building and how their work with students has helped them overcome imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence. Recorded videos from their students talking about the impact that the work has had on their confidence, and where student imposter syndrome and low confidence comes from, were a strength of this session.

The day ended with a ‘NACE Real Talk’ panel designed to have honest conversations about the world of HE careers and graduate recruitment. The standout for me was the debate around micro-credentials and potential to overwhelm students with all the ‘small’ things we ask them to do as part of their career development. Is the level of this ‘nudge theory’ too great to the extent that it’s doing more harm than good? An interesting discussion nonetheless!

NACE Day 3: Generative AI (ever heard of it?) was a consistent topic of discussion at this conference and I was keen for the US view on this topic. Rochelle Cooper and Katie Krikorian from Loyola University New Orleans delivered a pragmatic workshop on this, using ChatGPT live in the workshop to show the power and limitations in the context of careers support. US government departments reject applicants that have used AI in their application, and Loyola use it to help students talk about themselves not as an end goal but a support. They are considering a micro-credential for using AI in the right way.

The final conference keynote was branding expert Michelle Poler and I urge you to look up her 100 fears in 100 days content on social media. It was an inspiring and energetic keynote and the main takeaway for me is that the ‘enemy of success is comfort’. Getting out of your comfort zone can lead to some incredible things and new opportunities. Finally, I attended a workshop on recruitment engagement from consultant Mary Scott. There was so much in her presentation based on research with 18 institutions, looking at what makes students engage (or not) with employers at recruitment events.

A quick stop… Arizona State University

In the conference downtime, I met with my student experience day-job equivalents at ASU, and Lisa Falkner and Jen Bevins were very generous with their time and insights. Despite being 5,000 miles apart, the mutual challenges that ASU and Liverpool face were clear to see. In the context of my day job looking at all thing student engagement and the student journey, their work on identifying early indicators of student success/failure were really insightful.

A pit stop… New York University

My travel home required a brief stop in New York and while there I sought out another day job equivalent at NYU. Bethany Godsoe and Tava Bingham from the NYU Student Life were a delight to meet, in an office overlooking Washington Square Park. Like with ASU, the mutual challenges were clear. What really impressed me about NYU’s work is their pre-arrival survey and communications with new students. The work that goes into honest research and? conversations about concern over making friends really stood out and gave me lots to take back to Liverpool.

To Sheffield! AGCAS Annual Conference

Back in the UK it was time for my final Presidential appearance at an AGCAS Conference. As I said at the top, I feel enormous pride to get to open this event and host the awards ceremony. Head here for the full conference programme with all the speakers and content, and here for the AGCAS Awards for Excellence to read about the winners and all the nominations. I could sadly only attend day one, but of the parts I could get to and with no indication of Presidential preference…

Jamie Betts opened up the ‘future of work’ section with a fascinating look into student use of generative AI in a recruitment context. It prompted some really interesting reflections and discussions around equity of access to digital tools and students' confidence with using them, plus the role for careers professionals in supporting, challenging and guiding use of AI.

I then cheered on the AGCAS Graduate Transitions Task Group as they formally launched as a group. Keep an eye on your ARENA mailer for resources and content from that group.

Anne Wilson’s afternoon keynote about responding to change delivered what it promised and gave an honest assessment of the current landscape before offering hope and solutions for how to navigate this. Anne also received the President’s Medal this year – one of many very worthy winners that evening at the fantastic awards ceremony!

Though I unfortunately missed out on day two, I have heard great things about the keynotes from Rachel McIntosh and Dominique Thompson . Thanks to everyone who made this conference happen.

Final stop! Birmingham for the ISE Recruitment Conference

The first thing I’ll say about this conference is that it used the best conference app I’m yet to see. Extremely gamified but also easy to use, I was very impressed by what it offered. Diary-wise, I could only attend the second day, but of the things I could get to…

Robert Newry from Arctic Shores kept the conversation around generative AI going and their research (freely available) has some really good insights for careers teams to use in their work with students. The genie is very much out of the bottle, but key from this presentation was that in a final stage interview (likely in person), then a candidate who has ridden the AI horse so far may well fall off under scrutiny and in an environment where they can’t call on ChatGPT to help.

Another conference and another task group, and this time it was the AGCAS Employer Engagement Task Group who delivered a marshmallow powered session looking at research findings they’ve jointly discovered from a collaboration with the ISE. Universities and employers have a lot of data, but this isn’t routinely shared and the task group findings prompted a strong rallying call for there to be more action in this area. The always wonderful Clare Beynon also gave a great case study from Enterprise as part of this excellent session.

Hannah Charrington from Wiser gave a sobering but important update on the state of student lifestyles in the context of a cost of living crisis, for example 18% of students are using a food bank (via ONS data). My main takeaway from this session was about formats of ‘pre-employment’ for candidates before their official start date, with the purpose of reducing reneges. The final day ended with a great keynote from Bruce Daisley on the changing nature and attitudes towards work. No resilience training has ever led people to be more resilient was the key message, as being resilient is a shared experience. Bruce kindly linked to his slides which are here Tinyurl.com/isebruce

This conference ended with a glamourous black tie dinner and the ISE Awards. Thank you to the ISE Team and in particular Sarah Hathaway and Stephen Isherwood for your hospitality.

Wander often, wonder always

June was an exciting, inspiring and (sometimes) tiring adventure around the world, and I’m very aware of how privileged I am to have gone to all of these conferences as the AGCAS President, representing members and flying the AGCAS flag across the globe. As my Presidential term ends in December 2024, June was likely my ‘farewell tour’ as the AGCAS President but I hope this blog has given some insight into what goes on at these conferences and sparked some ideas for future collaborations and discovery.

A wonderful part of these events is meetings colleagues old and new, and I’m humbled to have met so many fantastic people and practitioners in the HE careers and employability space during my time volunteering on the AGCAS Board – at just over seven years now! AGCAS has a bright future ahead of it with incoming CEO Martin Edmondson , the AGCAS staff team and the current and future composition of the Board. Until my departing blog in December…have a great summer and start of the next academic year in September.