This 1-Day conference will be held at Inmarsat Conference Centre, City Road, London, EC1Y 1AX
PROGRAMME
09:30 Registrations, Refreshments and Exhibition
10:00 Welcome and Introductions — Bob Athwal, Chair of the AGR Graduate Development Task Group and Graduate Schemes Manager, RWE npower
10:15 What makes a successful executive/senior manager in leading organisations now and in the future?
What are businesses recruiting and developing talent for? What is the end game, who succeeds, who fails, how can we prepare people better and set the right level of expectations? What makes a successful business leader at a time when the business world is undergoing lots of change? What are the differentiators for people who ‘go all the way’?
Robert Ingram, Vice President and Human Resources Director at Capgemini Global OS, has responsibility for 25,000 people worldwide. He hires executives, manages the executive community of VPs and runs the talent management programme so he is ideally placed to set the scene and stimulate debate at our conference.
10:50 Comfort break
11:00 Workshops
WORKSHOP A
Student Development Schemes in Higher Education: a natural precursor to graduate development programmes or an eventual replacement required by industry? Paul Blackmore, Director, Centre for Employability, Enterprise and Careers, University of Lancaster.
This session will discuss the practical response that Universities can provide in ensuring graduates have the behavioural and process skills currently demanded by employers, intermediaries and Government. To help inform discussion a case study will be provided of some of experiential learning and development programmes being delivered that have contributed to Lancaster’s meteoric rise in the national graduate prospects league tables. The programmes are designed to allow students to ‘observe, recognise, acquire and articulate’ the key competencies assessed by graduate recruiters and ensure they are able to manage their own future learning and development needs. The programme is the first of its kind to be made compulsory for all undergraduates.
During this session the following issues will be discussed:
- The value of these programmes to students and employers
- How employers can engage with these programmes and maximise the benefits to be gained from their direct input
- How these programmes can be customised for specific sectors
- How individual learning experiences can be measured
- Their appropriate positioning as a natural precursor to graduate development programmes (GDP)?
- When is the ideal time to run these prgrammes?
- Limitations of this approach from both the University and employer perspective
- The potential of these programmes to act as partial surrogate GDP for those employers without graduate HRD functions or for those looking to make efficiency savings in related areas
Paul Blackmore has been Director of the Centre for Employability Enterprise and Careers (CEEC) for the past 5 years. In that time he has introduced a range of careers education, employability, enterprise skills and employer services considered to be some of the most innovative in the higher education sector, many of which have received acclaim in national awards for best practice. This provision has helped Lancaster University rise from the bottom of league tables for graduate-level employment to become No.1 in the North of England (Sunday Times University Guide 2010) and 13th in the UK. CEEC is also the only careers service in the world that provides Human Resource services to over 25 multi-national nuclear energy companies through the industry’s ‘nucleargraduates’ graduate development programme. The programme is the highest new entrant in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list. Paul is the Chair of the national Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Task Group, convenor of the EAIE Executive Forum for ‘Developing Employer-Engagement Strategies’ and frequent speaker on such issues across Europe.
Kirsten Williamson is Managing Director of Petrus Communications which she founded in 2002. Petrus Communications is an award winning recruitment marketing and research consultancy, working with companies and universities world-wide on graduate recruitment and employability projects. Areas of speciality include: Graduate Recruitment Communications: strategy, design, implementation; Market Research with students, academic institution staff and alumni; Implementing Campus Events World-Wide; Higher Education Marketing; Set-up and development of Institutional Careers Services; Alumni Programme Development and Implementation. Kirsten is board member of EMPLOI within the European Association of International Education. http://www.petruscommunications.com
WORKSHOP B
Running a profitable graduate development programme — John Gillard, Graduate Programme Manager, Capgemini
The primary focus of many businesses is to deliver a profit and the Technology Services graduate programme at Capgemini is no stranger to this strategic approach. John Gillard is charged to ensure that each month graduates and the programme overall deliver a profit to the business. In this session, John will discuss how this is implemented and measured along with answering such questions as; are the fees generated by the graduates greater than the monthly business unit costs? And if so, has it achieved the profitability required?
By consistently delivering his primary objective John is able to focus on the more familiar territory of developing the graduate community. John will share how he manages the programme by making the best use of the limited resources he has available. He will describe how the programme prepares the graduates for a successful career in consulting. John will explain how new energy is released at the end of the programme enabling the graduates to really see that they are taking a step up the ladder.
During this session, John will share ideas relating,
- Managing the Key Stakeholders — Graduates and Management.
- Encouraging change from within — Making the graduates responsible for delivering key elements of the programme.
- Empowering graduates — it’s their career, not ours.
John Gillard leads Capgemini’s Technology Services graduate programme and he is passionate about it. His background is not HR, nor Learning & Development. Capgemini is one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. It work’s with many of the world's leading organisations in both the public and private sectors.
WORKSHOP C
50 great graduate development ideas - Anne Hamill, Managing Director, and Scott Hobbs, , Talent & Potential
Giving you the best strategies we’ve come across, to ensure that your graduates survive, grow, and drive successful internal careers — even in a recession.
- What ideas have worked in terms of scheme design, imprinting graduates at induction, and development targeted at specific graduate needs?
- How can you get graduates to be self-directed in making the most of scheme opportunities?
- What do you need to do to help graduates take control of their careers and stay with you — even if the normal opportunities appear to have dried up?
Anne Hamill is an expert on creating self-directed attitudes, and effective career management. She carried out research into the most successful graduates in 6 organisations, 3-7 years into their careers, and has designed graduate schemes in many sectors — financial services, manufacturing, retail, travel, public health, voluntary sector, and government agencies.
Scott Hobbs has held the practical responsibility for technical and leadership graduate schemes and also the whole talent pipeline of a large organisation. From being a graduate in a temp job, in 4 years he successfully drove his career to become the youngest of 1400 senior managers in a company of 40,000.
Radical, innovative, cheap, from many sources — we’ve challenged ourselves to trawl through all our experiences to pick out the very best ideas we’ve tried ourselves or seen be successful.
WORKSHOP D
After the graduate programme; sink or swim? — Louis Koonjean, Graduate Recruitment Manager, and Jane Farley-Spencer, Graduate Development Executive, RWE nower
RWE npower undertook an overhaul of their graduate programme back in 2006. From the attraction campaign, to assessment centres, to the graduate development programme through to off-boarding, everything we did and how we did it was reviewed to ensure we deliver the required talent pipeline into the business.
The Real Prospects survey, conducted at the start 2009 gave us the perfect opportunity to gauge how far we have come in a short space of time. Did graduates engage with the training, did they see us an employer of choice and where do they see their future after the graduate programme? The results of the survey have helped us structure the graduate development programme going forward for the class of 2009 as well as set up some key initiatives upon exiting the scheme.
In this session Louis Koonjean and Jane Farley-Spencer will share some of their key successes but more importantly we will be asking the question “What do we need to do in order to ensure that graduates fulfill their potential after leaving the scheme?”
This session will be interactive and require an element of best practice sharing from the participants.
WORKSHOP E
Past, present, future: The impact of external factors on graduate development and maintaining a “business as usual” approach to meet organisational objectives - Steph Ahrens, EMEA Head of Graduate Recruitment, Morgan Stanley and John Morewood, Senior Graduate and Recruitment Development Manager, HSBC
The economic crisis hit hard in 2009. One in four graduate positions disappeared and budgets were slashed, as companies adapted to slowing business flows and an uncertain future. In those particularly challenging times, the spotlight on graduate development has arguably never been more intense. Businesses require their new recruits capable of not only helping them navigate through the downturn, but also with the potential to become future leaders, making it imperative to focus on the activities that are going to deliver the maximum return.
Join this session for an insight into how two leading organisations manage and integrate graduate development into their business strategy year on year. We will explore what and how external factors shape graduate development, reflect on the lessons learnt throughout this journey of unprecedented events and take a moment to explore what we need to do to prepare our graduate development programmes for the rebound.
Steph Ahrens is currently the EMEA Head of Firm wide Graduate Recruitment at Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is one of the largest financial services companies, with a longstanding reputation for excellence on a global scale. In her role, Stephanie is responsible for the overall strategy of identifying, hiring, developing and retaining entry level talent for Morgan Stanley across Europe.
John Morewood currently heads up the emerging talent proposition for HSBC in Europe. HSBC is the world’s local bank. In his role John is responsible for the overall strategy of identifying, developing, managing and retaining entry level talent, be it graduate or non graduate.
WORKSHOP F
Developing global players in a global market — Salma Shah, Founder and Director, Beyond
In today’s global, multicultural and dynamic world understanding how to develop the new breed of global players is critical to achieving high performance and sustainable growth.
This breakout session will explore a range of cultural dimensions of particular importance to developing global leaders and anyone striving to unleash human potential in organisations. For example, exploring the ‘cultural dimension’ (one’s inclination to think, feel or act in a way that is culturally determined, or at least influenced by culture) and ‘intercultural excellence’ (the capacity to work effectively across cultures through an appreciation of cultural differences augmented by an ability to leverage these differences).
This session will be facilitative in style and participants will be asked to share experiences and anecdotes of working in a multi-cultural environment.
Salma Shah the founder of Beyond specialising in inclusive leadership, integrating the cross-cultural dimension into coaching and development, excellence in teams and diversity. With a background of consultancy and business development Salma has a solid track record of working with C-Level, senior management, HR directors and high performance teams in both private and public sector companies.
She has travelled the world working with different cultures in Europe, USA and Asia. Salma is also a keynote speaker. Her style is engaging, interactive and creative, aimed at stimulating attitudinal change and innovation.
WORKSHOP G
Developing graduate leadership capability — Ruari Chisholm, High Performance Development
This workshop discusses the leadership needs of a graduate as they progress through the first few years of their careers.
It will look at ways of combining emotional intelligence, leadership theory and practical application by linking lessons learnt from the business world, military environment and sporting arena to ensure graduate development programmes are equipping graduates with the tools they need to lead themselves, teams and projects in an inspiring way.
Ruari , Managing Director of High Performance Development, has been running graduate development programmes for the last twelve years and will discuss his thoughts and ideas on how companies can deliver leadership and team development skills within their graduate development programme that that will result in more inspired, skilled and loyal leaders of tomorrow.
WORKSHOP H
An innovative approach to graduate development — Bob Clift, Higher Education Programmes, e-skills UK
e-skills UK is a not for profit, Government licensed organization working on behalf of employers to ensure the UK has the technology skills it needs to succeed in a global digital economy. Its work covers software, internet & web, IT services, telecommunications and business change.
The UK government is encouraging UK employers and universities to work closely together for the overall benefit of UK plc. At the same time employers are looking for graduates with better employability skills. The ITMB (Information Technology Management for Business) degree programme has embraced these challenges and now has a good number of companies, from global giants to small national companies working collaboratively amongst themselves and with a selected number of UK universities for the common good.
Bob will cover the background to the programme, the challenges faced and the opportunities identified. An objective of the session will be to learn from other employer/university engagement experiences and identify best practice working relationships in this area.
12:00 Lunch and Exhibition
13:00 Repeat Workshops
14:05 Over to You — Facilitated hot topic discussion groups where delegates can reflect on the sessions they have attended and raise issues that perhaps have yet to be discussed. The discussion groups will be facilitated by members of the AGR Graduate Development Task group. Delegates will be allocated to a discussion group in advance to ensure a decent spread of experience and interests.
15:00 Refreshments and Exhibition
15:30 Delivering the Promise! — Perspectives from both the business and the graduates who have completed their training. The panel, including employers and graduates from Centrica, Teach First and Morgan Stanley, will share their experiences and insights with a focus on the key issue of managing expectations. The session will be chaired by Dr Paul Redmond, Head of Careers & Employability Service, University of Liverpool. The employer panellists are Iain Heath (Centrica), Amanda Timberg (Teacher First) and Stephanie Ahrens (Morgan Stanley)
16:15 Closing comments — Bob Athwal
16:30 AGR Graduate Development Awards Ceremony
Bob Athwal will host the announcement of the first ever winners of our new series of awards for best practice in graduate development.
The 5 awards are:
- Strategic Alignment
- Career Management
- Supplier Contribution to the Business
- Graduate Development Preparation in Higher Education
- Graduate Induction
17:15 Drinks Reception
18:00 Depart
Delegate Fee: AGR members £240+VAT / non-members £310+VAT
SPECIAL OFFER: PAY FOR TWO DELEGATES AND REGISTER A THIRD FOR FREE!
Terms and Conditions
- All bookings are accepted on the following terms and conditions:
- All bookings must be made in writing including fax and email bookings
- We reserve the right to cancel an event at our discretion in which case our liability shall be limited to repayment of booking fees
- All notices of cancellation must be in writing to andrea@agr.org.uk
- The following cancellation charges apply
- Within 14 days there shall be no refund
- Within 28 days there will be a 50% refund
- Over 28 days, paid fees will be fully refunded
- You may send a substitute delegate if you are unable to attend without incurring any loss. Please inform us in advance if at all possible.
- Please complete this form and fax back to 01926 623 237, email to andrea@agr.org.uk or post to AGR, The Innovation Centre, Warwick Technology Park, Gallows Hill, Warwick, CV34 6UW
- Confirmations will be sent with an invoice and directions within a week of receipt of your booking form. You will be told which workshops you have been allocated when you arrive on the day.
- If you would like to pay by credit card (VISA, Mastercard or Switch), please call 01926 623 236 once you have booked.
