The 2009 Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) annual conference will take place at the Celtic Manor, Newport, on 5-7 July and promises to be the most important event of its kind this year. The conference will shed new light on the effect of the recession on graduate recruitment and offer advice to graduate recruiters on how to operate in this Brave New World.
The hotly-anticipated results of the AGR 2009 Summer Survey will be launched on Monday 6 July and will paint a clearer picture of what is happening in the graduate jobs market, focusing on average starting salaries, the number of job vacancies and the number of applications per vacancy.
The results of the Real Prospects survey, the first-ever national survey of new and recent graduates’ real experiences of recruitment, training and career development will also be launched. The Real Prospects survey is the result of collaboration between Graduate Prospects, the AGR and The Guardian.
Key speakers this year include Rachel Elnaugh and Mark Pollock. Rachel is one of Britain’s highest profile entrepreneurs and a former panel member of Dragons’ Den. She will be giving a speech entitled ‘What Tomorrow Holds for the UK Economy and your Business’. Mark is an adventure athlete, author and international speaker and will be drawing on his own life experiences in his presentation, ‘Making It Happen’.
A seminar entitled ‘Hear Here!’ will examine the new Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR) and Aaron Porter, the Vice-President of the NUS, will be taking part in what is sure to be a lively debate between universities and employers around these controversial reforms.
HEARs are being piloted in 18 higher education institutions with the intention to run them alongside the current degree classification system. This session is sure to be of interest to people who want to learn more about the weaknesses of the current system and have their say on the new proposals.
Graduate recruitment has enjoyed a period of steady evolution until now, but the economic climate has changed dramatically in the last year. A seminar called ‘The Darwinian Theory for Graduate Recruitment’ will examine the changes that have occurred, consider how the recession will affect recruitment and propose how recruiters adapt to make the most of the new environment.
High on this year’s agenda is cutting recruitment costs without impacting on the quality of applications. An interactive workshop ‘Re-engineer for the recession’ will help delegates learn how they can do exactly that. The session will explain how recruiters can save money while also maintaining the quality of recruitment and selection and ensuring that diversity and employer branding don’t suffer.
Will desperate times lead to desperate measures?’ will look at what recruiters might expect from the graduates entering the most competitive job market for generations. Graduates’ behaviour is expected to become more erratic and recruiters should be aware of graduates applying for roles that they wouldn’t have previously considered, amongst other things. Evidence drawn from a range of industry sectors will be presented, together with findings from research studies which indicate that the risk of candidates behaving this way is on the increase and how it can be dealt with.
A presentation entitled ‘Campus branding in the recession — not too hot, not too cold: Getting the balance right’ will address the issues surrounding campus marketing. Should employers maintain their current presence on campus and risk the possibility of raising unrealistic expectations? Or should they undo all the benefits of their brand building over recent years by reducing campus presence and potentially disappearing from the graduate? The session will be concluded with a panel debate.
The winners of the 2009 AGR Awards will be presented by Sky TV Broadcaster Vivien Creegor. The categories are: ‘Graduate Development’, ‘Graduate Selection & Assessment’, ‘Graduate Integrated Marketing Campaign’, ‘Literature’, ‘Website’, and new for this year, ‘The Best Employer Brand on Campus Award’. The winners of each category will also be nominated for the Blue Ribbon Award.