University training day - June 2024
Innovative Ways to Build Links and Deliver Engaging Sessions for Schools and Colleges
Innovative Ways to Build Links and Deliver Engaging Sessions for Schools and Colleges
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
Arrival refreshments from 9:30am
STEAMhouse
Belmont Row
Birmingham
B4 7RQ
We are pleased to share details of the fourth event in our series of in-person training sessions with you.
This training event will focus on innovative strategies for establishing connections with schools, encompassing pre-event engagement with teachers and careers colleagues, as well as tips for effective on-the-day event delivery.
It has been developed based on feedback from education liaison, widening participation, and outreach professionals who deliver university workshops and host visits from schools and colleges throughout the UK.
Specifically tailored for university practitioners working with schools and colleges, the practical tips also extend to resources as well. All participants will receive their own What’s your strength? ® cards, an award-winning events resource to use during your school and college events.
Participants will hear from leading experts from inside and outside the sector to learn about building links with schools and colleges, and subsequently delivering events students will remember!
This will include tips relating to digital trends, including artificial intelligence, and how practitioners can use this to their advantage, communicating with schools and colleges to arrange events, as well as on-the-day delivery support, including storytelling techniques and strategies to encourage young people to recognise their strengths.
Overall event feedback rating – 4.8 out of 5
Please watch this video taster of our second event in November 2023, at the same location, for a taster of what to expect:
Empowering Young People to Recognise Their Strengths.
Katherine wears many hats. She’s a Mum, Careers Adviser, Trainer, and Founder of What's your strength?®, an award-winning card activity to help people recognise their own skills and qualities. Her desire to make a difference started in her teens and ever since she has worked and volunteered to support young people.
Throughout her career, Katherine’s creativity and innovation has been recognised and celebrated. She has been a case study for the Department of Education and shortlisted for several Business and Education awards. What's your strength?® continues to get glowing reviews and worldwide praise.
This interactive workshop explores how to use a strength-based approach to engage and empower young people. You will discover practical activities to support your work, including What’s your strength?® cards. Hear the story behind the cards and discover how they can be used to empower young people with their self-awareness, decision making, and career planning.
Digital Trends Shaping the Future of Education
With over 15 years of experience in the field of digital marketing and web design, Nathan has focused on delivering university flagship websites and providing advice to forward-thinking senior leaders on how to exceed their organisational targets by creating user-focused, digital-first strategies. His expertise in designing high-profile websites with complex system integrations has made him a respected figure in the industry. Nathan has worked on multiple HEIST award-winning projects, highlighting his commitment to excellence and innovation.
More recently Nathan is focused on helping universities and colleges to make the transition to digital-first prospectuses. Prospectus + aims to help educational brands become more sustainable, and generate strategic recruitment insight.
As a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, Nathan enjoys sharing his insights on digital innovation, transformation, and strategy.
This session provides a glimpse into how emerging digital technologies could revolutionise the educational marketing landscape. It will explore key innovations such as artificial intelligence and personalisation, alongside broader topics such as sustainability and wellbeing.
Attendees will be introduced to the latest trends and their applications, showcasing the opportunities these technologies present for personalised marketing, creating immersive learning environments, and finding common ground with the next generation of prospects.
Simon has over 15 years of experience in the education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at four different universities in the UK.
Simon is the Head of Community Engagement at Pickle Jar Communications, a content strategy consultancy for the education sector. He helps schools, colleges, and universities share their stories through digital communications.
Simon is an international speaker. He has spoken at a variety of conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, FindAUniversity, HELOA, HighEdWeb, SU Digital, and Utterly Content. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023.
As a published author, Simon is particularly interested in storytelling in the education sector. He spends his free time reading, writing, running, and finding new ways to make his children laugh.
24 Ways to Improve Your Readability in 2024
Readability is accessibility. Written content with high readability greatly benefits our audiences. But readability best practice isn't always followed in the education sector. It is a training need often overlooked by universities and colleges.
This session offers a foundational course in readability. You will discover 24 simple ways to make your emails, web pages, printed literature, and social media posts more readable and (therefore) more accessible.
We will explore capitals, clauses, and colour. We will discuss sentences, sizes, and sub-headings. We will investigate alignment, acronyms, and alt text. Let 2024 be your year for readability.
Engage Your Audiences with the 7 Basic Plots of Storytelling
Stories are like a magic lamp. They have the power to make our wishes come true. A strong narrative can inspire our audiences to do anything: engage, attend, apply, accept, enrol.
We need compelling stories. But where do we start? Why not start with the basics? This session will provide an overview of the seven basic plots of storytelling so we we can craft stories that will excite, engage, and educate our prospective students and their supporters.
Podcast Power: Tips for Guest Appearances and Podcast Creation
Jon is the Founder and Director of UniTasterDays Ltd. He has spent a career working in higher education, working for over ten years with three universities, followed by schools throughout the UK with UniTasterDays, which Jon established in 2012 to support effective school and college university engagement.
Jon is a huge advocate of university guidance and has been published by organisations including Which University, The CDI and National Careers Week. He is a regular speaker at teacher and adviser conferences and works very closely with schools and colleges – including the delivery of independent university workshops. Jon is the Host of The Uni Guide Podcast and the One in Five Podcast.
Jon will deliver a short session, using his experience as the host of two podcasts, to provide tips for attendees interested in featuring on a podcast, or perhaps even developing their own!
"I have never left a training day so inspired and excited to use what I have learnt in my job. Each speaker was knowledgeable, interesting with practical activities that we could take away to better how we work. I would attend another UniTasterDays training in a heartbeat!"
"Fantastic range of speakers and overall a fantastic day"
"This was such an insightful event, learning from some incredible speakers!"
"I felt motivated to start making changes as soon as I was back at my laptop!"
"Fantastic day with engaging sessions, I learned plenty of new skills to take back to my role"
"Wonderfully engaging speakers and I went away with a full notebook of knowledge and tips for engaging young people!"
"An inspiring day, I look forward to sharing all the great tips with my team. Thank you for a brilliantly organised day."
"The training day was so useful. We had amazing speakers and we learnt a lot."
In addition to an exciting agenda packed with informative sessions, we are pleased to offer networking opportunities throughout the day, including designated times for arrival, morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch and a complimentary (and optional) "after-show" drinks reception as well.
Tailored to the specific needs of university practitioners working with schools and colleges, this event features audience-focused sessions that have been designed to address the unique challenges you may encounter in your role.
This event will not be recorded, so it is a unique opportunity for you to attend and gain insights from the esteemed experts in a delightful location.
This training day is ideal for university practitioners working with schools and colleges. This includes colleagues working within university networks, such as the exceptional Uni Connect programme. If you are a university staff member and your responsibilities involve delivering activities for schools and colleges, this event is tailored specifically for you.
The content will suit both new and experienced practitioners and it will have an event delivery focus.
The event will be held on Tuesday June 4th. Arrival refreshments will be provided from 9.30am and sessions will finish at 4:15 pm. Additionally, there will be a drinks reception from 4:15 pm to 5:15pm for those who are able to stay to enjoy a drink and a final networking opportunity before travelling home.
The cost is £300 per delegate, with discounts available for booking multiple places. Please see the booking form for the group prices. All prices are subject to VAT.
The event is situated in the stunning STEAMhouse building, located in central Birmingham, 10-15 minutes from Moor Street Train Station (closest) and Birmingham New Street Station - and with reasonably priced car parking near by, bicycle storage and even a shower on-site!
The STEAMhouse building was initially constructed in 1899 as the headquarters for the Eccles Rubber and Cycle Company, later repurposed to produce linen clothing, bedsteads, and pianos and now utilised by Birmingham City University and regional businesses, following extensive redevelopment.
We’ll be updating the event information as we get closer to the event, but if you have any questions, we’d be happy to help! Email our Support Team or call 01746 769269.
