Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Careers Information

Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Careers Information and Employer Liaison Conference: Networks and Networking Engaging with students and employers at virtual events

Virtual Careers Fair – The experience at Bournemouth University Charlotte Haynes Graduate Employment Officer Bournemouth University www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service

Context • Approximately 17000 students across 6 academic schools; (Business and Law, Media, Design, Engineering and Computing, Conservation Sciences, Services Management and Health and Social Care). • One main campus where the majority of students are based and a smaller campus 2 miles away where Health and Social Care and Postgraduate Business School students are based. • The majority of students that attend our events are already at the campus where events are held. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 3

Event Background • One main Careers and Placements Fair and a programme of skills workshops, recruitment days and presentations that run during the autumn term. • October 2009 Careers and Placements Fair 26 -27 October – a two day event with different exhibitors on each day. • October 2009 Virtual Careers Fair 28 – 30 October. • 2009 The first year we ran a Virtual Careers Fair. • Used the Prospects Virtual Fair Product. • Virtual Fair offered free of charge to all of the 90 companies that exhibited on either day of the Careers and Placements Fair. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 4

Why did we have a Virtual Fair? • Offered virtual fairs by a number of providers. • Decided to trial a virtual fair as many other institutions were offering them to their students. • We wanted to see if a virtual fair would be popular with our students and the employers we work with. • It was less costly than running a ‘real fair’. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 5

Overview of our Careers Fair week • Our Careers and Placements Fair was very popular; 90 exhibitors and over 3500 students attended the event over the two days. • Employer and student feedback from the ‘real’ fair was very positive – possibly our best event so far! • The Virtual Fair was not popular with employers or students. • We struggled to get employers to sign up to the Virtual Fair and students told us they would rather attend event in person and speak to employers face to face. • We only managed to arrange one employer-student chat – employers just weren’t interested! www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 6

The Software and our ‘User Experience’ • Purchased and used the Prospects product. • Required a lot of communication back and forth with Prospects to get the product to work the way we wanted it to. • Staff required a substantial amount of training to use the product and many still found it confusing! • System was slow and sometimes broke down. • Staff spent a lot of time answering questions from employers who were also confused how to use it. • Not as user friendly as it could be. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 7

Employer Opinions & Comments • ‘We’re coming to your fair so we’ll see students there – we don’t need to attend a virtual fair as well. ’ • ‘We prefer to see students face to face. ’ • ‘We haven’t the time and resources to set up a virtual fair account and have someone available for a chat. ’ • ‘We’ve found virtual fairs a waste of time in the past so we aren’t keen to participate. ’ • ‘Our company information is online and in your online fair guide so we don’t think there is a need to have a stand at the virtual fair as well. ’ www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 8

Employer User Experience • Time consuming to set up yet another account – the autumn term is a very busy time! • Users were mainly HR staff not IT staff and often found the system complicated to use. • General feeling that the system was not particularly user friendly or easy to navigate. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 9

Students Opinions and Comments • ‘I prefer to meet employers face to face and ask questions to them directly. ’ • ‘I’ve already been to the fair and I don’t have time to look at a virtual one. ’ • ‘There are hardly any employers exhibiting at the Virtual Fair – it isn’t worth taking part. ’ • ‘The ‘real’ fair has a great buzz and you get freebies; the atmosphere isn’t the same at a virtual event. ’ • ‘It’s time consuming to set up yet another account at the university – I’ve already got loads. ’ www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 10

Student User Experience • BU students aren’t used to the Graduate Employment Service providing an online or virtual service – they have to come into the service for appointments and to book events so the Virtual Fair was completely new to them. • Didn’t seem to feel that the event added any value to what they were already eligible for from our service. • General feeling that the system was not particularly user friendly or easy to navigate. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 11

So why wasn’t it successful Main Factors • We only run one Careers and Placements Fair which our students do attend and is very popular. • The majority of BU students are on one main campus and therefore don’t have problems attending ‘real’ events. • The software we used to run the event didn’t turn out to be as user friendly as we hoped – staff, employers and students all reported problems. • Employer time constraints • Virtual Fair Event Timing? www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 12

What next? • Very glad we’ve tried it but its not something that’s suitable for BU at the moment. • Decided to concentrate on ‘real’ careers events rather than virtual ones. Hopefully we will be able to run more careers events on campus during 2010 -2011. • We may consider a Virtual Fair again in the future but only if there is a lot of interest from both students and employers. We will also spend more time evaluating the different products on the market. www. bournemouth. ac. uk/careers Graduate Employment Service 13

Virtual Career Events the Ulster experience Seamus Mc. Conomy Work Experience Development Officer

Connecting Ulster students Excellence through Work Experience § 6 Faculties across 4 campuses § The largest course provision on the island of Ireland § 14, 500 full-time undergraduate students § Over 48% of undergraduate Graduates get recognition from the University for Work-Based Learning.

Career Development Centre on-campus events § Careers & Placement Fairs: October on 3 campuses § Construction Placement Fair: November on 1 Campus. § Nursing Fair: April on 1 campus § Northern Ireland Graduate Recruitment Fair: June on 1 campus § Employers on campus: lectures, trade stalls, forums § Work Experience Week: February across all 4 campuses.

Aim for Virtual non-campus event § Co-ordinate a connection with all students on all campuses § Trial new approaches to raising profile of work experience § Take account of students who would not be on campus on one particular day § Use technology to deliver services § Present flexible options for resource- and time-poor work experience providers

Recommendation from non-campus event 2009 § 3 -day virtual event is still a 3 -day activity; expect resource demand over 3 days. § Appropriate management information for evidence of service delivery to all students on all campuses. § Positive and negative anecdotal feedback from work experience providers during the initiative. § Limit chat facilities to guaranteed engagement. § Incorporate a Fair at the Jordanstown Campus blended with a Virtual Work Experience Fair accessible by registered Ulster students.

Recommendation from blended event 2010 § A series of small information / engagement days across all campuses suits institutional need § Overarching virtual presentation of fair on Career Development Centre web (2. 0 framework): o Student and Exhibitor registration o Interactive Advice provided by Career Development Advisers o Searchable vacancy listings (local, national and international) o Application and interview link to Ulster. Grad. NAV o Personal Development System CV builder link o Registrant feedback and reporting

Ulster experience 2008 - 2010 § Planning and Promotion in the virtual arena is important § Low student engagement with a virtual event can be as frustrating as at an actual event. § Collect management information: o o exactly who attended (exhibitors and students) how many hits on the website, at what time? archive transcripts from chat events / interactive advice standardised feedback from participants § A blended approach offers alternatives to a greater amount of students.

Ulster experience 2008 - 2010 contd § Manage the technology in-house – don’t expect employers to register themselves or undergo training § Maximise use of existing online resource which is familiar § Our opportunity to try something completely new is now passed – building current practice. § Continue to search for a suitable “suite” of products and services which collectively deliver blended connection.

Connecting students and employers online – The OU experience AGCAS CIEL Conference 2010 Wendy Woolery Open University Careers Advisory Service

The issues for the OU • The differences • The similarities • The challenge of working with employers as a distance learning university So how can we connect students to employers in a different way?

Our solution: Online forums • • How do they work? The technology used Access to the forums Benefits to students and employers So what did we do and how did we do it?

First Steps • • • ‘What Employers Want’ forum in 2008 Which employers we used How it worked Statistics Feedback from students and employers

Follow up • • • ‘Public Sector Employers’ forum in 2009 Which employers we used How it worked Statistics Feedback from students and employers

Conclusions and way forward • Overall conclusions and what we learned from doing the forums • What we plan to do with forums in 2010/11 • Other ways to use technology to engage employers and OU students in the future

Any questions? Wendy Woolery – w. woolery@open. ac. uk

Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Careers Information and Employer Liaison Conference: Networks and Networking Engaging with students and employers at virtual events