ISE Student Development Conference 2023

Maximise performance, retain all talent, deliver efficiencies. With labour markets and business pressures unlike anything we’ve experienced in recent memory, early talent programmes are now expected to deliver to the organisation’s core people performance strategy.

At this conference, we brought together development professionals from a wide spectrum of employer, education and supplier organisations to focus on themes that focus on early talent transitions from education and into the post-Covid work environment.

The conference agenda was packed with keynotes and breakout sessions that showcased innovative practice and stimulated discussion.

Conference Agenda

09:10 - 09:30

Welcome

09:30 - 10:15: Plenary session

The road ahead: skills for 2023 and beyond 

Josh Mackenzie and Katie Mahony, Development Beyond Learning (DBL) with Hannah Dodds, Deutsche Bank and Anna Champion, Jardine Matheson

This session equips you with trends, insights, and perspectives from a wealth of early talent development data – gained from designing and delivering development programmes for more than 34,000 early talent participants in 52 employers across 11 sectors around the world in the past 12 months.

As a result of this session, you will be able to…

• Benchmark against the ten most common human skills employers include in their development programmes globally,
• Explore three emerging skills to include in you 2023 programmes to maximise return on investment in the current landscape,
• Ask questions to industry leaders across diverse sectors in early talent learning.

For Presentation Click Here

10:15 - 11:00: Plenary session

Building Well-being Habits 

IBM UK Early Professional Programmes: Joel Thomas and Nadir Rizvi

This interactive session will have the dual-purpose of developing Managers’ ability to support Early Professionals through building positive well-being habits, as well as increasing awareness of the importance of Managers’ own habits in shaping their own well-being. The presenters will set the context for our session by discussing the ‘attention economy’ i.e., the competing demands for our attention in a modern and digital society. The session will then draw upon insights and examples from the best-selling book Atomic Habits by James Clear, focusing on habit building techniques and how small steps can lead to big outcomes. Joel and Nadir will conclude by inviting attendees to consider how they can help form positive habits to improve the wellbeing of both their early professionals, and themselves. 

For Presentation Click Here

11:40 - 12:20: Breakout sessions (delegates to choose between the following three options)

Learning agility – the crucial new foundation for your development programme

Rachel Salmon – Senior Consultant, Gradconsult
Camille Charles, Development Advisor, IMI

The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”
Alvin Toffler, Futurist and Author

Learning agility is a key skill your graduates will need in order to continually adapt, pivot and grow in our rapidly changing work environment. It’s also what you need in your talent pipeline to secure the future success of your organisation.

In this interactive and engaging session, we will look at what we mean by learning agility and the component parts that come together to make us agile learners.

We will share a practical model for learning agility that you can use in your organisation, and we will hear from colleagues at IMI about how they have embedded some of the pillars of learning agility in their graduate development programme.

For Presentation Click Here

Early Career Networks: What are they, how are they changing and why should you care?

Katie Scott, Managing Director, Interaction Learning and Development 
Dr Helen Hughes, Associate Professor in Organisational Psychology, Leeds University Business School

With so many of us now working from home, how do we regain the “richness” of professional social networks? 

Employees (and particularly graduates) joining large organisations post-pandemic do not have the same access to (physical) social networks as those who started their careers pre-pandemic. We believe it is in the interests of all employers to understand any new barriers to establishing effective professional networks in the hybrid workplace, where the traditional “watercooler” moments are much less likely to happen, and crucially provide solutions to this challenge.

Interaction L&D in collaboration with the University of Leeds hope to bring you some of the answers in this interactive workshop exploring the challenge set by the "new world" of hybrid working on early career professional network development. We will explore these issues with some real-world statistics and examples from research carried out since 2020.

For Presentation Click Here

How to run multiple programmes with off season intakes

Vanessa Soames, Early Talent Director and Claire Paxton, Early Talent Recruitment & Development Manager, Cognizant

Solutions for when your business asks to change traditional recruiting seasons and start dates for graduate and apprentice programmes.  

This session will run through how Cognizant runs two intakes a year on programme plus develops these multiple cohorts, over 18 months as well as supports apprentices and graduates joining off cycle and off programme.

The session will explore:

• Why our start dates are multiple and out of the traditional season.
• What is in our programme and why.
• Maintaining the culture and EVP from pre-boarding to over 18 months with different intakes.
• The different intake tracks and how we manage that.
• How we track and maintain consistency with only a small team - 3 to look after 113.
• Our top tips any size intake could implement.

12:30 - 13:15 - Plenary session

Keynote: Why is Sleep an Employer’s Business? Sleep as a catalyst and how to harness it

Dr Sophie Bostock, The Sleep Scientist

We all know that sleep is important, but we still compress it with the aim of getting more done. A 2022 YouGov survey reported that 41% of 18-24s felt that tiredness significantly impacted their work; more than any other age group. Change and uncertainty can disrupt sleep at any age, but employees early in their careers are particularly vulnerable to a vicious cycle of stress, sleeplessness and poor mental health.

Employers who cultivate a positive sleep and recovery culture have a huge opportunity to nurture and retain talent, improve performance and productivity. Research shows that good quality sleep enhances learning, decision making, emotional intelligence and job satisfaction.

The question is what employers can do to help?

In this session we’ll discuss

• What’s the cost of poor sleep for student employers?
• How can you create a work environment that supports sleep and recovery?
• How can you embed sleep education within existing programmes?
• What strategies can you use to help you switch off at night?

For Follow Up Actions Click below

Next Steps and Useful Tips

14:00 - 14:45: Plenary session

Bears everywhere: tackling anxiety and supporting early career talent to flourish in their transition to work, and beyond

14:50 - 15:30: Breakout sessions (delegates to choose between the following three options)

The power of VR as a development and insight tool for the next gen of tech talent 

Nicky Garcea, Co-Founder, President, and Global Clients, Cappfinity
Oscar Lyons, Psychological UX Lead, Cappfinity

Big Four Accountancy Firm, EY recognises the importance of entry-level recruitment in driving innovation.  Despite not being perceived as a tech company, EY understands the crucial role of tech talent in solving challenges.  To attract early career tech talent and boost competitiveness, EY embarked on a journey to change its perception from purely an accountancy firm.

Join Cappfinity as they discuss the power of Virtual Reality (VR) as a development and insight tool for the next generation of tech talent.  Including its use in:

• Responding to the drivers of younger talent to engage them in brand and culture
• Showcasing the importance of tech skills in a fun and engaging way
• How to harness the principles of VR through other lower-budget tech solutions (e.g. job simulation)

There will also be an opportunity to hear about EY’s first-of-its-kind VR program for tech interns, ‘The EY Internship of the Future’ and its impact.

For Presentation Click Here

Developing and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce

Jen Adamson, Senior Employer Engagement Manager, Careers and Employability Services, The Open University

Recognising the benefits and complexities of developing and supporting a diverse workforce, this session will allow participants to consider strategies for embedding diversity and inclusion in workplace cultures. This will include considering what diversity means and why it’s important, exploring the positive impact of diversity on staff wellbeing, and how to develop recruitment practices to attract more diverse candidates. 

This interactive session will explore themes covered by The Open University’s Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Badged Open Course, accessible free of charge on the OU’s OpenLearn platform. It will enable participants to share good practice and identify practical next steps and actions to take away. The session will aim to prompt valuable conversation around valuing diversity in the workplace and provide tools to help you to make a real difference.

For Presentation Click Here

Apprenticeships for upskilling and re-skilling of existing staff

Georgia Greer, Head of Insights, ISE; Jess Munt UK Apprentice Lead, Capgemini; Jade Pearson, New Talent Lead, Severn Trent

With the rising use of apprenticeships to tackle skills gaps and develop new skills in existing employees, this session will explore how apprenticeships can effectively be used as a tool for upskilling and reskilling existing staff. We will hear from employers about deploying
apprenticeships for upskilling and reskilling of existing staff, including sharing examples of how they have done this and the lessons they have learnt to help you effectively do this within your own organisation.

For Presentation Click Here

15:45 - 16:30: Plenary session

Forming the Future: Re-imagining Graduate Development from the Ground Up

Johannah MacMartin, Global Head of Talent Acquisition Change, Barclays
Dr Khairunnisa Mohamedali, Chief Innovation Officer, The Smarty Train

Following extensive research into the needs and emerging trends among early talent, Barclays have collaborated with The Smarty Train to completely reimagine their end-to-end graduate experiences.

In this session, they explore how a focus on holistic learning design, line manager upskilling, and innovative learning delivery techniques has led to an entirely new global approach to graduate development at Barclays, impacting over 1,000 graduates, interns and early careers line managers around the world. 

The session will use interactivity, real-life examples and science-backed research to explore the steps taken to design high-impact and cutting-edge global graduate programmes. You’ll learn new tools and thinking to apply to your own early talent programmes, including trend and market scanning techniques, and how to better support line managers of early talent.

16:30 - 17:15: Plenary session

Measuring impact and ROI of Development Programmes

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