1. AGCAS Scotland
AGCAS Scotland Biennial Conference 27 & 28 June 2012
Biennial Conference
27 & 28 June 2012
IMPACT
AND
ENGAGEMENT
Inside Page
Introduction
Linda Murdoch 2
Welcome to St Andrews
Paul Brown 2
Member service updates 3
Graduate Prospects 4
College of Law 5
Day 1 6/7
Day 2 8/9
Ernst & Young 10
Enterprise 11
Our supporters
The University of St Andrews Careers Centre Team welcomes you to St Andrews.
Map of St Andrews 12

2. Page 2 AGCAS Scotland
Linda Murdoch
Convenor, AGCAS Scotland
Colleagues
I am glad to welcome you to our conference. The Management Committee have put together a programme to
help us grapple with some of the big issues we face. As well as getting some expert opinions on working with
employers and making an impact, we are here to share your ideas on these issues. Many of you will be
preparing for Matrix and/or thinking about how you can best influence your senior management. We hope you
will use this opportunity to get some fresh insights. We have built in long lunch breaks so you have time to chat
with colleagues (as well as let your hair down at the ceilidh!)
In the past two years, the Management Committee has raised its game on a few fronts. We have delivered some
successful Scottish Government projects: Virtual Fairs in Greater China, and this autumn, for the first time,
North America; the Workplace Experience Project for International students and the TalentScotland Graduate
Placement Programme. These are firsts for AGCAS Scotland and they demonstrate our forward thinking as well
as our belief in the efficacy of sharing our services and expertise.
We feel that our influence with the media has been enhanced considerably. We are regularly contacted by
newspapers and other media to ask for our opinion on graduate employment and have managed on occasion to
gain some influence over the often negative reporting that this subject attracts. Notably too, we have
consolidated our relationships with Government through our diligent project management.
Last but not least, our website is fast becoming one of our most important assets in our goal of sharing what we
do best. We have put in place plans to enable employers to post vacancies for graduates on the new Graduate
Careers Scotland website. Success in this will enable us to attract more employers not just to advertise to
graduates, but to graduating students as well.
I look forward to seeing you in St Andrews.
Best wishes
Linda
Paul Brown
Director, University of St Andrews Careers Centre
Welcome to St Andrews
We are delighted to be hosting a record number of delegates for both days of the 2012 AGCAS Scotland
Conference. What does that reflect? We’d like to think it’s because of the excellent topical programme we’ve
put in place for the two days, and the terrific quality of the speakers who will be addressing the agenda of
employer engagement and impact.
But maybe it’s St Andrews itself… the dinner…the band…and the chance to catch up with colleagues and
friends which have proved to be the irresistible attractions.
Whatever has drawn you here, enjoy yourselves: we hope you will engage with gusto in all the sessions and
activities and that collectively we will emerge as an even stronger Association of colleagues and services.
Enjoy!
Paul

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Updates from our member services
@UWS The Careers Service at UWS, formerly named Employability Link, is now known as the Careers
and Employability Service, comprising Careers, Jobshop and Placement
@Dundee National awards for placements, 6 accredited Careers modules-350 students, DGSA - 81
registrations, temporary employees agency created, 5 Careers Fairs-2000 students
@Napier Edinburgh Napier first university careers service to achieve Matrix accreditation under new
standards #Outcomesmatter!
@OU Videos of careers advisers talking about teaching, plus 17 online forums covering topics such as
disability & IT employers
@HWU Careers advice ranked 1 in Scotland, 3 in UK, 6 world in ISB. Employability one of main
reasons HWU is voted Sunday Times Scot Uni of 2012
@Stirling Growing engagement with students, employers & academics thorough use of social media,
targeted marketing & new events like Workfest, This is Your Life, Lift Off & GradClub
@Edinburgh Big year at Edinburgh - new location, new short appointments, launched Edinburgh
Award, piloted Employ.Ed, Twitter, Facebook and lots more!
@QMU our most significant development is over 50% increased work within the curriculum, reaching
increasing numbers of 2nd – 4th year students
@Abertay What’s new at Abertay? Launched employability award, created employer liaison role,
working closely with student body to develop social media
@Aberdeen Aberdeen has looked to Careers Service to restructure & evolve provision: co-curric
activities including placements, skills awards & career mentoring
@St Andrews Appointed Dr of Chemistry to cover Science & PGR advising; introduced Summer
Internships in Units; major emphasis on LinkedIn; case studies & videos on website; got new Matrix
@GCU Big Careers Day – CV reviews, scheduled cinema shows of AGCAS DVD’s with popcorn, SVS
registration on the day, careers information. Everyone involved. Great success!
@RGUcareers Centralised Student Services, Student Led PG Employability Symposium, Moodle -
Preparing to Succeed, Mock Assessment Centres
@Glasgow 220 work placements +180 guidance coaching appts wkly + 5 recruitment fairs + 3
Q&As + alumni volunteering + WRL + i/national opps posted
@Strathclyde Our mantra has been more with less. Redeveloping our website for generation Y,
changing the timing of careers week and developing the use of Skype and online advice.
Follow us on Twitter.

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Graduate Prospects: A shared service for more than forty years
Graduate Prospects, which this year celebrates its fortieth birthday, is the commercial arm of HECSU (Higher
Education Careers Services Unit), a registered charity owned by Universities UK and GuildHE. Unlike its
commercial competitors, Graduate Prospects is not responsible to a remote body of shareholders but instead
invests its profits in the higher education system for the benefit of all – careers services, students and graduates,
and recruiters.
Every year, Graduate Prospects/HECSU spends between £750k and £1million supporting careers and
employability activities in the sector. Our sister agency UCAS gets students into university. We help them to
leave equipped with the skills and knowledge to enter the labour market or go on to further study. Online and
on-campus, generations of students and graduates have relied on Prospects for advice, guidance, jobs and
courses.
We are delighted to be sponsoring AGCAS Scotland Biennial at St Andrews. Chief Executive Mike Hill and
Business Services Manager Chris Rea are attending the conference and will be delighted to talk with you about
the ways in which Graduate Prospects/HECSU can support and assist colleagues in Scotland.
Prospects Net in Scotland
A significant expression of our commitment to the sector is the free provision of Prospects Net Vacancies and
Events modules to higher education careers services in the UK and Ireland. Prospects Net powers the vacancy
boards of the great majority of careers services in Scotland and it is the backbone of the Scottish Shared
Vacancies Service.
PIPs – Prospects Planner and My Prospects relaunch
This year’s big development is the complete overhaul of Prospects Planner and our student and graduate
membership registration service, My Prospects. This has been achieved within the Prospects Integration and
Personalisation project (PIPs) which has been undertaken by Graduate Prospects/HECSU in collaboration with
careers service colleagues.
Prospects Planner has been placed at the heart of students' preference selections. Students will be able to build
their own version of the Prospects site, tailored to their individual aspirations and requirements and capable of
effecting two-way communication with recruiters. And careers services benefit too: all Prospects Net careers
services will have a presence on their students' My Prospects pages.
Careers services are our most important partners and we are delighted to be able to bring this fantastic
product to the market – we know that it will offer a superior service to your students and graduates and enable
you to carry out your work even more effectively.
Other news
 We are currently rolling out the Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) to universities. HEDD is
a national degree verification system and a shared service under the University Modernisation Fund. It is
designed to help universities save money on the time they spend verifying qualifications and discouraging
CV fraud. Find out more at www.hedd.ac.uk
 Futuretrack, the longitudinal survey that has followed the fortunes of a cohort of graduates that started
university in 2005-06, finishes this year. The latest Futuretrack reports are available at www.hecsu.ac.uk

5. AGCAS Scotland Biennial Conference 27 & 28 June 2012 Page 5

6. Page 6 AGCAS Scotland
Day 1 – Wednesday 27 June: Employer engagement
10.00 Registration (Tea / Coffee & Pastries)
11.00 Welcome to St Andrews – Paul Brown, Director, University of St Andrews
Careers Centre
11.15 Keynote Speaker: The Challenges Facing Graduates Seeking
Employment – Carl Gilleard (CEO AGR)
11.45 Round table discussion
Carl Gilleard 12.15 Feedback session
Keynote Speaker
12.30 Networking lunch and exhibition
14.00 Employer Panel: discussing themes from morning
Enterprise Rent-a-Car – Mark Darley; PwC – Caroline McLaren;
Teach First – Charlie Kennard
15.00 Review of AGCAS Scotland’s achievements – Linda Murdoch,
Deputy Director, University of Glasgow Careers Service
Workshops: 15.30 and repeated again at 16.15
 University of Aberdeen: Employer Engagement using an
Institutional Approach
 AGCAS Scotland and Graduate Prospects:
Recent IT Developments
 University of Glasgow: Employer Engagement
17.00 End of business for Day 1 (free time for staying guests)
19.00 Drinks reception at the Best Western Scores Hotel,
76 The Scores, St Andrews
19.30 Dinner and ceilidh with The Cutting Edge
Scotland’s rockiest Ceilidh Band

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Today’s keynote speaker
Carl Gilleard
Carl was appointed chief executive of AGR in June 1998 following nine years as the Executive Director for METRA
Services Ltd, a national recruitment consultancy charged with improving the recruitment and retention of graduates into
local government. He was also joint regional director of the West Midlands Employers Organisation. The earlier part of
his career was spent in Education Management and Personnel Work. He is co-author of 'If Only I'd Known' published in
2002 as a resource for young people to help them maximize the benefits of their higher education experience. More
than 60,000 copies have been ordered by schools and colleges throughout the UK.
Carl is, or has until recently been a member of the following:
 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Developments Counselling and Career Management Forum Advisory
Group
 QAA Code of Practice on Careers Guidance Working Group
 Careers Boards at the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham
 The Harris Review of the Higher Education Careers Service
 ESECT - the Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team
 UUK/SCOP Burgess Steering Group on Measuring and Recording Student Achievement
 Higher Education Funding Council for England's Quality Assurance Framework Review Group
 UNIAID - a charity with the aim of helping students manage their finances better
 University of Reading's Career Management Skills Steering Team
Carl is frequently quoted in the national and trade press, is regularly interviewed on national television and radio and
has spoken at conferences in Mexico, United States, Australia, South Africa, Denmark and Holland on graduate
recruitment and development issues. Carl co-ordinates the Education, Training and Development Task Group within
AGR.
Workshop summary
University of Aberdeen: Employer Engagement using an Institutional Approach
This workshop focuses on our institutional approach to strengthen and widen the University of Aberdeen’s links with
professional bodies, graduate employers and community stakeholders and explores how we are implementing the
following directive from our recent curriculum reform project: “In part to assist with employer engagement and the
development of graduate attributes and the co-curriculum, each programme or group of cognate programmes should
have an advisory group with external representation from alumni, employers and community stakeholders, as
appropriate.” The workshop will explore the challenges of establishing and developing a coherent set of programme
advisory groups across the University of Aberdeen. In this interactive session participants will undertake an employer
engagement card sort and engage in small group discussions before feeding back their findings to the presenters.
AGCAS Scotland and Graduate Prospects: Recent IT Developments
Paul Brown will introduce and Waleed Akram will illustrate the new Graduate Careers Scotland (GCS) website and the
related changes to the AGCAS Scotland website. The rationale for the proposed vacancy hosting on the GCS site will be
explained as well as enhancements to the virtual careers fair (VCF) software. Chris Rea, Business Services Manager at
Graduate Prospects, will speak to the GP products which are delivered to AGCAS services in Scotland (Pnet, SVS and
VCF) as well as new product developments such as the integration of My Prospects, Prospects.ac.uk, Prospects Net and
Prospects Planner, also known as the PIPs project.
University of Glasgow: Employer Engagement
The University of Glasgow is adopting some different ways to work with employers to get the most out of what they have
to offer our students. Our 'Employability Boot Camp', 'Interview Academies' and 'The Wee Conference for Arts Students'
are just a few of these. In this session we aim to showcase our range of events and how we set them up. We will also
look at strategies for ensuring that the way we work with employers meets the needs and expectations of all our
stakeholders.

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Day 2 – Thursday 28 June: Impact Measurement
09.30 Registration for Day 2 delegates only (Tea / Coffee)
10.00 Welcome back and introduction to Day 2 – Linda Murdoch, Deputy Director,
University of Glasgow Careers Service
10.05 Keynote Speaker: How to Make an Impact – Jamie Feilden
(Jamie’s Farm) www.jamiesfarm.org.uk/
10.45 Tea / Coffee
Jamie Feilden 11.00 AGCAS Impact Agenda: Anne-Marie Martin, AGCAS President
Keynote Speaker
11.45 Round table discussion
12.15 Feedback session chaired by Anne-Marie Martin
12.30 Lunch
Workshops: 14.00 and repeated again at 14.45
 University of Highlands and Islands:
Careers Education – networked delivery
 University of Dundee:
The Dundee Graduate Skills Award – Progress and Challenges
 University of Edinburgh and University of St Andrews:
Digital Literacy, including social media and LinkedIn
15.30 Closing remarks: summary of conference and looking ahead
16.00 Close of conference
Anne-Marie Martin, AGCAS President

9. AGCAS Scotland Biennial Conference 27 & 28 June 2012 Page 9
Today’s keynote speakers
Jamie Fielden
Jamie graduated from the University of Edinburgh and taught History at Haling Manor School in Croydon from 2003. He
worked in the Teach First office as part of the recruitment team from 2005 to 2009, focusing on the Jamie’s Farm project
during his holidays and weekends. Jamie now manages the farm and charity finance, and is committed to ensuring the
Jamie’s Farm experience is available to as many children as possible.
Anne-Marie Martin
Anne-Marie’s career began in a civil service research laboratory dedicated to the treatment of sewage and trade wastes and
progressed to a public relations organisation dedicated to promoting the consumption of sugar. She joined The Careers
Group, University of London in 1983 and worked at Imperial College for three years before moving to Kings, SOAS and
SSEES and becoming Senior Careers Adviser in charge of the office at Queen Mary University of London in 1988. The
driving force behind the highly acclaimed London Graduate Recruitment Fair, the first graduate recruitment fair to be run
off campus, Anne-Marie moved into The Careers Group headquarters in 1990 to take over the management of income
generating activities before becoming Director in 1995.
The Careers Group, University of London is a consortium that delivers career development and associated services to
Higher Education Institutions and corporate clients across Europe. Its mission is to contribute to the public benefit by
enabling organisations to educate and develop individuals to achieve and maintain career success.
In addition to being the Director of The Careers Group, University of London, Anne-Marie is also President of the
Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services; Board member of the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (HECSU)
and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR); council member of the Association of University Administrators
(AUA); trustee of the Thomas Wall Trust; treasurer of the Triangle Adventure Playground Association; trustee of the
Lambeth Play Association and, most importantly, a supporter of Brentford Football Club.
Workshop summary
University of Highlands and Islands: Careers Education - networked delivery
This workshop will focus on how Careers Services can serve the needs of remotely located students through the use of
technology. Staff from the UHI Career Centre will discuss their development of a ‘networked’ careers service to meet the
needs of students studying at their thirteen academic partner colleges. Specific focus will be placed on the challenges and
opportunities provided by videoconferencing as a mode of delivery for guidance, workshops and presentations. The session
aims to be relaxed, participative and exploratory.
University of Dundee: The Dundee Graduate Skills Award - Progress and Challenges
Since its introduction in 2009, the Dundee Graduate Skills Award has grown significantly in popularity with students and in
this interactive workshop Richard Pool and Kirsty Miller will provide an insight into the Dundee Graduate Skills Award,
why it was introduced and the successes achieved to date. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the
Award and review and assess applications submitted by University of Dundee students. This will be followed by a
discussion on the sustainability of the Award amidst anticipated, continued growth.
University of Edinburgh & the University of St Andrews: Digital Literacy including social media and LinkedIn
In this workshop Darcey Gillie, from the University of Edinburgh, will explore how advisers can build up their own “digital
literacy” and feel confident in using social media as a guidance tool with students. Pam Andrew, from the University of St
Andrews, will provide examples of ways the Careers Centre uses LinkedIn to establish links with alumni to provide
networking and mentoring opportunities for students. A St Andrews student, Lucy Godshall, will share her experiences of
using blogs and Pinterest to build up her career knowledge and promote herself to prospective employers.

10. Page 10 AGCAS Scotland
Ernst & Young is one of the world’s leading professional services organisations, with
over 152,000 people in 140 countries. It turns over US $22.9billion and has
ambitious global growth plans and it has recently been named as the ‘biggest
accountancy firm in Scotland’ by the Scottish Business Insider’s annual review.
Their clients include some of the world’s most successful, innovative and respected
organisations, spanning all industry sectors. Their people understand how
businesses work, and their ingenuity and creativity help anticipate and meet clients’
needs – improving how they work, making vital business decisions and exploring
opportunities. They work globally in four service lines: Advisory, Assurance,
Corporate Finance and Tax.
Ernst & Young’s continued growth and success depend on talented, diverse people.
They seek out driven, ambitious graduates who want a stimulating and challenging
start to their careers. At Ernst & Young graduates can go further, faster, learning
from the experts while working across industry sectors. All this experience is
grounded in world-class training, mentoring and professional qualifications – the first
step on a successful and varied career path.
Ernst & Young has graduate opportunities across the UK including Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. For first and second year degree students there
are Insight Days, the Leadership Academy, Industrial Placements, and Summer
Internships. These programmes improve their employability, let them explore what
it’s really like to work for one of the world’s leading professional services firms –
and offer the chance to secure a graduate job before their final year.
Ernst & Young provides an exceptional foundation in business and is one of the very
best places to start a career.
To find out more and apply go to www.ey.com/uk/careers

11. AGCAS Scotland Biennial Conference 27 & 28 June 2012 Page 11
AGCAS Scotland Biennial Conference 27 & 28 June 2012

12. Page 12
Thank you to our supporters
‘Welcome to St Andrews: University Town & Home of Golf’
www.agcasscotland.org.uk
Artist: Rob Hain