Unifrog’s Teacher Conference 2023: what we learned and what to do if you missed out
12th June 2023
At our conference on Thursday 11 May, over 200 teachers and careers advisers from across the UK came together in London.
They shared suggestions for their careers programmes, got in the know on the UCAS reference changes, and took away top tips for using Unifrog. Here’s a sneak peek into what they thought and what they learned…
Who took part?
The day was packed with workshops, demos, and talks for teachers and careers advisers, both from the Unifrog team and from industry guest speakers.
Throughout the day, our team led breakout sessions where teachers and careers advisers chose the sessions most useful to their school or college—from tips and tricks on our Placements tool with Area Manager Kim, to information on our PSHE Pack with our Head of Teacher Content, Kate and Area Manager, Jacob.
‘Everyone seemed really engaged with the tone of the day, asking lots of questions and speaking to many of the exhibitors!’ Jacob Lovick, Unifrog Area Manager
On our Employer Panel, representatives from some of our partners EY, Centrica, and PwC joined us to talk about why apprenticeships could help your students get ahead in the world of work.
‘Students are experiencing a lot of anxiety at the moment around financing their future degrees, leading them to expand their options,’ says Employer Partnerships Manager, Caroline Collins.
‘Something that’s really important to us is challenging the stigma around apprenticeships. Our session highlighted the career progression and benefits of apprentices by bringing together with teachers and careers advisers the employers who have first-hand experience of recruiting apprenticeships.’
On our HE Panel, representatives from the University of Leicester, Lancaster University, and the University of Warwick came together to simplify the new UCAS references process for our teachers.
‘It’s a really tough time for teachers and advisors at the moment as they navigate these pretty significant UCAS reference changes,’ says Jess Wells, Unifrog HE Partnerships Manager.
‘In light of this, we were really keen to create a space where teachers could connect directly with universities. Our panel of university partners expertly shed light on how this will work in practice.’
What did they learn?
We asked our teachers and careers advisers, HE and employer partners, and our team for their favourite takeaways from the day.
‘Networking with Unifrog’s partners has been great. I’ve learned about some new apprenticeship routes, like an opportunity with Bloomberg, and new universities I haven’t come across before. A couple have even said they’ll come along to our careers fair to meet our students.'
Natasha Roberts, Assistant Head of College, Melton Vale Sixth Form College
‘We had lots of great questions from teachers about how to prepare students for the world of work. We’d encourage them to get their students to sign up to our upcoming skills development workshops and to shortlist subjects and pathways, so their Unifrog 'What's coming up' feed shows relevant opportunities to them.’
Caroline Collins, Employer Partnerships Manager
‘It’s been fantastic for us to connect with teachers, especially those outside Yorkshire and The Humber. I’ve learnt that students are now applying more and more to local universities, so talking to schools about how we can achieve our shared objective of getting students to broaden their horizons by applying further afield has been really useful.'
Lauren Cobb, Senior Student Recruitment Officer, Leeds Trinity University
What’s coming next?
‘Extremely useful… will be signing up next year’
Sweta Thakrar, Careers Lead, Royal Grammar School High Wycombe
100% of our teacher and careers adviser attendees said they would attend another Unifrog conference. Registration is now open for our Teacher and Advisor Conference 2024, and we're excited to be holding the same conference in two locations:
- Book your place for Leeds on 16 May 2024
- Book your place for London on 23 May 2024
‘For me, the highlight was watching the networking taking place. Teachers and advisors were having really impactful conversations not just with the employer and university exhibitors, but with one another too!’
Vikki Garner, Head of UK Partnerships
If you’re not yet one of our school, college, employer, or university partners,
- Request a demo here (we'll then set up a meeting with you), or
- Call us on +4420 3372 5991 or email us at info@unifrog.org
You can also find out more about our work with our HE partners here and our employer partners here.