AGR focuses on world-class skills

Despite the gloomy economic climate, a record number of delegates converged recently on Newport's Celtic Manor resort for the Association of Graduate Recruiters' 2008 conference and exhibition, celebrating the organisation's fortieth anniversary year.  ‘Delivering world-class skills' was the keynote theme, approached from a number of different angles, though various other topics also recurred regularly throughout the event - notably the distinctive characteristics of Generation Y, the growing influence of Web 2.0 and social networks, and the huge value of any form of work experience.

Weather lore

As usual, the first big event - on the Sunday evening (July 6^th) - was the TMP Worldwide-sponsored barbecue.  But this year fate, usually kind, was tempted just a little too far.  "Join TMP for what will, almost certainly, be a balmy July evening..." sang the conference brochure.  Oh yeah?  On the date of a dream Wimbledon final, featuring the world's two best players, the last year before the tournament has a roof?  Inevitably the weather was, shall we say, inclement, so the barbecue was held indoors - though a splendid event it was as ever, complete with juke-box style live band.

Forty years on

Following an initial round of conference showcases, AGR chair Terence Perrin welcomed guests from all over the UK and, indeed, many different parts of the world to the event's opening plenary session on Monday 7^th.  He noted that the list of delegates, exhibitors and speakers had again smashed the previous attendance record, with well over 600 people present, and gave special thanks to the Guardian for acting as the event's main sponsor for the fourth year running.  A series of video clips (produced by Here Comes The Boss), featuring comments from past AGR chairs and executives, served to show how just how far the graduate recruitment industry had come over the past forty years - from ‘lunches, nepotism and prejudice' to today's contrasting, highly structured approach.

Skills for the global market

Delegates were then issued with their ‘personal learning logs', introduced by Euro RSCG Riley's Tim Lotherington, before Sir Paul Judge took time off from his many executive and advisory roles to consider ‘What skills our graduates should have in the era of globalisation?'  He began by likening graduate recruitment to internet dating - "both sides inflate their good points and downplay their bad" - before outlining the development of globalisation and noting the huge growth of talent (and demand) from the emerging economies of the east.  Sir Paul stressed the importance of ‘technological savvy' as "a key competence," plus the need for graduates to understand business, cultural and political issues outside their own sphere.  He also outlined the very different set of skills that would be needed to manage the employees of the future: this would entail "leading across a fluid network, in a situation of permanent ambiguity, and still being able to produce results."

Y bother

The Monday afternoon seminar programme provided an interesting range of options.  ‘Generation Y bother?' was the subject of a debate that sought to determine whether this particular generation was as unique as some have suggested.  Work's Graeme Wright and PwC's Sonja Stockton argued against the idea that Generation Y constituted a homogeneous group requiring special treatment, while the University of Liverpool Careers Service's Paul Redmond and Centrica's Yvonne Crew took the opposite view, citing the impact of unprecedented technological and social change on today's young people.  At the first-run debate the audience vote was, diplomatically, judged to be "evenly split" by chair Donna Miller.

Facts and expectations

Guardian Jobs' sales director Helen Bird opened another of the seminars by sharing some top-line feedback from the Guardian's latest Grad Facts survey.  This also served to confirm some of the characteristics of Generation Y - digital natives, environmentally aware, working to live rather than vice versa, but ambitious and determined, as well as relatively outspoken in their views of potential employers.  (With no previous experience of a recession, it will be fascinating to see whether, and if so to what extent, their worldview changes.)  Then Barkers' Andrew Platt-Higgins chaired a panel discussion on whether employers could live up to graduates' expectations.  It was clear that work-life balance - in particular, flexible hours - featured high on graduates' list of priorities, as demonstrated by the survey, but when it came to the much-discussed topic of CSR it was rather less clear that graduates had a full understanding of it, let alone a robust commitment to it in practice.

Going mobile

The Monday business session concluded with a round of ‘showcases,' among which Euro RSCG Riley's Drew Spencer made a convincing case for mobile marketing as ‘the future of recruitment.'  Among other things he noted mobiles' high level of market penetration and unique position as personal, ‘always on' devices, plus the rapid growth of smart phones and the influence of mobile technology on social media.  He then outlined how mobile technology could best be used for recruitment applications in the context of multiplatform marketing strategies.  After this, there was a mad rush to get scrubbed up for the Monday evening drinks reception and gala awards dinner (see separate Ri5 story).

State of the market

Tuesday morning's BBC News opened with a stark warning of impending recession from the British Chambers of Commerce, so it was interesting to learn what impact this might have on graduate recruitment plans.  Launching the AGR's Graduate Recruitment Survey 2008 Summer Review, Trendence's James Patching said that, while last winter's predicted increase of graduate jobs was 16.4%, the actual figure for this year was likely to be closer to 11.7% (still amazingly good, given the current climate).  Next year's expectations are, unsurprisingly, a little less positive than this year's.  Among the many other noteworthy statistics revealed by the survey, more than three-quarters of AGR employers now provide some form of internships, close on three-quarters of employers expect to fill all their vacancies this summer (a slight increase on last year), and graduate starting salaries are likely to rise by an average of just 1.8% this year.  On the issue of employers' predicted skills shortages, it was interesting to note that writing skills came top of the hard skills list (with numeracy skills back in fourth place), while on the softer side the biggest deficiency was seen to be communication skills.

All in the mind

A far more radical piece of futurology came from Baroness Susan Greenfield, a research scientist and government adviser with just the odd twenty-six honorary degrees, who spoke on ‘Tomorrow's people: how 21^st-century technology is changing the way we think and feel.'  Her angle was ‘being human in a world of rapid change,' and she spoke on whether, for the first time in 100,000 years, human minds might be changing significantly in response to technological and other developments.  (Though after the previous evening's exertions, it was clear that not all delegates' brain-cell connections were in the best of order.)  She talked about the effects of today's ‘screen culture' on thinking, in terms of how it affected attention spans and focused on the literal at the expense of the abstract, and stressed the profound importance of creativity - "the apotheosis of the individual."  (This, incidentally, tied in with Sir Paul Judge's earlier observation that "arts develop potential," with creativity "absolutely at the core of the skills required.")

Workshop notes

One of the afternoon workshop sessions looked into how recruiters could take advantage of ‘the fundamental shift in youth attitudes towards Web 2.0 and social networks.'  Presented by The GradRoom's Nick Elliott and Bejant's Glenn Bishop with contributions from Bath student Bokani Tshidzu, this session seemed to do more than most to confirm recruiters' suspicions that Gen Y is indeed the ‘want it all' generation.  Google duo Luke Mckend and Stefan Cataldo then gave an informative session on the practicalities of search engine marketing, covering everything from pricing structures to how to plan, implement and modify a campaign.  In addition to outlining a range of useful tools, they stressed the key importance of analytics to any SEM strategy.

Crisis?  What crisis?

The conference's final event was a panel debate entitled ‘What talent crisis?', expertly chaired by BBC business presenter Declan Curry.  This took in the views of Teresa Sayers of the Financial Services Skills Council, Simon Reichwald of Graduate Solutions and Bright Futures, Dr Jeremy Colwill of the University of Westminster, Adrian Thomas of Network Rail and John May of Career Academies UK.  And while the debate ranged widely, there was no definitive, consensual response to the initial question, despite Declan Curry attempting to revisit it very directly at the debate's conclusion.

AGR chair Terence Perrin then brought the 2008 conference to a close, showing a final video clip to bring the story of the past forty years right up to date.  After leading the usual round of thanks, he finished by announcing the dates of next year's conference (NB: 05-07.07.09) before the annual rush to cars, taxis and shuttle buses began in earnest.