Matthew Evans Dec 2016

Careers & Employability Service

Opportunities Fair 2016 Report

Matthew Evans Dec 2016

Overview

The 2016 Opportunities Fair was held on Thursday 10th November in the Sports Centre, Treforest. Over 60 graduate

recruiters exhibited at the fair which was attended by over 1,400 students and recent graduates.

The Venue

The fair was held in the Hall of the Sports Centre (Treforest). The Sports Centre is well used by students and

therefore an excellent venue for visitor attendance. This was the second Opportunities Fair to be held in the Sports

Hall following excellent feedback from exhibitors and visitors in 2015. The floorplan was revised to add an additional

8 full sized stands.

Exhibitors

The fair was offered as a free of charge event to employers, and again proved popular with exhibitors and quickly

became oversubscribed. The Careers Team had to stop actively marketing to potential exhibitors in early summer

due to stand limitations. A reserve “stand-by” list was held to manage exhibitor attendance once the event was fully

booked.

Acorn Recruitment Admiral Group plc Airbus Group – Airbus Defence and Space Alert Logic Amazon AmeriCamp Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Axiom Manufacturing Services Bouygues UK BT Group Camp Leaders Capgemini UK Plc CardiffWorks (Cardiff Council) – HR People Services Celsa Steel UK CGI CIPFA Convey Law Crest Nicholson DAS Law Dawnus Construction Deloitte Dezrez Dezrezlegal Dyfed Powys Police Enterprise Rent-A-Car EY Fujitsu GE Aviation Wales General Dynamics GM Financial Government Operational Research Service (GORS) Government Statistical Service (GSS) Hilton Cardiff Hugh James Solicitors IntaPeople Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme Kautex Textron CVS

Kier Construction Legal and General L’Oréal Markes International MotoNovo Finance J Murphy NCC Group Network Rail NewLaw Solicitors NHS Wales Finance Academy NHS Wales Informatics Service NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) – Procurement Services Northrop Grumman (NGC) Office of National Statistics OSTC (Wales) Ltd PCI Pharma Services (PCI) Peacocks PRA Health Sciences Protherics UK (BTG) PwC Qatar Airways Raymond Brown Construction RGB Recruitment Ltd Royal Air Force (RAF) SPTS Technologies SuperStars Tata Steel Target Group The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) University of South Wales Postgraduate Study USA Summercamp Wales Audit Office (WAO) Welsh Finance Conference Welsh Government – Knowledge and Analytical Services Willmott Dixon Construction WRW Construction

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Visitor Marketing

Marketing and promotion of the event was extensive across the University with a mix of digital / online and

traditional print campaigns. The event website was live with full exhibitor information prior to the start of the

academic year and a buzz was built over the six week period from the start of term to the event through a steady

feed of news items, plasma screens, online promos, direct emails and social media. Hard copy programmes were

distributed hand to hand and via academic colleagues from two weeks prior to the fair.

Matthew Evans Dec 2016

Matthew Evans Dec 2016

Preparing Students for the Event

Ensuring that student visitors were properly prepared to engage with employers at the event was a key priority. Key

information on the event was developed before the start of the Autumn Term and published on the event website,

including details of exhibitors and their opportunities.

A new “Guide to Making the Most of Careers Fairs” was produced and embedded in the event website:

In the run up to the event “Prepare for the Fair” workshops were delivered as part of the Careers Programme and

piloted within the curriculum in several subject areas. The sessions helped students to research exhibitors, shortlist

employers to target and develop their “Elevator Pitch”.

These sessions were very effective and could be rolled out to other course areas in 2017.

Matthew Evans Dec 2016

Visitors

The event was attended by over 1,400 students and graduates. The CareerHub “I’m Here” Ap was used and students

were scanned on entry using the RFID chips in their student cards or via the student number look-up on the system.

Graduates not registered on the system and student visitors from other universities were manually recorded on sign-

up sheets.

Student attendance by School

Student attendance by Year of Study

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Please note that most postgraduate students will show as 1st Year

Exhibitor Feedback and Evaluation

96% of employers rated the information received prior to the event as “excellent” or “good”

91% rated the venue and refreshments as “excellent” or “good”

96% rated the number of students attending the event as “excellent” or “good” (73% saw 50 or more

students and 41% saw over 100)

87% rated the quality of enquiries they received as “excellent” or “good”

Employers rated their overall experience of the event at 8.3 out of 10 (where 10 is excellent)

When asked how much they thought the cost should be for the event 89% of employers who

answered the question were willing to pay with 87% willing to pay £100 or more. (£50 - 2%, £100 -

50%, £150 - 26%, £200 - 11%, Nothing – 11%)

Exhibitor Comments

What was good about the event:

Footfall, calibre of students (Admiral Group)

The booklet students were given detailing what each company were looking for. (Axiom)

Very helpful staff!! (Bouygues)

Number of people attending (Capgemini)

Well attended, very good venue (CardiffWorks)

Welcoming staff, well organised (CGI)

Venue and organisation (Convey Law)

Lots of students in attendance (DAS Law)

Engaged students, helpful staff (Deloitte)

Well managed - staff helpful (nice for ex student to be recognised) (J Murphy)

Lots of enthusiastic students. Support from the Careers Team (Markes)

Lots of engaged students! (PwC)

Good organisation - from parking to being taken to our stand, good spacious venue, and enough

refreshments for everyone. (RBC)

Everything! (RAF)

Number of students, great venue and set up, food was excellent. Friendly staff, very helpful

(SuperStars)

Great venue with great students (Target Group)

Attendance, eager students (WRW)

Venue & Refreshments:

Lovely food (Acorn)

Parking issues (Bouygues)

Car parking was not the best, needed two spaces (J Murphy)

Thank you so much for bringing lunch over to my stand! (PwC)

Lovely! Lots of choice (SuperStars)

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Students Numbers / Quality of Enquiries:

Great, students were looking for us (CGI)

So many students; it was fantastic! (PwC)

The highest number of students we've seen at a graduate fair! (Target Group)

Very motivated students (GSS)

Impressed with maturity of students (Kier Construction)

The students were prepared and asked lots of questions (PCI)

What could be improved:

Parking (Acorn)

Everything was ok for us (CGI)

Student helpers to load / unload (Convey Law)

Car parking information (Dawnus)

Space in the brochure for a brief headline of what sector companies in (L&G)

Photocopier that is available for emergency scanning (limited supplies; sorry) (Markes)

Nothing (PRA)

No points for improvement, only that I'll bring more helpers with me next time! (PwC)

Parking (SPTS)

Short day, could be longer! (WAO)

Other comments:

Great day, thank you (CGI)

Well run, well organised event (L&G)

Thanks for everything (L'Oréal)

Great event! (NHS Wales)

Happy to do it all again! Staff were great! (Northrop Grumman)

Thank you for inviting us to such a fantastic and well organised event (PwC)

Student Feedback and Evaluation

Broadly positive feedback, although there were a number of comments around the busyness of the

event making it difficult to speak to employers.

Also a few negative comments about employers leaving their stands unattended.

Comments:

It was excellent, but a little bit too crowded

Wide range of employers, and I was impressed you guys put so much effort in to letting people know about

it

Opportunities that I didn't even know of! Great for graduates!

Very helpful people and new ideas about my future

Helpful comments from industry companies

Good range of employers, would have been helpful to have gone on for longer

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Very crowded space - navigating the fair was really uncomfortable. It was nice to see lots of different

companies though.

I liked the wide range of businesses and the big companies you could find at the fair.

Recommendations and Actions

Roll out “Prepare for the Fair” sessions to further course areas as part of the employability

programme in 2017.

Review parking arrangements and consider limiting exhibitors to one parking space.

Consider opening the fair earlier to allow more time for visitors to meet exhibitors, which would

also ensure that employers arrive earlier before the student car park is full and congestion builds.

Consider advising exhibitors to have at least 3 staff members on stands so that they aren’t left

unattended over lunch.

Consider offering sponsorship packages which enable exhibitors to have the opportunity to show

their support for the event and gain a higher profile.

Matthew Evans Dec 2016