EmployerConnect Autumn 2021: Initiatives and Events

Posted on: 14 December 2021 by Olga Chatzidaki in Connections in action

In response to the ever-changing world of graduate recruitment, for autumn 2021 the Employer Connections team reimagined how we connect employers with students and how we facilitate meaningful interactions. Our previous CareerConnect programme of employer-led masterclasses, recruiter panels, mock interviews and career lounges was completely redesigned and rebranded as a new series of events and initiatives called EmployerConnect.

EmployerConnect connected students and employers through a hybrid model of virtual and on-campus events. The elements of EmployerConnect included: The Virtual Fair, Get Ahead and Get Hired, Sector Insights, Explore and Employer Showcases.    

Through these initiatives and events, employers had the opportunity to engage with the highest calibre students at the University of Liverpool. These students, who came from a diverse range of backgrounds and across all degree disciplines and years of study were the perfect talent pipeline for employer’s 2022 programmes.

The Virtual Fair:

 The Virtual Fair was a one-day virtual careers fair hosted via the Handshake platform. The event was designed for students to explore their career options, make connections with employers and ultimately get hired.

72 employers hosted a total of 163 group sessions and 571 1-1 chat to showcase their internships, placements and graduate opportunities for 2022 as well as share insights on their recruitment processes. Engagement exceeded the previous year’s event, with over 600 individual students connecting with employers on the day. Both student and employer feedback has been great.

Get Ahead & Get Hired

Get Ahead and Get Hired were employer-led student development programmes designed to prepare students for the competitive nature of the recruitment process involved in securing a formal graduate scheme.

 Through a range of face to face and virtual activities that took place in a range of formats across an intense 6 week period students were provided with an opportunity to connect with employers on a weekly basis and develop their professional network as well as develop the skills essential to success in the graduate recruitment market. Activity included panel events, workshops, skills sessions, mock recruitment activity, takeaway tasks and access to a Microsoft Teams community. Through these programmes employers had regular access to an engaged and diverse talent pool and a group of students that they knew were interested in working at organisations such as theirs.

 Sector Insights:

 During our planning, we noticed that there was particular interest from students around careers in specific sectors and a demand for more information, so as part of EmployerConnect we hosted two pilot events to showcase careers in teaching and careers in the public sector. These events took different formats, one being face to face and one being virtual. Both were well received by employers and students and we look forward to expanding this initiative next semester.

 Explore:

As there are now more virtual events than ever before, we knew that this semester we needed to help our students navigate the ever-growing list of external employer events. With this in mind, we created EmployerConnect: Explore. Through our careers platform Handshake, we carefully curated a live list of the highest quality external employer events for our students to access. Since September 2021, we’ve approved and added 119 events to this list, and this will continue to develop as time goes on.

Employer Showcases:

After working remotely for the last 18 months, we noticed there was some appetite from employers to return to campus for attraction activity. As we returned to the office ourselves, we decided to bring back On-Campus events through our Employer Showcase. A total of 6 employers from a range of industries have been on campus this semester to raise their profile and meet our students. We hope to continue welcoming back more organisations in spring 2022.

Our thoughts and reflections…

A year on from autumn 2020, we still know that virtual events cannot replicate the atmosphere and spontaneity of physical events. However, we believe that virtual events are here to stay and when done with careful thought and planning, can still provide a great opportunity for employers to connect with students.

 As we move towards spring 2022, we will further develop our EmployerConnect offer to ensure that we continue to be innovative in our approach and provide the right events and experiences to engage employers and inspire our students.

If you’d like to connect with our students in spring 2022, please get in touch at employerconnections@liverpool.ac.uk