The UniTasterDays Teacher and Adviser Conference 2025
A one-day conference packed with inspiring and insightful talks and workshops to help you support students throughout their university application journey.
A one-day conference packed with inspiring and insightful talks and workshops to help you support students throughout their university application journey.
Tuesday 8 July 2025
9:30am to 4pm
STEAMhouse
Belmont Row
Birmingham
B4 7RQ
£150 + VAT (Early bird rate until 30 May)
75 spaces
Do you support Year 12s and 13s with their university decision-making?
Our first ever UniTasterDays Teacher Conference has been designed for you.
You will learn how to:
You’ll learn from expert and experienced speakers, whilst growing your knowledge and network throughout the day. In doing so, you’ll return to your school or college with the mindset and skillset to support your students with their university application journey.
This training is for any school or college staff member responsible for supporting and advising Year 12s and 13s with their decision-making about university.
For instance, you might be a:
The sessions are also relevant for parents, carers, and supporters who have young people in their lives with the potential to study at university. You would be very welcome to join us too!
Baasit Siddiqui is an experienced educator, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and television personality. For many years, Baasit has collaborated with schools and businesses to inspire and educate young people to recognise their potential and how it will support them in the world of work. Baasit has delivered workshops, talks and competitions to thousands of children across hundreds of schools. His mission is simple, through combining his educational insights, entrepreneurial experiences, and a decade of television influence, Baasit strives to make a significant impact on young people’s understanding of education and its positive impact on career opportunities.
Baasit has combined his unique television experiences on the BAFTA winning television show Gogglebox with his knowledge, experiences, and passion for education to deliver motivational workshops, competitions, and assemblies across schools, colleges, and universities. Whether workshops focus on media, digital literacy or oracy, Baasit ensures that students within the workshops develop their understanding of career opportunities as well as the skills and attitude required within these careers.
Hannah Thomas is an award-winning leader, speaker and influencer. She founded Cherished UK, a charity which meets the attachment needs of children through its connection-based mentoring, courses and groups at the age of just 18 years old, in response to her own personal experiences and seeing the attachment needs of students not being met.
Hannah has trained more than 5,000 professionals on the front lines of our community. This includes police officers, children’s charities, social and support workers and educators. She believes connection, kindness and empathy are the ingredients that every educator needs in order to get the best results with children and young people.
Fast forward to 2024 and Hanah and members of the Cherished UK team were at Buckingham Palace to collect the King’s award for Voluntary Service.
Jon is the Founder and Director of UniTasterDays. He has spent a career working in higher education, working for over 10 years in three universities, followed by schools throughout the UK with UniTasterDays, which Jon established in 2012 to support effective school and college university engagement.
Jon is a huge advocate of university guidance. He has been published by organisations including Which University, The CDI, and National Careers Week. He is a regular speaker at teacher and adviser conferences, and works very closely with schools and colleges, including the delivery of independent university workshops. Jon is the host of The Uni Guide Podcast and The One in Five Podcast.
Katherine is a UK-based Career Development Professional, Mentor, and Educator. In 2019, she founded What's your strength?®, which started as a card activity to empower teenagers and has since evolved into a series of award-winning resources for all ages that are used in 16 countries.
Katherine’s innovative work has been recognised by the Department of Education, and she has been shortlisted for CDI Careers Adviser of the Year and two business start-up awards. Her resources are recommended by National Careers Week, the CDI, and The Careers and Enterprise Company.
Katherine also offers 1:1 career guidance for young people and delivers collaborative creative workshops to a variety of audiences. She is the co-architect of the #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign and a passionate advocate for the career development sector.
Simon has approaching 20 years of experience in the higher education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at four different universities in the UK: Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry.
Simon has also worked at Pickle Jar Communications, a content strategy consultancy for the international education sector. He helped schools, colleges, and universities share their stories through digital communications.
Simon is an international speaker. He has spoken at a variety of conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, EFMD, IDPE, FindAUniversity, HELOA, HighEdWeb, PSEWeb, SU Digital, SU Marketing Conference, and Utterly Content. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023.
As a published author, Simon is particularly interested in storytelling in the education sector. He spends his free time reading, writing, running, and finding new ways to make his children laugh.
Baasit Siddiqui, Director of Siddiqui Education
In this opening keynote, Baasit Siddiqui draws upon his 15+ years of experience in schools and colleges to help you engage young people in conversations about university. You'll gain actionable advice and methods to help you introduce and navigate discussions about higher education with confidence.
You'll discover how to present the advantages of university study in engaging, entertaining, and memorable ways. Next, you’ll learn interactive classroom exercises to help your students decide if university is the right pathway for them. Finally, you’ll gain top tips for answering frequently asked (and frequently challenging) questions about higher education.
Hannah Thomas, Director and Founder of Cherished UK
Many young people don’t feel like university is an option. If they are from a challenging, traumatic background, they could lack the daily support and encouragement required to develop belief in themselves. They might dismiss university as a pathway for other people - certainly not themselves - and withdraw whenever higher education is mentioned.
Hannah is here to help. She will show that connection, kindness, and understanding are the ingredients required to engage vulnerable young people in conversations about their future. In this creative, hands-on, and honest workshop, you will learn how to use language and empathy to raise the ambitions and self-worth of every child.
Simon Fairbanks, Head of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays
Attending an open day is expensive. Petrol, parking, Premier Inns... The costs soon add up, especially during a time when the cost-of-living crisis is spiralling. How can your students afford to attend multiple open days, offer-holder days, and campus tours? How can your school or college be expected to fund these activities on their behalf?
This session will offer resources (and reassurance) to help your students explore universities on a budget. Firstly, we'll look at cost-effective ways to visit a university in person. This will include how to reduce the cost of attendance, and even where to find fully-funded travel scholarships. We'll also demonstrate how you can bring the university to your school instead!
Furthermore, we'll explain how online research is equally valuable. You'll gain a treasure trove of tools to allow your students to explore universities from the comfort of their own home, without spending a penny. This will include webinars, podcasts, subject videos, information guides, and peer-to-peer content. Afterwards, you'll no longer see budget as a barrier.
Katherine Jennick, Careers Adviser, Trainer and Founder of What's your strength?
This interactive workshop explores how to use a strength-based approach to engage and empower young people as they consider university. You will discover practical activities to help your students discover and articulate their strengths, including reference to Katherine’s own invention: the "What’s your strength?" cards.
Once identified, Katherine will demonstrate how these can form the structure of a winning personal statement and – for some courses – the admissions interviews and portfolio reviews that follow.
Jon Cheek, Director of UniTasterDays
In 2012, Jon Cheek founded UniTasterDays to improve the relationship between schools and colleges and the many universities where their students wish to apply. Over a decade later, Jon has developed significant networks of teachers, advisers, supporters, and university student recruitment staff. In doing so, he has learned many valuable lessons and perspectives about how best to help young people with their decision-making.
In this final session, Jon will share valuable patterns and trends from his time working within, across, and in service of the sector. This will include revealing insights from the UniTasterDays adviser survey in 2024, with a comparison to the 2019 equivalent. He will draw upon stories and statistics gleamed from his 40 episodes of The Uni Guide Podcast, and explain how UniTasterDays has grown to meet evolving student needs.
The cost for this training day is £150 + VAT.
This is the early bird price, available until Friday 30 May. It will then increase to £195 + VAT.