Officer training course – Autumn 2026
A 6-week training course for aspiring officers working in student recruitment, widening participation, schools liaison, marketing, and outreach.
A 6-week training course for aspiring officers working in student recruitment, widening participation, schools liaison, marketing, and outreach.
Every Friday from 11 September to 9 October, then a final day on Thursday 15 October
1pm to 2.30pm
Online for the first 5 weeks, with a full-day finale on Thursday 15 October in Birmingham
£750 + VAT – early-bird price until 31 July
Only 10 places available
Are you interested in becoming an officer of student recruitment, marketing, school liaison, widening participation, or outreach activity?
Our new officer training course will help you grow your knowledge, network, and confidence to allow you to secure and succeed in an officer role.
It is designed for:
Stepping into your first officer role is a huge responsibility, but this carefully-crafted training course will give you the confidence, resilience, and brilliance to succeed in your university role and beyond.
The officer course will take place every Friday, plus a final Thursday, over a 6-week period between 11 September and 15 October 2026.
Weeks 1 to 5 will take place online between 1pm and 2.30pm on Teams. Week 6 will take place in Birmingham between 9.30am and 4pm. This is a celebratory finale, allowing all participants to gather for a final day of learning and socialising.
Meetings won’t be recorded to allow participants to feel fully comfortable when sharing personal stories and sensitive setbacks about their career journey.
The officer course is intimate and interactive, with a high level of group discussion. For this reason, there are only 10 places available.
There won’t be any slide presentations. Instead, we will facilitate learning through peer-to-peer networking, access to senior leaders, sharing (and solving) challenges, ongoing self-reflection, and takeaway tasks.
Week 1 will bring all participants together, without a guest speaker. It is an introduction, a safe space, where we will each share our career journeys, workplace challenges, and expectations for the weeks ahead.
Weeks 2 to 5 will each focus on a different officer skill, with insights from a guest speaker. Each guest is a head of student recruitment, widening participation, schools liaison, marketing, and outreach. These weeks will be structured as follows:
Week 6 is a full day in Birmingham, with another guest speaker, followed by a celebratory lunch and a social activity. All activities are included in the cost of the programme, except for your travel to and from Birmingham.
In this first week, you will meet your fellow participants and aspiring officers. It is an opportunity to begin building relationships with people who will support you throughout the course, and potentially the years ahead too.
We'll discuss expectations for the course, share our career origin stories, and reflect on the workplace (and headspace) challenges we wish to overcome.
This first week will end with the launch of the course WhatsApp group where you can seek connection, camaraderie, and counsel in between the weekly sessions.
As an officer, you'll find an increase in the size and diversity of your role. New projects, new responsibilities, new targets… It can be a lot. How can you manager your workload and wellbeing without sacrificing either, especially when travelling the UK?
Our guest speaker will help you find your inner resilience, with advice about time management, self-organisation, and efficiency. You'll learn the art of saying no, how to stay happy and healthy on the road, and the difference between working hard and working smart.
University fairs and exhibitions are the Superbowl for student recruitment and outreach officers. With hundreds, often thousands, of prospective students within reach, you need to bring more than just a prospectus. You need to bring your A-game.
Our guest speaker will help you stand out amidst the homogenous sea of pull-up banners and tablecloths. You'll learn how to engage students at these overwhelming events, form a bond in mere minutes, and transform your conversations into connection and conversion.
The clue is in the name. Outreach is about reaching out. As an officer, you'll be expected to make contact with schools and colleges, with teachers and careers advisers, so you can secure a headline gig in their classrooms. But how can you make an impression in the age of inbox overload? How can you forge everlasting relationships?
Our guest speaker will help you think differently. You'll learn how to build a relationship within (and beyond) email exchanges. You'll gain tops tips on networking, nurturing a relationship, and connecting IRL to futureproof your student recruitment.
The good news: you're in the classroom, the students are seated, your slides are on the screen. The bad news: nobody is listening. It looks set to be a looong 60 minutes. How can you find your confidence, resilience, and brilliance? How can you inform and inspire with a tired old slide deck?
Our guest speaker will teach you how to craft a memorable presentation and deliver the content in an accessible way. You'll learn how to overcome common pitfalls and pinchpoints, stay positive in a school of unrule, and harness empathy and understanding.
As an officer, you'll need to champion hands-on learning to bring your slides to life. Our final guest speaker will help you bring VARK into every classroom with enjoyable and valuable games, challenges, and activities.
In doing so, you'll elevate your interactions from informational to inspirational, from PowerPoint to powerful. Finally, playtime aside, you'll also discover that true inspiration often happens outside of the group activities through the magic of 121 connection.
Each guest speaker is a university professional with experience as a head of student recruitment, widening participation, schools liaison, marketing, and outreach. Two more guest speakers will be added soon.
Meg brings nine years of experience of higher education, progressing from Student Recruitment Assistant to Head of UK Recruitment at St Mary's University. Meg has worked across both UK Student Recruitment and Widening Participation teams, leading events and initiatives that support learners from a range of backgrounds and age groups in exploring university options, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
An alumna of St Mary's, Meg holds an undergraduate degree in History, an MA in Public History, and is currently pursuing a PhD.
Andy is currently the Head of UK Student Recruitment and Access at Keele University, who studied a degree in Environmental Science at Lancaster University. He has held a previous post at Keele University, as well as the University of Bath and Lancaster University, focusing primarily on UK recruitment, access, and widening participation over his decade in the sector.
Having started working in HE as a student ambassador, and now progressing to a head of team, Andy has worked with many staff in many roles to support their progression into new and exciting roles.
Fiona Black is Head of UK Recruitment at the University of Glasgow. She leads the team with responsibility for recruiting undergraduate and postgraduate students from across the UK, including international students who are studying in the UK.
With experience spanning more than 20 years at UofG, Fiona has previously worked in Widening Participation and Admissions. Originally from Northumberland, Fiona is a graduate of both Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow. She genuinely believes that Glasgow is the best place to live, work, and study.
Khashim has worked in higher education for almost 15 years, progressing from a Student Recruitment Assistant to his current role as Head of UK Recruitment and Widening Access. He has held positions at the University of Bedfordshire and UCL, gaining extensive experience across both student recruitment and widening participation.
Throughout his career, Khashim has been committed to developing talent within the sector. He has supported recent graduates into outreach officer roles and helped outreach professionals progress into managerial positions.
Coming from a widening access background himself, Khashim brings a personal passion and deep commitment to ensuring higher education is accessible to all. His lived experience continues to shape his strategic approach to widening access and student recruitment.
The early-bird price for the course is £750 + VAT. This is available until Friday 31 July. After this date, the cost will increase to £900 + VAT.
This includes:
Simon has almost 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 as a content strategy consultant for the international education sector.
Simon has a particular flair for designing engaging training sessions. Currently, he leads the training portfolio for UniTasterDays, including their quarterly training days in Birmingham, on-campus training for staff, on-campus training for ambassadors, 6-week leadership course, and 6-week manager course.
Past recipients of Simon’s training include AccessHE, Bath Spa University, LiNCHigher, Liverpool Hope University, London Higher, Queen Mary University of London, St Mary’s University, Study Higher, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Bristol, the University of Essex, the University of Salford, the University of Sunderland, and various HELOA regional groups.
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, Utterly Content, and the UK Ghost Story Festival. 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.