University training day - December 2026
Inspiring, insightful and interactive training for student recruitment, widening participation, and outreach professionals who deliver talks, activities, and events for schools and colleges.
Inspiring, insightful and interactive training for student recruitment, widening participation, and outreach professionals who deliver talks, activities, and events for schools and colleges.
Tuesday 15 December 2026
9.30am to 4pm
STEAMhouse
Birmingham
£275 + VAT
Early bird price until 6 November
40 spaces available
Our 14th university training day is taking place on Tuesday 15 December.
These popular events are created for university staff who deliver talks, activities, and events for schools and colleges. This includes staff working in student recruitment, widening participation, school liaison, and outreach roles.
You will hear from leading experts from inside and outside the sector on a diverse range of topics, all designed to help you perform in your role and inspire prospective students to see all the opportunities higher education offers.
Join us for an event designed to help you engage students and their supporters. You'll discover how to:
Your speakers will include:
This content is especially relevant for those working closely with prospective students, their supporters, teachers, careers advisers, schools, and colleges.
Networking is a key focus, so the event will feature regular breaks, with optional post-event networking drinks included too!
Watch this video from a previous training day for a taster of what to expect:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 09:30 | Registration and refreshments |
| 09:45 | Welcome and introduction Jon Cheek, Founder and Director of UniTasterDays |
| 09:50 | Overcome your imposter syndrome to become a leader of teams and tasks
Simon Fairbanks, Associate Director of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays |
| 11:20 | Morning refreshments |
| 11:40 | How to use drawing and illustration to break down barriers to higher education
Laura Evans-Hill, Founder and Director of Nifty Fox Creative |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | First-in-family: breaking barriers and empowering the next generation of trailblazers Katherine Jennick, Careers Adviser, Trainer, and Founder of What’s Your Strength? |
| 14:30 | Afternoon refreshments |
| 14:45 | Engaging the disengaged: how to create energising sessions to inspire young people
Kamal Ellis-Hyman, Founder and Director of Aim A Little Higher |
| 15:45 | Closing quiz – prizes to be won!
Jon Cheek, Founder and Director of UniTasterDays |
| 16:00 | Networking drinks Complimentary drinks at BCU Students’ Union |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Simon Fairbanks, Associate Director of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays
Leadership is more than a job title. We all have the potential to become a leader. It might even be required of you in challenging situations. You could lead projects, peers, or presentations. You could lead staff, volunteers, or ambassadors. You could lead upwards, downwards, sideways.
But leadership is a lot. You might be terrified by the responsibility, yet people constantly turn to you for decisions and direction. Or you might be yearning to lead but an inner voice is whispering relentlessly, "Imposter… you’ll be find out…"
Well, that stops now!
This session is here to help you silence your imposter syndrome in times of need. In the first half, you’ll discover the 5 types of imposter syndrome to help you name and tame your own. Once identified, you’ll gain tools to manage your imposter syndrome over time.
In the second half, with your imposter syndrome on a leash, we’ll explore the three-fold approach to strong leadership: grip self, grip team, grip task. You’ll learn what this means, why the order is critical, and how to succeed in doing all three.
This is a wide-ranging, deep-diving, soul-searching session to kick off our training day in style. And we promise you’ll leave with a New Year’s Resolution to help you forge a strong path in 2027. Let imposter syndrome be forgot and never brought to mind. It’s time for a new year and a new you. It’s time to lead.
Laura Evans-Hill, Founder and Director of Nifty Fox Creative
Higher education is a complex topic to explain to prospective students. It’s a jumble of jargon that forms an inaccessible barrier to first-in-family applicants. The degree classifications, the application process, the funding options… Hard to understand. Harder to explain. How can we help students access higher education when our words fail us?
Simple. Stop talking. Start drawing!
Enter Laura Evans-Hill, founder of award-winning research communications agency Nifty Fox Creative, ex-social researcher and widening participation professional, and CPD certificated trainer. Laura specialises in translating complex topics into simple illustrations, infographics, and posters, working with over 3000 researchers across 50 universities internationally to do the same. Laura often live-scribes these visuals in the moment to help academic staff explain their research to wider audiences, winning four impact awards for this work.
Drawing is a superpower. And it’s yours to wield too. In this session, Laura will get you drawing immediately, showing that everyone can flourish a pencil in pursuit of clarity and understanding. She will also draw (!) upon her experience as a university outreach professional to show how you can use your newfound power in your next classroom session to remove barriers to understanding.
A picture speaks a thousand words. Let’s put the V into VARK and start visualising higher education and the opportunities it offers. Ready, set, draw!
Katherine Jennick, Careers Adviser, Trainer, and Founder of What’s Your Strength?
Imagine being the first in your family to take the bold step towards university. It’s a journey filled with excitement, uncertainty, and untapped potential… but also a journey without a map. For many young people, the barriers to higher education aren't just academic or financial: they're personal. The path can feel daunting without the guidance of family members who’ve been through it.
In this session, we’ll uncover the unique challenges faced by students who are the first in their family to attend university. We’ll explore the vital role university institutions can play in transforming uncertainty into opportunity. By working together, universities and school professionals can reimagine how we support students and their families on this life-changing journey.
Kamal Ellis-Hyman, Founder and Director of Aim A Little Higher
Young people have busy lives. They have lots going on, both within and beyond school. Understandably, they might enter the classroom feeling tired, overwhelmed, distracted. How do we get their attention? How do we pique their energy levels and interest when we only have an hour of their time?
Kamal Ellis-Hyman will offer you actionable advice for engaging the disengaged. Kamal will draw upon his experience in delivering high-impact, high-energy talks across the country. In doing so, you will have the tools to create your own interactive, humorous, and creative sessions for young people.
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.
Laura is a trained social researcher, ex-WP Manager and founder and director of Nifty Fox Creative. Nifty is an award-winning research communications agency. Laura worked in the university sector for ten years communicating research beyond the academy, before rebelling to set up Nifty in 2017 to revolutionise the way we drive impact with lay audiences.
Nifty has worked with over 50 universities internationally, 3000+ researchers and 80 public sector organisations like the NHS, UK Government, the UN, and international parliaments to help them tell their stories visually so audiences listen. Nifty won Best Visual Communications Agency UK 2024, UK Enterprise Award for Social Impact 2024, and SME News Animation Agency of the Year 2025 for its innovative use of visual storytelling and graphic facilitation to democratise research hierarchies and increase public involvement in research.
Laura also won the Top 42 Under 42 Directors award from Insider Media in 2025. Nifty regularly supports the NIHR and NHS on their public engagement in research initiatives, and Laura teaches at universities around the world on knowledge mobilisation and public engagement in research impact.
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.
Kamal Ellis-Hyman is the founder of Aim A Little Higher, a company delivering engaging, high impact speeches and programmes across the country. To date, Kamal has delivered to over 100,000 students across the UK and has built a solid reputation for his company's impactful, interactive, humorous & high energy sessions.
Kamal's session will energise the day with an exploration of his approach to creative communication & creating engaging sessions for young people.
Today reignited why I do what I do, and gave me some great ideas to use moving forward. Thank you for such an insightful training day. The venue was great, and the speakers were inspirational.
Clear concise sessions that target exactly what you need, and leave you wanting to put new strategies into action. I want to say a massive thank you to UniTasterDays for your in-depth and inspiring day!
I had a great experience attending the UniTasterDays training in Birmingham. Huge thank you to UniTasterDays for bringing together professionals from universities all over the UK, and providing the opportunity to brainstorm, engage, and inspire one another.
Our programme is designed to meet the specific needs of university practitioners working in student recruitment, outreach, and widening participation event delivery roles. Expect audience-focused sessions to help you address the challenges you may encounter in your role.
Our event allows multiple opportunities for networking. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, and a complimentary drinks reception after the event. You will leave with a wide range of new connections across the sector.
Our training days are designed as in-person events, so the sessions won’t be recorded. It is a unique opportunity for you to gain insights from experienced and expert speakers, whilst learning alongside your peers in a delightful location.