University training day - May 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 5 May 2026
9:30am to 5pm
STEAMhouse
Birmingham
£275 + VAT – early bird price until 27 March
40 spaces available
We are pleased to share our next in-person training day with you.
These popular events are created specifically 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 | Gen Z and Gen Alpha: how to engage young audiences in the classroom Kamal Ellis-Hyman, Founder and Director of Aim A Little Higher |
| 11:20 | Morning refreshments |
| 11:40 | Connection in the classroom: managing behaviour with language and empathy
Hannah Thomas, Founder of Connection Counts |
| 12:45 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | Exhibition control: using your physicality and vocality to build relationships at HE fairs
Simon Fairbanks, Associate Director of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays |
| 14:30 | Afternoon refreshments |
| 14:50 | Social listening: how to understand your prospective students through social media
Lucy Guest, Social Media and Brand Strategist |
| 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 |
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 Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Hannah Thomas, Founder of Connection Counts
Connection, kindness, and empathy are the ingredients that every educator needs to get the best results with children and young people. In this session, you will gain valuable advice on how to bring your best self to the classroom, with a focus on the power of language and empathy.
Hannah Thomas will share her passion, creativity, and experience to help you navigate tricky situations and behavioural challenges in schools and college. This creative, hands-on, honest workshop will ensure you feel empowered, encouraged, and equipped for your next outreach session.
Simon Fairbanks, Associate Director of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays
It’s easy for our stands to get lost at a HE fair or exhibition. The crowds, the noise, the sensory overload… and the homogenous mass of tablecloths, pull-ups banners, prospectuses, and freebies. How can we expect to stand out, to engage students, to recruit students when (whisper it) we’re all doing the same thing?
But we can deploy two assets to reach a higher level of engagement: our body and our voice. Adjusting our physicality and vocality will allow us to attract visitors to our stand and make a powerful connection once they get there.
Firstly, we’ll consider our bodies by unpacking the 6 body postures of staff members on an exhibition stand. We’ll look at the Puppy, the Peacock, the Sloth, and the rest. Secondly, we’ll make our voices louder and more inspirational by delving into the treasures of our vocal toolbox, with a particular emphasis on being heard over the humdrum.
Lucy Guest, Social Media and Brand Strategist
As outreach professionals, it is critical that we understand prospective students. After all, how can we inspire them to consider higher education if we don't grasp their priorities, challenges, and behaviours? But how can we gain these insights without commissioning an expensive market research project?
Two words: social listening. Two more words: Lucy Guest. Social media expert and HE veteran, Lucy Guest, will introduce you to the concept of social listening. Lucy will help you navigate the feeds and forums of the internet, and show that valuable insights into your audiences are just a few taps away.
Through social listening, you'll gain access to authentic, real-time market research to inform your next conversation, presentation, and taster day, and even your WP and student recruitment strategy.
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, and high energy sessions.
Hannah Thomas is the Founder of Connection Counts and an award-winning trainer known for her relatable, high-energy style. She helps educators see behaviour as communication and connection as the key to engagement, equipping professionals with practical, trauma-responsive tools to build trust, safety, and belonging for students navigating education and life.
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.
Lucy is a creative social and brand strategist, with over a decade of experience connecting universities with their online audiences. In the past ten years, she's generated more than 300M impressions, over 6M engagements, and tons of positive customer experiences. Her approach centres on empathetic, community-led comms.
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.