University training day - September 2025
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 23, September 2025
9:30am to 4pm
STEAMhouse
Birmingham
£275 + VAT
Early bird price until 31 August
We are pleased to share details of 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 GCSE Boost founder Junior Saunders, Level 6 careers adviser Jessica Pieri, HE veteran Simon Fairbanks, and LAMDA acting coach Molly Parker.
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:
Junior Saunders, Founder of Making Careers Happen and GCSE Boost events UK
Career stress starts earlier than we think. We often talk about the pressures and choices faced by sixth-form students in our student recruitment and widening participation activity. But what about GCSE students? Do we give them the same time and tools to tackle decisions about their future?
In our opening talk, Junior Saunders will help you understand the mindset of Year 10s to Year 13s. He will draw upon his valuable experience as the founder of GCSE Boost and Making Careers Happen to provide actionable advice for supporting the ambitions of pre and post-16 students in your outreach work.
Junior will also share the importance of promoting alternatives to traditional university degrees, such as apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships, and why these options are just as rewarding. In doing so, you will aid the mental wellbeing of younger students, and help them to discover their perfect pathway.
Jessica Pieri, Careers Advisor and Founder of The Careers People
This session will explore practical strategies for managing and strengthening connections with educators in a way that is impactful, efficient, and mutually beneficial. We will cover key topics such as understanding the needs and challenges of school staff, developing tailored communication strategies, and maintaining long term engagement despite time and resource constraints.
Through real world examples and interactive discussions, attendees will learn how to build trust, provide value to schools, and create sustainable partnerships that enhance outreach efforts. Whether you’re looking to establish new relationships or enhance existing ones, this session will equip you with the insights and tools needed to navigate the complexities of working across multiple institutions.
Simon Fairbanks, Head of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays
Outreach professionals are in high demand. Travelling to exhibitions, speaking at events, organising open days, hosting school groups on campus, managing the admin to support these activities... And sometimes everything comes at once.
It’s a lot. It’s no wonder we are vulnerable to illness, fatigue, and burnout. Yet we must keep bringing out our best selves to engage, inspire, and inform future students and their supporters. So, how can we protect our wellbeing? How can we remain upbeat, uplifted, and upstanding throughout our busy seasons?
Take a breath. This session is here to help. You will gain valuable and actionable wellbeing advice based on the four pillars of health: mind, body, diet, and sleep. You will leave with new strategies to help you stay healthy and happy in Mad March, Just-As-Bad June, and every other time when you have an overwhelming delivery schedule.
Molly Parker, Voice and Accent Lecturer at LAMDA
Your voice is a superpower. As outreach professionals, we use this ability in our daily activity. Our vocal chords help us command a challenging classroom, speak over the noise at a bustling UCAS fair, and show compassion when supporting a prospective student through a difficult applicant journey.
This session will help you flex and fine-tune your voice for a variety of scenarios common in our school liaison roles. You'll learn how to engage, inspire, and educate audiences through practical voice exercises. You'll also learn how to protect the health of your voice in busy periods.
Junior Saunders is a renowned motivational speaker and trainer who spent most of his life in foster care and didn’t have a strong educational experience while growing up. He experienced many difficulties, such as living with ADHD and dyslexia, whilst also tackling setbacks as a child in care in Bristol in the 1990s.
After almost going to a young offender's unit at aged 14, and while in the Marlowe Children’s Home in Gloucester, Junior made the decision in Year 10 that he wanted to return home to his foster mother Pearl, go back to mainstream education, and finish his GCSEs. This was because he wanted the sense of belonging. Many of his peers were in mainstream school, while Junior was based on a programme called "Include" for students who found the mainstream school setting difficult to adjust to.
Junior wanted that sense of achievement despite all the setbacks that he faced. As he entered Year 11, no schools in Bristol would accept him due to his educational journey, except for one: Lockleaze School.
Throughout this, he was supported by Pearl Miles (his foster mother), Leroy Henderson (his probation officer and mentor), Mark Farmer (his school coach and mentor), and Ray Lockey (The Head Teacher of Lockleaze School). These four professionals contributed, unknowingly at the time, towards the idea of GCSE Boost being born in 2025.
Junior now runs Junior Inspiring Education. This is a student personal development service for secondary school students on behalf of schools, businesses, and organisations. It teaches students about personal development into careers and apprenticeships throughout the UK. Junior Inspiring Education is about to launch a brand-new tool to help apprentices through the interview process called the APDL log.
Jessica Pieri is a Level 6 qualified Careers Advisor and the founder of The Careers People, established in 2018. Originally focused on providing careers guidance to schools in select regions, the company has since expanded to work with over 160 schools across the UK, delivering award-winning products that enhance secondary school careers programs.
Committed to staying at the forefront of the evolving school landscape, Jessica actively works in London schools, offering one-on-one guidance to students navigating critical decisions about their futures. Her extensive experience ranges from supporting students at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment, or training) to advising Oxbridge aspirants.
While Jessica enjoys all aspects of career guidance, she is particularly passionate about helping students who may not have access to the support they need. Her work with First in Family students has opened doors for many young people, creating pathways to higher education that they hadn't previously considered.
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 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.
Molly Parker is a seasoned Voice and Accent Coach specializing in unlocking voices, building confidence, and enhancing storytelling beyond the stage. She offers tailored coaching services for actors, group dynamics, and one-on-one sessions, focusing on voice, accent, and breath work.
Molly is also a dynamic speaker, delivering talks on women's voices, confidence, and storytelling. Her mission is to empower individuals to discover and harness their whole voice, fostering personal and professional growth.
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.
The training day will help you build your knowledge and network within the higher education sector. You will participate in a range of inspiring, insightful, and interactive sessions from expert speakers, from both within and beyond universities.
You will also find generous networking opportunities, including morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, and a complimentary drinks reception after the event. A detailed schedule will be provided closer to the event for those who have booked a place.
The event is designed for new and experienced practitioners working in student recruitment, school liaison, outreach, and widening participation roles. If you are a university staff member and your responsibilities involve delivering activities for schools and colleges, this event is tailored specifically for you.
The event will be held on Tuesday 23 September 2025. Arrival refreshments will be provided from 9.30am with sessions beginning at 9.45am. Sessions will finish at 4.15pm.
Additionally, there will be an optional drinks reception from 4.15pm to 5.15pm. You are invited to join us for complimentary alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, and a final networking opportunity before travelling home.
The cost is £300+ VAT for an individual ticket, with discounts available for booking multiple places. Please see the booking form for group prices as well as early bird rates (if applicable).
The event is situated in the stunning STEAMhouse building, located in central Birmingham, a 20-minute walk from Birmingham New Street Station. There is also reasonably priced car parking nearby and bicycle storage.
The STEAMhouse building was built in 1899 as the headquarters for the Eccles Rubber and Cycle Company. It was later repurposed to produce linen clothing, bedsteads, and pianos. It is now used by Birmingham City University and regional businesses, following extensive redevelopment.
If you have any questions, we’d be happy to help! Email our Support Team or call 01746 769269.