Graduate Recruitment and Development Forum 2019

CHAIR – Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive, Institute of Student Employers

Stephen Isherwood was appointed Chief Executive of the ISE in June 2013 following seven years as Head of Graduate Recruitment UK & Ireland at Ernst & Young, one of the largest recruiters of graduates in the UK.

Prior to EY, Stephen managed graduate recruitment and development programmes at PwC and Safeway as well as working in the public sector where he developed and managed a number of careers related programmes. 

In addition to his current role Stephen sits on a number of steering groups related to higher education and employment: he is on the board of HECSU as well as trustee of Ashorne Hill Management College. Stephen works with the charity Speakers for Schools and has also recently teamed up with Roding Valley High School as an Enterprise Advisor through the Careers and Enterprise Company. 

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Yasmin Ahkter, Early Careers Recruitment Manager, Sky Betting & Gaming

Yasmin is Leeds University alumni and graduated with a BA English Hons degree in 2007. Currently at Sky Betting and Gaming in Leeds, she heads up and has developed the Early Careers proposition ensuring that they have a unique offering for early talent. She sits on the Leeds Digital Board and the Northern Power Women Future List and is passionate about driving the Northern Diversity agenda as well as the retention of Northern talent.

Samantha Hope, Graduate Recruitment Manager, Shoosmiths LLP

Samantha is Shoosmiths’ graduate recruitment manager based in Milton Keynes. She attracts, recruits and develops trainee solicitors, by co-ordinating the vacation placements and training contracts across the firm’s 11 office locations in the UK.

Samantha has a passion for the use of digital media in recruitment and marketing. She leads the social media pages for the careers teams at Shoosmiths, including a Facebook live video series called #ShoosmithsLIVE – designed as an opportunity to engage with a diverse range of potential candidates all over the world.  

A law graduate herself, Samantha has been working in the graduate recruitment market since 2008, before joining Shoosmiths in 2010.

Fraser Tidman, HR Programme Director, University Academy 92

Fraser is a multi-faceted HR professional (Chartered Member CIPD) with expertise in L&D, Coaching, Change Management, Recruitment, OD, and Strategy. He is currently working on an innovative Higher Education development in partnership with Lancaster University (The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2018) as HR programme lead for University Academy 92.

Keith Herrmann, Director of Employability and Careers, University of Surrey

Keith Herrmann is Director of Employability and Careers at the University of Surrey which was named both ‘University of the Year’ and ‘University of the Year for Student Experience’ in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016. At Surrey he leads the Directorate of Employability and has a university-wide remit as strategic lead on employability, careers and the university’s renowned student placement programme (the Professional Training Year).

The University has 1,200 students out on placement a year and has 2,300 placement providers that we work with in the UK, Europe and internationally. Keith works extensively with the academic community to ensure employability is a core element of the student learning journey.

Jenny Taylor, UK Foundation Leader, IBM UK

Jenny Taylor is Leader of IBM UK’s Early Professional programs with responsibility for recruitment, career management, development of education programmes and finance and operations for the schemes. She operates across the full spectrum of IBM’s business lines, managing Early Professionals in business, technology, consulting and sales roles. These programmes have won multiple awards including Targetjobs “Graduate Employer of the Year 2018”.    

Jenny is Chair of the Tech Sector Digital Degree Apprenticeships Employer steering groups and plays a leading part in the development of Trailblazer standards. She actively supports initiatives to create skills for the digital economy including girls’ schools outreach, STEM and employability skills for young people. Jenny has received industry recognition for her mentoring and inspirational leadership. She is also a Commissioner for the Princess Royal Training Awards and a member of the Quality Assurance Agency degree awarding powers committee.

Kirsty MacCulloch, Account Director, TARGETrecruit

Kirsty MacCulloch is Account Director at TARGETrecruit, Group GTI’s outsourcing and technology business, where she heads up the recruitment activity for Sky for whom TARGETrecruit provides early careers RPO support. Kirsty has extensive experience of delivering end-to-end early careers recruitment campaigns across multiple industry sectors including Insurance, Investment Banking, Technology, Engineering and FMCG. Kirsty has experience working across multiple geographies – Europe, Asia and the USA – is a trained DDI Facilitator and Targeted Selection practitioner and is Level A and Intermediate Level B trained.

Jack Hawkins is Digital Marketing Lead for Group GTI and Social Media Specialist at TARGETrecruit. Jack has seven years’ experience working in digital marketing and social media and has spent the past three years developing, rolling out and analysing social media marketing strategies for multiple channels – notably the strategy, management and delivery of content published from the Sky Early Careers Facebook and Twitter feeds. Since Jack has started working on the Sky Early Careers social media channels, engagement rates have soared and consistently exceeded SLA benchmarks.

Ivan Wise is the Recruitment Director for Think Ahead, a charity which recruits and trains mental health social workers, and is ranked 42nd in the 2018-19 list of Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. He was previously Head of Staffing at The Challenge, recruiting thousands of students and graduates to work on residential and community projects as part of the NCS programme. Before that, he was Head of Volunteering Project Managers for WorldWide Volunteering, overseeing a series of projects which supported disadvantaged young people – including those from prisons and care homes – into voluntary work.

Mike is a Senior Business Development Manager at Aon Assessment Solutions. Mike has years of international experience assisting organisations define their talent strategies across multiple industries. Mike has worked on projects across UK, Europe, Africa and Australasia. He has experience using multiple assessment tools and methodologies based on client specific objectives. Mike has worked on projects including Graduate Recruitment, Talent Mapping, Succession Planning, Sales Force Effectiveness and more recently Digital Transformation.  

At Aon, Mike’s role is to advise customers on the latest industry trends within the recruitment and assessment industry with a view of delivering his clients a measurable ROI. 

Skye is a senior consultant of organisational psychology with years of international experience in designing effective talent solutions for clients across industry. Her areas of expertise focus on digital assessment, transformation and change, talent strategy, and talent analytics; measuring capability to drive performance.

As a consultant with cut-e, now Assessment Solutions by Aon, Skye works with clients on selection and development initiatives to drive organisational growth and productivity. Throughout her career, Skye has delivered scientifically-driven solutions translating into real returns for individuals and for the business. After moving to London in 2014, she led the psychology function for a technology company delivering app-based assessment and has worked on a number of assessment-focussed projects as an independent consultant.

Josh Gelb, Resourcing Assessment Manager, Nationwide

Josh Gelb is part of the Assessment and People Insights team at Nationwide Building Society. Josh specialises in all things assessment and development with a focus on our contact centres, emerging talent (Grads, IPs and Apprentices) and tech talent across the organisation. Born and bred in Cape Town, South Africa, Josh trained and registered as an Organisational/ Industrial Psychologist. Previous roles include working in a Consulting Firm where recruitment, development and assessments were their bread and butter.

Designing and facilitating various team-based interventions across organisational levels, conducting coaching at middle level management and forming part of a team delivering OD interventions across Southern Africa. An interest of Josh’s is Work-Family conflict and how the changing gender norms of society impact this phenomena at work.

Georgie Brazier, Marketing Manager, Milkround

Georgie is the marketing manager for Milkround, the UK’s leading student and graduate job board. Having worked at Milkround for over 3 years, Georgie has taken a keen interest into the ever-changing world of early talent and how employers need to encourage students from all backgrounds to apply for their roles. A key highlight for this year has been working with Access Accountancy to tackle social mobility and demystify a career in accountancy within low socio-economic schools.