Following the success of our inaugural event last year IEP are delighted to once again be bringing you the IEP Digital Technology Conference, sponsored by our partners Cognisoft, a leading provider of web-based software solutions for government funded training, employability and skills providers across England, Scotland and Wales. CogniSoft has worked alongside the employability sector since 2000 and have an in-depth understanding of the issues providers face in delivering employability programmes. The experience and knowledge they will be bringing to the conference in relation to technological advances available to our sector will be a key component of the conference content and we are delighted that they are supporting our event as Headline Sponsors.
Taking place online between the 20th and 24th September this FREE event is a must-do for anyone currently working in employability and skills or who are interested in joining our sector, offering an ideal opportunity for practitioners and employers to come together to learn and network.
I T I N E R A R Y
DAY 1 : Monday, September 20
Theme: Recruitment and Selection in the Digital World
10:00 am – 10:15 am – Welcome & Introduction – Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) Chief Executive, Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
IEP Chief Executive Scott Parkin will set the scene for the week ahead with speaker introductions and a brief summary of what’s coming up.
SESSION 1
10:15 am – 11:15 am – Recruitment in the digital age – Beth Curtis (Speaker) Director of Business Development and Strategy, Protocol
An exploration and discussion of how recruitment has changed, continues to change and may evolve in the future. As well as exploring different tools and techniques, the session will explore the benefits and challenges for both the candidate and potential employer, and how each can make the most of the experience, particulalry in the post-COVId world. Attendees will be asked to engage and debate the issues, sharing their challenges and examples of best practice where possible.
SESSION 2
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Recruitment and Selection in the Digital World – Jayne Garner FIEP (Speaker) | Head of Integration | Ingeus
12:45 pm – 1:15 pm – Networking 1
DAY 2: Tuesday, September 21
Theme: Learning through technology
10:00 am – 10:15 am – Welcome & Introduction – Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) | Chief Executive | Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
Scott Parkin will recap on the highlights of the previous day’s events and give an overview of what’s in store for the day ahead.
SESSION 1
10:15 am – 11:15 am – Improve the odds of work readiness in the digital world through experiential learning – Sian Wilson FIEP (Speaker) | Practice Labs
Join us to discuss how digital skills is evolving and how developing digital skills of our customers can improve their odds of sustainable employment.
SESSION 2
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Supporting the advisors in their digital journey – Emma Cook FIEP (Speaker) | Managing Director | CogniSoft Ltd
There is so much emphasis on supporting and upskilling Participants in the Digital Technology world, but how do you ensure that your advisors are not only comfortable with the technology and platforms you are asking them to use, but competent in its use and the reasons why they need to use it?
Your advisors are primarily employed to work with people, but the need to work with technology is equally important. Do we make an assumption that because we live in a digital age that everyone has the correct transferrable skills to cope in the workplace?
Our session will explore the need for advisors to be competent in the use of the platforms you use and discuss how we can achieve this.
SESSION 3
12:45 pm – 1:45 pm – Busting the Online Training Myths – Bill Colman (Speaker) | The Digital College
When was the last time you asked yourself if you were using online learning in the most effective way? This session will challenge everyday assumptions about online learning, and how you invest your time, budget and resources. Learning from our network of over 100 partners and tens of thousands of students, we highlight some of the pitfalls and traps providers can fall into and how to avoid them. We will take a look into the future direction of online training and discuss whether digital inclusion will soon be a thing of the past.
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Networking 2
DAY 3: Wednesday, September 22
Theme: Coaching and support at a distance
10:00 am – 10:15 am – Welcome & Introduction – Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) Chief Executive, Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
Scott Parkin will recap on the highlights of the previous day’s events and give an overview of what’s in store for the day ahead.
SESSION 1
10:15 am – 11:15 am – Optimising employment delivery through utilising data insights from the jobseeker journey – Mark Abrahams C.Psychol (Speaker) | Head of Research and Analytics | Aptem
Mark Abrahams C.Psychol, Head of Research at Aptem, talks us through the jobseeker data journey, data collection points and how can we move away from being ‘Data Rich Insight Poor’. How can we make use of these data insights from the jobseeker journey to go beyond compliance/contractual reporting? How can data be used to improve operational performance from a work coach and jobseekers perspective to predict outcomes and manage risk?
SESSION 2
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Lisa Hughes FIEP (Speaker) | JobSkilla
SESSION 3
12:45 pm – 1:45 pm – Delivering your best quality to your customers – Louise Doyle (Speaker) | Mesma and Sally Forsyth (Speaker) | BDE | mesma
When interacting with your team members is from a distance and their interactions with customers isn’t face to face, it is hard to have the confidence that your teams can deliver the same quality of customer service that they do onsite. It is critical that every touchpoint with your customers will accelerate their progress towards their employment goals, however it is delivered. In this session, Louise Doyle, will help you to develop strategies for quality assurance and improvement to ensure that your frontline teams are fully supported to deliver the same high quality of support to your customers from a distance.
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Networking 3
Day 4: Thursday, September 23
Theme: Inclusion in a virtual age
10:00 am – 10:15 am – Welcome & Introduction – Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) Chief Executive, Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
Scott Parkin will recap on the highlights of the previous day’s events and give an overview of what’s in store for the day ahead.
10:15 am – 11:15 am – Inclusion and Resilience in a Digital World – Maria Smith (Speaker) | CEO & Founder | Bounce Australia
The world of work is a fast-changing environment. As virtual engagement and connection become the new normal, we are presented with a whole range of new challenges and opportunities. We have to get the perspective right to make it work best for us, especially when it comes to creating an inclusive and resilient workforce.
In this immersive virtual workshop, Maria Smith will help you develop your skills to build connection and trust within a digital context. You’ll learn to use powerful coaching techniques to strengthen your relationships and understand the strategies needed to build resilience in yourself and your people. Maria will give you the essential tools and techniques to bolster your coaching skills in the changing COVID landscape so you can deliver consistent results for your organisation.
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – The success of digital inclusion and what to do next ? – Hilary Clifford (Speaker) | Managing Director | AoC Services | Association of Colleges
This session will look at the rapid change and growth within AoC through adopting a digital first approach at the onset of the pandemic. Over the last 18 months our services have grown significantly, reaching thousands of new people working within colleges, creating a louder and more diverse range of voices and we have created many new products and services to meet member requirements. We will look at some of the challenges, the approaches we have taken and the impact made. we will also look at the future plans to build on this more inclusive and informal relationship with our member organisations and the staff working within them.
12:45 pm – 1:15 pm – Networking 4
DAY 5: Friday, September 24
Theme: Labour market intelligence and building employer relationships
10:00 am – 10:15 am – Welcome & Introduction – Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) Chief Executive, Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
Scott Parkin will recap on the highlights of the previous day’s events and give an overview of what’s in store for the day ahead.
SESSION 1
10:15 am – 11:15 am – Associate Professor Jo Ingold FIEP (Speaker) Associate Professor, Deakin UniversIty
We all know that digitalisation is important but we don’t yet know how far it’s transforming the actual delivery of employment services. This session draws on comparative research on digitalisation of employment services in the UK and Australia that maps the scale and use of digital tools by the sector. Data insights will be presented from surveys of providers and interviews with providers and tech companies in both countries and there will be opportunity for discussion about the implications for employability professionals.
SESSION 2
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Understanding the post-pandemic economic bounce back and what this could mean for the employability sector – Andy Durman (Speaker)| EMSI Burning Glass and Will Cookson (Speaker) | Emsi Burning Glass
We will track through an overview of the latest employment trends as the economy bounces back from COVID-19 lockdowns and explore how this might influence how employability providers can shape their activities to meet a fast changing employment and hiring environment.
SESSION 3
12:45 pm – 1:15 pm – Networking 5
1:15 pm – 2:00 pm – Reflections & Takeaways
End of Conference Wrap Up with Scott Parkin FIEP (Speaker) | Chief Executive | Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP)
Final Thoughts & Thank You’s
FORMAT
We will be bringing the Digital Technology Conference 2021 to you via state-of-the-art digital platform, Whova. Winners of the Best Event app at the Event Technology Awards and billed as ‘The Oscars of Event Technology’ we are really excited about the new possibilities the platform offers including:
• Livestreams and pre-recorded video
• Session streaming
• video replay
• digital booths and network tables
• attendee engagement & networking
• Live Q&A, polls, chat, and more
The Whova technology will enable speakers to engage and interact with participants before, during and after sessions and offers a unique opportunity for participants to make connections, meet-ups, start conversations, share photos and find and connect with others with common interests. It will be the closest thing to a physical conference you will find in a virtual capacity, with exhibition break-out rooms and speed-dating-esque video chatrooms too!
This year’s event promises to build on the success of 2020, once again bringing together some of the industry’s leading specialists to discuss and present their ideas on technological advances and current challenges to help understanding and to identify your own skill gaps and how to address them. Over the five days we will be focusing on 5 key themes:
• Recruitment and Selection in the digital world
• Learning through technology
• Coaching and support at a distance
• Inclusion in a virtual age
• Labour market intelligence and building employer relationships
Daniel Howard FIEP, MD of Skills Forward and Operations Director for Learning for Work who was a speaker at DTC 2020 said: “I thought last year’s Digital Technology Conference was a perfect example of likeminded organisations coming together to address a common goal. It was a privilege to be able to present and engage with colleagues across the sector, particularly as we all work together to build back better following one of the most devastating moments in our recent economic history. The work the IEP does to facilitate conferences like this, and meaningful discussion is to be commended.’
If you are interested in speaker opportunities, sponsorship or exhibiting, please contact scott.parkin@iemployability.org as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Sponsorship and Exhibiting opportunities:
Sponsors:
Sponsor Profile Page to share brand and connect with attendees
Custom Banner Ad
Direct messaging with attendees via chat
Self service page set up
Exhibitors:
Engage with attendees via livestream and video uploads
Access to personal Virtual Exhibitor Booth through web or mobile app
Promotion through passport contest
Lead gathering through coupons, giveaways, raffles or likes
Interactive virtual exhibitor booth chatbox
Self service – build your own branded booth
Exhibitor webpage and gallery to increase visits
If you are interested in any of the above sponsorship or exhibiting opportunities please contact Scott Parkin FIEP at scott.parkin@iemployability.org
About IEP
IEP is the only professional membership institute for the employability profession. It represents its members to key influencers and sets the standards for the profession. Our vision is ‘Employability professionals everywhere are the best they can be.’
About CogniSoft
A leading provider of web-based software solutions for government funded training, skills and employment service providers across England, Scotland and Wales for over 30 years.
Our approach is based on working in detail with our customers throughout their implementation and beyond, in order to deliver tailored systems that closely fit the customers’ processes. Our experience helps us inform and shape this process to ultimately deliver systems that will work in practice. We have a great track record in designing and implementing effective database systems for some of the highest profile organisations in UK, particularly in the area of Welfare to Work.
