Richard Bowden

Internships Manager at De Montfort University

"The Introduction to Employer Engagement session was so useful that I arranged for Gradconsult to come on to campus to deliver the session to colleagues working across the Careers service. It provided a great insight in to what employers look for when engaging with universities and it allows you the opportunity to take a step back and assess your services and profile in order to identify areas of improvement.

It also gives you the confidence to recognise what you already do well! I couldn’t recommend this session enough, even for those who are experienced in employer engagement activities as its much more than an ‘introduction.’"

Paul Gaunt 

Head of Careers and Employability at University of Liverpool

"I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Rebecca for over a decade, during which time we have both had a number of roles. Most recently Rebecca did some excellent consultancy work with the team I led at the University of Chester, looking in particular at employer engagement strategy and promoting our widening participation/employability initiatives. I am already planning to make use of Rebecca's expertise in my new role at Liverpool.

Rebecca is creative, energetic, empathic, and passionate about helping her clients think in new and productive ways about what they can achieve. She understands graduate recruiters, she understands graduates, and she understands careers services, and I cannot think of anyone who is able to combine those perspectives in such a fresh and inspiring way."

Nell Farrell 

Project Manager, The Practice Learning Consortium 

"Kylie is creative and diligent, produces high quality work and is open to feedback from others. She contributes to any task with acuity and honesty.
She is emotionally intelligent, warm and highly socially adept, with a dynamic and positive presence."

Richard Harradine

Director, Meva Formwork Systems Ltd 

"Kylie has worked on several projects with us now and although the subject
and products fall outside her field of expertise she has shown total
professionalism in her returned documents, with the attention to detail far
exceeding our 'in-house' team."

Sarah Wise

Manager, TeamStudio 

"Kylie worked with us at TeamStudio for three months on a fixed term project. From the outset she was highly efficient, a quick learner and very adaptable. She came up with solutions to problems without being prompted, saw ways to change things and executed the changes with accuracy. A pleasure to be around, a person that others gravitate towards, an asset to any team."

Judith Baines

Head of Careers, Employment and Enterprise Service at University of Hertfordshire

"Rebecca's experience of having worked in graduate recruitment, for AGR and with careers services means that her insights into how to improve a careers service employer strategy are invaluable.

Rebecca asked insightful questions of my team in a supportive environment leaving the team ready to tackle a new strategy. Looking forward to working with her in the future."

Jon Davies

Partner at Chatter - specialising in HR technology, social media and employer brand.

"I've worked with Charlie on various projects since 2010 and always found him a pleasure to collaborate with. Professional and detail focussed he's always keen to explore new technology and work together as a partnership to get the best out of any project.

He's a passionate advocate for graduate and early entry careers programmes with great experience of engaging with colleagues at all levels to make things happen and a great source of insight and experience."

Seema Tailor-Bulsara

Employer Engagement Manager at Coventry University

"Mike Grey joined Coventry University in 2011 and has in this time demonstrated excellent leadership skills, strategic direction, drive and enthusiasm for the Placement Unit within the Engineering and Computing faculty. With this passion Mike now leads the Placement Unit which successfully supports hundreds of students into high profile placement opportunities. Mike also demonstrates outstanding employer account management capabilities as well as working with students in a one to one capacity and large scale presentations. Mike is a pleasure to work alongside and consistently brings energy and fresh ideas to any given task."

Martin PErfect

Employer Relationship Manager, University of Leicester

"I have worked with Mike for a number of years and have seen first-hand both the knowledge and passion he has in the area of Graduate Recruitment.

Mike has a unique ability to craft long-term relationships that deliver real benefits to all parties. Mike clearly understands the challenges that students face in this fiercely competitive market and I have seen him coach and mentor hundreds of talented graduates into global organisations, across a variety of different sectors. He is a strategic thinker who innovates to overcome organisational and cultural challenges with practical  and enterprising solutions." 

Rebecca Fielding Nominated for Outstanding Entrepreneur

Northern Power Women Awards

We are delighted to say that the judges have reviewed Rebecca's tremendous work and she has been shortlisted for the Outstanding Entrepreneur category of the Northern Power Women Awards. 

When setting up the Northern Power Women Campaign, it was about creating a community of role models from across the Northern Powerhouse, across many different fields of business from corporate, social enterprises, public sector, educational sector and many more. I hope you will feel very much part of Northern Power Women, and on behalf of the panel I would like to thank you for being a role model.

Northern Power Women is a campaign to accelerate gender balance from the North and we have enjoyed every moment of your support in driving this agenda. We are so glad you can continue to be involved as a shortlisted nominee, we are so happy to be able to showcase exceptional individuals like you and organisations across the North.

The Northern Power Women awards will take place at Hilton Deansgate, Manchester on 3 March, 2016. Why not join in the conversation on Twitter @NorthPowerWomen #NPW and even Facebook.

 

Mike Grey, winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award

National Undergraduate Awards

Mike Grey, our Senior Consultant, won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the National Undergraduate Employability Awards 2016. It was presented to him by Levi Roots, of Reggae Reggae Sauce fame, at the awards event in London (February 2016) attended by 450 delegates from the world of placement and graduate recruitment.

This award was in recognition for his achievements across a decade working at Nottingham Trent University, Brunel University and Coventry University. The judges also recognised the significant contribution he has made to supporting the employability agenda in the UK through his work with PlaceNet and across Europe working with organisations such as EURASHE.

Before joining Gradconsult, most recently Mike launched and developed EC Futures at Coventry University, this specialist STEM employability unit won a range of awards including a Teaching Excellence Award for Employability and Best Placement Service in the UK 2015.

The judging panel were extremely impressed that there were over 30 testimonials from employers, colleagues and students, they felt this extract summed up why he was such a deserving winner of the award:

"Mike is results oriented; pro-active; understanding of the interests and priorities of business and academics, whilst also being strongly focused on the needs of students." Andrew Ward, Director of Corporate Relations, Brunel University

Susan Stevens

HR Project Manager at Redington Ltd

"I originally approached GradConsult as I had been impressed by Rebecca’s knowledge of graduate recruitment at a recent AGR training event that I attended.

At Redington, we wanted to take a more robust approach to our graduate recruitment with the introduction of assessment centres, rather than relying on interviews alone.  We were keen to ensure that our selection methods were able to help us measure capability as well as characteristics.  We designed most of the assessment centre in house but decided to outsource the design of a group task to GradConsult.  GradConsult responded very quickly to our request for help and were able to accommodate the work with our budget parameters.   Following an initial conference call with the business, HR and some existing grads, GradConsult came up with a great idea for a group task that was really relevant to our business, from there they developed the idea into a task which they tested with some local university undergraduates and then delivered to a us a packaged group task which we can run ourselves.  We have found the team task easy to use, the candidates have enjoyed completing the task and more importantly it has enabled the business to observe behaviours and help with selection decisions.  Mike was on hand to deal with any questions I had about the task.  We are very pleased with what GradConsult has created for us."

Holly Prescott

(Postgraduate Employer Engagement Officer)

‘’Mike is an excellent facilitator who speaks with real authority on employer engagement. His 'Introduction to Employer Engagement' for AGCAS offered a great insight into meeting the needs of recruiters and organisations of various scales, allowing an openness to learn from others in the group. The session sent me back to the office with new ideas, new contacts and new energy.’’