Catalysing the AI Economy: The Imperative for Skills and Infrastructure Development in West Yorkshire 

The advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies, has brought about a paradigm shift in the global economic landscape. The UK is staking a claim as a leading voice in the direction of AI development and regulation, however the UK regions are vastly unequal in the preparedness to use AI to support their economies and citizens.

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7 June 2023 One Year On Graduate Employability Conference

To view conference proceedings including the event recording, agenda, slides, the Regional Inclusive Recruitment Guide and Case Study Impact Award results please Go to this Sway. Read the related press release and op-ed piece on why graduates matter to Yorkshire by Dr Peter O’Brien below: Find out how to get involved in our ‘Navigating the …

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Opportunity: Navigating the HE Offer & Simplifying Entry Points to Universities

In the 2023/24 work programme, Yorkshire Universities will be running a Task & Finish Group on navigating the HE offer and signposting to entry points at the member universities across the region to ease engagement for employers.

The Task & Finish Group will provisionally run for six months between August 2023 and January 2024 with monthly online focus group meetings.

We’d like to co-develop this work with a range of stakeholders, including higher education sector partners, local authorities and employers. If you are interested in collaborating with us on this project, we want to hear from you!

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Re-thinking community (dis)engagement: Who, why, and where? 

Dr Juan Pablo Winter, Policy Fellow Y-PERN – Hull & East Yorkshire The recently released Community Life Survey 2021/22 (CLS) revealed that civic engagement and participation rates in England were lower than in previous years and present significant differences across participants’ income, age and place of residence. Those living in the least deprived areas (4th …

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(Generative) AI & Public Policy

In November 2022 ChatGPT was launched. ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot built on OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer class of language models and it rapidly developed popularity for its detailed answers, its articulate and creative responses, and not in the least as its answers could be easily shared across social media. The AI Chatbot space is particularly competitive with releases such as Google’s Bard offering comparative functionality. 

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Competent retrofitting policy & inflation resilience: The cheapest energy is that which you don’t use

Given that it is widely acknowledged that the cheapest energy is that which you don’t use, we take a tangential approach to issues of energy prices and inflation and focus on energy efficiency policy that reduces demand at source. Our focus is housing retrofitting from an institutional or framework perspective. We briefly set out what retrofitting is (since this is a moving target), and what the need for it is in the UK. We then focus on the Climate Change Committee’s current assessment of policy. This brings to the fore the government’s minimalist approach to ‘developing a market’. We argue that this approach invokes an individualised market psychology which is both conceptually and practically problematic, given the need for urgency and the current situation of inflation and uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting a fundamental rethink is required.

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Case Study – How to make your recruitment practices more inclusive: a guide for employers

During consultations with employers, our Employer Engagement Team was increasingly asked how organisations could better attract and recruit students and graduates, from a range of diverse backgrounds. Whilst some guidance for employers exists, there was no single comprehensive source to help employers realise the benefits of recruiting a diverse workforce, and understand how to adapt their processes to recruit and retain a wide range of candidates.

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Case Study – Putting the global in local business: an employer engagement event

The University of Bradford has forged a robust partnership with STRI Group, a renowned design and management consultancy specialising in sport surfaces. STRI Group is widely recognised for their scientific research and analysis expertise pertaining to sports turf surfaces. This collaboration has provided valuable opportunities for students, including work-based internships, mentoring, guest lectures, and work-based learning experiences. Recently, the partnership took a significant step forward by participating in the Brad-ATTAIN project, which seeks to address the underrepresentation of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) groups in postgraduate research studies.

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Why graduates matter to Yorkshire

Op-ed by Dr Peter O’Brien, Executive Director for Yorkshire Universities The higher education sector is one of the UK’s greatest assets, generating significant economic, social and cultural value. Research commissioned by Universities UK, in 2022, found that universities in England contribute around £95 billion to the economy and support more than 815,000 jobs, Higher education …

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Press Release: ‘Improving Graduate Employability in Yorkshire’  

Universities in Yorkshire undertake significant work to support students through their studies, and as they move into and beyond graduation. The most successful regions are those able to attract and retain large numbers of graduates. These places prioritise improving graduate utilisation within the labour market to encourage and enable more students and graduates to achieve employment and career success.

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