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Regional Hubs



Spring ’23 Regional Hubs

The next round of Regional Hubs are planned to take place online as follows:

Midlands – Monday 27th March10:00-11:30
Scotland & Ireland – Tuesday 28th March 10:00-11:30
North – Wednesday 29th March 10:00-11:30
Southwest & Wales- Thursday 30th March 10:00-11:30
Southeast – Friday 31st March10:00-11:30

Regional Hub format
The format for the Spring ’23 hubs will be similar to that used previously where, following a short introduction to the Hub from an ASET Trustee, attendees will be allocated to breakout rooms in smaller groups to better enable networking and discussion around the topic area.
Each breakout group will address the specific questions outlined below, returning to the main room with their collective feedback.

Breakout Session 1 (25mins)
Question 1:
Question 2:

Following the feedback session (10mins) we will break into groups again and consider:

Breakout Session 2 (25mins)
Question 1:
Question 2:

Further feedback in the main room will also allow an opportunity to raise queries and questions aired during the breakout sessions.

Regional Hub events are free of charge to ASET members, and for the foreseeable future, we will continue to hold Regional Hub events online. Members of staff at ASET member institutions who have joined our mailing list, will automatically receive an invitation to join their Regional event. To sign up to the ASET mailing list email  [email protected] using the Subject Header JOIN 

Check if your institution is a Current member here

Previous events:
Winter ’22 : Hybrid Student Engagement
This academic year has seen a return to face-to-face teaching and events for many of our member institutions, after more than two years of predominantly online delivery. This Regional Hub will offer members a platform to discuss whether face-to-face events such as Careers Fairs are still relevant in 2022, if there still an appetite for Zoom, MS Teams and Google Hangouts now we can interact with our students in person, and to talk about which tools for engaging students are working for you now.
The second half of the Regional Hub will focus on our engagement with employers. Many large multinational corporations invested heavily in technology to deliver large scale recruitment and engagement events. Are these new technologies still being used? If so, to what extent, and how are they working?   

Spring 2022: All things International
As COVID-19 rules begin to ease in the UK and around the world, many students are broadening their search for placement opportunities. After almost two years of remote working, this will be a welcome ‘return to normal’ for many, although no doubt there will be testing times ahead. In these hubs we will take some time to discuss the challenges ahead, and ask:

  • What are your current challenges supporting home students being placed overseas?
  • What are your current challenges managing international students seeking placements in the UK?

Winter 2021: Blended Model: What is working and how are we now measuring the impact?
Four months into a new academic year we know our members are delivering their services in different ways. For some of you, a blended model of face to face and virtual delivery has become the norm, and for others you are still fully online. This regional hub will focus discussions upon delivering our services; WIL (work integrated learning) and WBPL (work based and placement learning) in this academic year. We will ask: What is working well for you? What are your challenges? We will then explore those terms of “success” and “measuring impact”.
At the 2021 ASET conference, Helen Higson OBE, Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management, Aston Business School outlined the importance of measuring the value of internships and placements but what does this actually look like, both for you personally, and for the provision you support day to day?
This Regional Hub will give you the opportunity to share and hear about what’s happening in institutions near you. There will be plenty of opportunity to network and share knowledge with your colleagues across your region in breakout room sessions which will fill the majority of the 90 minutes.
Question 1
What does your model of delivery look like for this academic year?
• Are you operating a blended service?
• What is working well?
• What are the challenges?
Question 2
How are you now measuring success and impact in your work?
• Are your “successes” from this year looking different?
• How do you measure impact?

Spring 2021: Outside the Box: Work Based Learning explored new initiatives and unexpected positives emerging as a result of the extraordinary circumstances of the past year. The meetings were held over 5 days in April. A short video from ASET Trustee, Mohson Khan, City, University of London, sharing some of the work of his team helped to get the events off to a good start.
Outside the Box: Work Based Learning:
If the last 18 months have taught us anything it’s that we as a sector are agile, innovative and will go above and beyond for our students. This challenging period of uncertainty has led to many innovations in a variety of industries across a range of sectors. As placement practitioners, we have contributed by developing new, alternative and creative solutions to enable our students to gain the vital professional experience they require. Across the placements sector there have been countless examples of innovation – none better exemplified than the examples shared by many of our peers in the Advanced HE report on this very topic;  https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/employability-breaking-mould
The Regional Hub meetings gave ASET members the opportunity to share and hear about some of these innovations first hand, what worked, what didn’t, lessons learned, and the long-term impact. There was, as always, plenty of opportunity to network and share knowledge with ASET colleagues in breakout room sessions, where the following questions were considered:

1. Have you developed an alternative to the Year-long Placement, or Summer Internship?  If so:
i) What did you offer?
ii) How did it progress?
iii) What lessons have you learnt from it?

2. Are there any specific approaches you have taken with employers in order to generate new opportunities? If so:
i) Have employers come up with suggestions?
ii) Are there any differences between sectors, industries?
iii) What do you think could help open these conversations?

Members of staff at ASET member institutions who have joined our mailing list, will automatically receive an invitation to join their Regional event. To sign up to the ASET mailing list email  [email protected] using the Subject Header JOIN 

Check if your institution is a Current member here


What are Regional Hubs?

ASET Regional Hub meetings came about in response to suggestions from you, our members, who wanted to meet to share thoughts and hear about work taking place at HEPs local to them. Regional Hubs are free of charge to ASET members.

In normal times we aim to meet in person and plan to do so again in 2022, as soon as we are able. In the meantime, we will continue to meet online via Zoom.

Face to Face events:

  • Aim to meet 3 times a year,  in September (at our annual conference), at the end of term in December, and during the Easter holiday in March/April
  • Are 2 hours in duration (10-12 am or 2-4 pm)
  • Facilitate focussed discussions on a current topic relevant to our field – video introduction from ASET supplied
  • Enable local networking to take place (outside of our conference and staff development workshops)
  • Are free of charge to our members (each HEP may send up to 2 members of staff)
  • Give opportunities to improve the links between individual members/local HEPs
  • Can lead to the production of new ASET Viewpoints
  • Hub events are supported by ASET with a trustee or member of the ASET Staff team in attendance at each event

Which Regional Hub do I belong to?

We have broadly split the UK into 5 regions as follows:

  • Scotland and Ireland
  • North
  • South West & Wales
  • South East
  • Midlands

If you are unsure which Regional Hub you belong to, please contact the ASET Office.

How do I host a Regional Hub meeting?

Regional hub meetings are normally 2 hours in duration, either mornings (10-12) or afternoons (2-4).  If you would like to host a Regional Hub event for your region and have a venue which could comfortably accommodate between 25-50 people, and can provide teas/coffees, please contact us. Host institutions are allocated up to 5 free places for these events.