As a result of receiving the CMI Undergraduate Award from Bournemouth University, one of our Graduate Management Consultants, Tamara Kelly, was invited to attend the CMI HE Conference 2018 in London. The purpose of the conference was to showcase the work CMI and its partnered Universities have completed over the past year and celebrate the achievements of students who have completed, or are in the process of completing, dual accreditations or degree apprenticeships with CMI and their chosen University.
Ann Francke, CEO of CMI, kicked off the conference by highlighting a shortage of management and leadership skills as the UK’s main productivity challenge, on which the conference focused regarding finding a solution.
CMI’s most recent piece of research, ‘21st Century Leaders’, was presented. This discusses some key insights into the expectations of future leaders from an employer’s perspective, and provides higher education and employers with recommendations on what they should be providing students in order to prepare them for their journey in becoming a future leader. The key finding from the research identified that business graduates leave higher education without the ability to manage people or have difficult conversations, both of which are integral to effective leadership. This highlights an area where higher education can be effective in making improvements. Further to this, the research also discusses student expectations of higher education and employers, and includes real life case studies from their partnered Universities.
The conference also included a range of panel discussions around topics such as employability, CMI’s international reach and degree apprenticeships, and presented awards both for the Student and Apprentice of the Year and International and HE Partner of the Year.
