ISE Board members Jade Pearson at Severn Trent, Laura Anderson at HSBC and Lucy Hegarty at GSK along with ISE Chair Joan Moore at Accenture share their priorities for 2025.

1. Influencing and applying education and skills policy

The next year will bring the establishment of Skills England, the Curriculum and Assessment Review and a continued focus and evolution of the apprenticeship levy.

And we need better guidance and regulation on technology and AI in recruitment to balance considerations around fairness and transparency with a pragmatic and forward-looking approach to innovation.

It’s imperative that early careers teams and talent leaders stay close to the developing policies, feel confident in speaking on behalf of their organisation externally, and are able to translate any planned or future changes in policy to internal delivery plans

2. Strategic alignment to the business

Ensuring early careers is strategically aligned to the business will continue to require having a seat at the leadership table, understanding and supporting strategic skills, and workforce planning for the business. Building the business case for investment and measuring the ROI/effectiveness of programmes is vital.

This will mean identifying where early careers/emerging talent pathways and programmes (T-Levels, apprenticeships, graduate programmes etc) are the right skills intervention.

We should be focused on creating a skilled talent pool, not based on specifics roles, but on the necessary skills to be adaptable in a changing and diverse future-state employment model.

3. Broadening the talent pool

It’s becoming ever more important for organisations to look beyond the typical early career talent pool. This is down to several factors including the continuing unemployment rates, fewer young people and marginalised groups (i.e. long term unemployed, disabled people, care leavers, NEETs, ex-offenders etc) the most likely to be unemployed, coupled with a continued need for organisations to attract and recruit future talent.

This is about strengthening outreach and attraction, and broadening work experience and employability programmes to help those furthest away from employment raise their aspirations and find a pathway to employment.

There are also opportunities to broaden entry routes for early careers talent beyond traditional programmatic routes and support candidates navigating the wide range of opportunities and pathways available to them.

4. Ensuring inclusive recruitment

We must continue to ensure recruitment practices create a level playing field for all candidates.

Alternative assessments should be available to those who need adjustments and/or have additional needs, while balancing the efficiency and effectiveness of selection processes.

Social Mobility continues to grow as an area of focus within EDI. Its many intersectionalities may represent an opportunity for employers to embed best practice that will support inclusion across a range of communities.

5. Greater focus on safeguarding, pastoral and welfare support

A rise in neurodiversity diagnosis and speak-up culture around mental health as well as employers tapping into broader talent pools who may have additional needs or require tailored support, has driven more focus around safeguarding, pastoral and welfare support. But there is more work to do to break the stigma.

It’s becoming increasingly important for employers, educators and supplier partners to have a greater focus on the safeguarding and welfare of learners and employees.

As employers, we must also recognise the impact our hiring processes have on all candidates, not just those we eventually employ – candidate experience and particularly the way candidates are rejected are areas that could be valuable to invest in.

6. Navigating the AI journey

There is a lot of discussion around whether recruiters will be needed in the new world of AI, but perhaps the smart question for leaders is how they can leverage advancements, allowing it to free up time for teams to be more strategic and innovative.

The focus will be on creating greater efficiencies while ensuring the human touch remains in a people orientated process – all in line with the regulatory landscape.

Candidate use will also continue to dominate discussion and there will be impetus on how employers can get ahead. Many will seek to embrace candidates showing digital curiosity and leveraging AI and other tools, but assessment processes and candidate guidance must align to ensure effective use of that technology without removing authenticity and validity of scoring.

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