With over two decades’ experience at the forefront of graduate recruitment and early-careers strategy, Stephen shares insights on the current state of the graduate and early careers market and what this means for employers' long-term succession pipelines. They discuss the growing impact of AI on early career roles, the shift towards skills-based hiring, and how significant demographic changes, including falling birth rates and longer working lives, are set to reshape how organisations plan for their future people needs.

Key takeaways

• Protect early-careers pipelines through downturns to avoid future leadership gaps. Cutting graduate and entrylevel hiring for short-term cost savings risks creating long-term capability gaps. Investing in early careers and developing people internally delivers far greater long-term returns than buying experience externally.
• Prioritise adaptability and learning agility over technical skills at the point of hire. As technology and demographic shifts reshape work, build early-career pipelines with the flexibility to adapt as roles evolve, then develop technical capability through structured development programmes.
• Broaden your concept of early careers to prepare for demographic shifts. Declining birth rates mean fewer graduates entering the workforce and early-career candidates are harder to find. Expand programmes beyond new graduates to include career changers, returners and internal reskilling to mitigate the risks of being wholly reliant on a shrinking external pool.
• Prioritise long-term workforce planning. Employer power in the labour market is cyclical and can shift quickly as a result of demographic decline, rising skills demand and geopolitical uncertainty. Carve out dedicated space for strategic people planning now so you have the people capabilities when conditions change. 

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