.png)
In Springpod’s latest Impact Hour webinar, we brought together employers, students and early careers experts to explore what these changes mean for both employers and the next generation of talent. More importantly, we discussed what tangible actions organisations can take to combat these changes.
The hurdles for early careers
The challenges that have emerged cover all sides of the spectrum. A rise in application volumes is making it difficult for employers to find fair and transparent ways to assess applications. Shifts in the demand and scope of early careers roles combined with evolving skills needs is making it hard to keep up. Also, there are expectations for more digital experiences and earlier engagement, to sit alongside the traditional career pathways. This is putting pressure on what are often already strained hiring processes and over-stretched recruitment teams.
At the same time, young people are trying to navigate an incredibly tough job market alongside a constantly rising cost of living. The spike in application volumes means many are now struggling to balance the time and effort required to submit large numbers of applications.
Against the tough backdrop of cost-of-living, expectations are changing. Flexibility and work-life balance have become more than just a nice-to-have, but a fundamental factor in their decision making.
60% of young people say financial factors are the top influence on their future career choices.
Potential trends reshaping Early Careers
Before sharing some personal insight, our panel discussed predictions for 2026 and how these could influence the way employers shape their future processes.
- 53% of Gen Z already juggle multiple freelance projects, implying a shift from traditional career paths
- 45% have rejected a potential employer because of misaligned values, instead having a much stronger moral compass when it comes to career choices
- 44% of UK businesses report having skills gaps, indicating a move from less fixed qualifications towards more skills-based accomplishments
- 93% of Gen Z use two or more AI tools weekly, with 25% having taken career advice from AI. Young people are entering the workforce with AI as an expectation, meaning employers need to adapt.
Overall, the combination of the expectations of young people starting their careers, the evolving landscape of AI use and the job market changes mean employers need to be revising their hiring practices or risk losing out on the next generation of talent.
A glimpse at early careers challenges for employers
Kelly Frith, Human Resource Lead, and Rhianna Macfarlane HR Supervisor, from Aldi UK took us through some of the obstacles they face while trying to navigate rising volumes of applicants.
With over 17,000 applications for an apprentice role this year, Kelly and Rhianna struggle to differentiate the quality from the quantity. They’ve found that despite the many applicants, candidates can often not fully understand the roles they’re applying for. This goes hand-in-hand with many young people overlooking the benefits of a career in retail.
To combat this, Aldi have implemented various processes to ensure candidates are fully prepared for their role.
- Virtual Work Experience (VWEX): Aldi partnered with Springpod to offer potential applicants a realistic view of working in retail before they decide to apply and help them build the necessary skills, confidence and experiences to be successful.
- Video and phone interviews: These steps in the recruitment process have become crucial in screening candidates, ensuring they’re aware of what the role entails and exploring if it’s a good fit, so the right candidates make it to the hiring manager.
58% of our webinar audience said volume and assessing was the biggest strain on their early careers funnel, with 34% saying it leads to difficulty distinguishing commitment from mass-applications.
The next generation of talent
We also got perspectives from real students on the realities facing their generation trying to enter the workforce.
Josh joined the panel as a Manufacturing Engineering Degree Apprentice. He explained that despite many young people applying for roles or apprenticeships, they’ll end up defaulting to side hustles because they don’t believe they have the skills necessary to succeed in the role.
“Young people don’t think they have the skills necessary to carry out a specific role or the skills necessary to even go through the application process.” - Josh
He went on to say that while employers are often clear about the skills that are required, a lot of students don’t have the access to learn or develop those skills. This is where skills based learning and work experience programmes can make a real difference.
Lack of transparency from the employers side also presents a major roadblock for students. Joanne, a Degree Apprentice at Amazon, shared that there’s a big misalignment between work experience and what the role itself actually entails and the skills required. She says there needs to be clear communication bridging the gap between the two to avoid imposter syndrome and drop-outs.
How does AI factor in?
It’s impossible to talk about the changes surrounding the next generation of talent without discussing AI.
Eva, a Year 13 student and aspiring solicitor, said that students are struggling to find the motivation to complete the large volumes of applications that are often required to secure a role. This becomes even more demotivating when the processes are usually carbon copies of each other. When young people are juggling studies, personal commitments and part-time work, applications that feel impersonal mean that students are defaulting to the use of AI to complete them.
“If the application itself feels impersonal, there’s no incentive for us to personalise it.” - Eva
Next gen are also AI-natives, so even when employers rely on AI detection tools, candidates are easily able to manipulate AI-generated content to bypass these tools. Ultimately, AI regulation is becoming more difficult and young people are normalising AI use as it’s more time and effort efficient.
What can employers do differently?
From a student, employer and early careers perspective, we asked the panel both what employers can do differently, and what tools they need to support young people.
It’s not just candidates who are overwhelmed
Teachers, careers leaders and advisors are also struggling to navigate the new digital landscape and have limited capacity. A suggestion for employers is to offer bite-sized information to help educate those who will then go on to support and guide the students applying.
Rethink requirements
Aldi removed requirements for previous qualifications or experience, choosing to focus on key soft skills like communication. They also try to educate young people in articulating these skills through their virtual work programme, using reflection activities to build confidence.
Understand the impact of rejection
With the sheer level of rejections being sent to young people, it’s important to understand the toll this takes on their mental health and motivation. Personalised feedback for every single applicant is, in most cases, unrealistic, but even some useful pointers or a link to a webpage on what they can do after they’ve been rejected could make a world of difference.
“As a future possibility, having AI analyse the applicants responses to be able to give that little bit of personalised feedback.” - Joanne
Don’t lose the human element
Half of our webinar audience said that organisations’ over-reliance on generic applications stops young people succeeding in the process. The next generation, more than ever, want to connect with a company’s values and feel part of a community. AI can be used to improve recruitment processes and therefore, candidate experiences, but it’s important not to replace the human touch. If the process feels robotic to applicants, they’ll feel less interested in applying.
“A lot of companies will talk about their community and connection, but the application itself becomes very robotic. It becomes draining and non-human[…]I want to be a part of the community that you say you’re creating but it doesn’t translate in the way that you’re trying to hire people.”
Don’t wait to adapt
A key takeaway from our panel was not to delay in getting ahead of these changes. Employers owe it to young people to recognise the challenges and design processes that truly meet the future generation.
For Aldi, introducing virtual work experiences challenged the company’s traditional mindset, but taking that leap has allowed them to reach nearly 10,000 students they wouldn’t have had the chance to before.
Early Careers teams are overwhelmed and students are frustrated, but organisations who are adapting to generational changes are much better equipped to not only attract, but retain the next generation of talent in the most time, cost and resource efficient ways.
If you’re interested in getting more insight into how the next generation is changing the early careers funnel, watch our webinar on demand here.
