Early Careers Conference, Manchester 2026

More than two-thirds of jobseekers are already using AI tools to draft CVs, complete assessments, and prepare for interviews. For volume hiring teams, this changes everything, from screening processes to fairness and candidate experience. In this session, we’ll unpack the realities of AI-enabled applicants, the risks it poses, and the opportunities it creates for smarter, faster, and fairer recruitment.

What to expect:

• How AI is changing candidate behaviour at scale
• The risks of over-relying on traditional assessments in an AI-driven landscape
• Practical steps to adapt your hiring strategy, balancing speed, quality, and fairness

The next generation of talent is rewriting the rules of career decision-making. Drawing on responses from over 40,000 students, Unifrog reveals how young people choose between apprenticeships and university, who truly influences them, and what employers can do to win their attention in a crowded market. From the growing influence of parents and teachers to the rise of AI-assisted applications and personalised employer outreach, this session uncovers the data behind Gen Z’s choices — and how employers can turn insight into action.

What to expect:

• The decision divide: What factors are influencing students career choices and how that's shifting
• Influencers that matter: How parents, teachers, and peers shape career choices — and how employers can engage them effectively
• Cutting through the noise: Why personalisation and authenticity now define employer success in early careers attraction
• Future forecasts: What the data tells us about where early talent trends are heading next

• Define the evolving expectations of early careers clients and what they now seek from in-person and hybrid assessment centres in an AI-driven talent landscape
• Explore what a differentiated candidate experience looks like in the Age of AI, and how organisations can create a branded, human-centred journey that stands out
• Examine which behaviours matter most for early careers success, drawing on Talogy’s research to identify the high-impact behavioural indicators that should anchor modern assessment
• Discuss how to balance innovation with rigour as innovation can impact fairness, inclusion outcomes, and measurement robustness

Early-careers hiring has become a race for efficiency. Faster screening, tighter filters, more automation; all designed to cope with rising application volumes. But in the process, organisations are filtering out potential, not finding it. In this keynote, Chris Woodward-Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Vizzy, challenges the idea that speed equals success. Drawing on real hiring data and Gen Z behaviour, this session explores why traditional metrics are failing early talent and how to rebalance efficiency with humanity to build a stronger workforce.

What to expect:

• When speed helps, and when it harms: How over-optimisation and over-filtering cause high-potential early talent to be missed.
• Gen Z has outgrown the CV: What today’s candidates expect instead, and why anonymity and legacy metrics no longer predict success.
• A better model for hiring at scale: How to blend automation with human insight to assess potential, not polish, without slowing down.

With applications at record highs, AI is increasingly embedded in early careers hiring but what does 'good AI' actually look like? This panel of practitioners share and unpack real-world examples of the pain points in early careers, where AI can be used, as well as how to protect, and enhance both candidate experience and fairness in the process.

For TA leaders navigating volume, scrutiny, and rising expectations, this session offers practical learnings on using AI responsibly, without losing the human touch that early talent requires.

What to expect:

• Real examples of AI in action and how teams define success
• Which early careers pain points AI should solve and which still need human judgment
• What practising 'responsible AI' looks like
• How to design AI-enabled candidate experiences for trust, transparency and credibility

Candidate experience between offer and day one is an increasingly overlooked point of failure in early careers hiring. This session positions pre-boarding as a strategic control point for protecting acceptance rates, safeguarding future headcount, and reinforcing employer trust. It focuses on how organisations can deliberately design ownership, touchpoints, and accountability across long lead times — not simply add more activity.

What to expect:

• Why pre-boarding is a critical risk window in early careers hiring
• How clear ownership across TA, managers, and the business prevents drop-off
• What intentional experience design looks like beyond comms and events
• How to scale high-impact candidate experience without increasing cost or complexity

Early careers programmes are increasingly critical to long-term workforce strategy. This session examines how organisations can move early careers from reactive hiring to intentional capability building. Learn how to design scalable, in-house early careers models that support skills planning, diversify future leadership pipelines, and deliver measurable business value over time.

What to expect:

• How early careers can underpin long-term workforce and succession planning
• Why targeted capability building outperforms volume-based graduate hiring
• What strategic trade-offs enterprises and SMEs must make in programme design
• How to measure early careers impact beyond short-term hiring metrics

Early careers strategies can’t be built as polished, static programmes anymore. This session challenges the case-study-led mindset and shows how talent leaders can design early careers in “beta mode” — continuously testing, adapting, and improving in response to shifting skills needs, candidate behaviour, and business priorities. Expect practical approaches for building agile, low-risk programmes that thrive amid uncertainty and create long-term talent value.

What to expect:

• Why early careers strategies must stay unfinished to remain effective
• How to design early careers programmes that adapt without constant reinvention
• Practical self-assessment tips to help you unlock the "true" driver behind early careers