Is work experience the answer to the NEET issue facing the country? And even if it isn’t, are organisations making the most of this model for finding and preparing new and vital talent for the workplace – and for their organisations?  

In a webinar from The HR World, sponsored by Connectr, hosted and introduced by Simon Reichwald, Founder, UnTappedTalentUk, these issues were debated and discussed. The panel included Kathryn Baddeley, Head of CSR & Inclusion, Cisco UK & Ireland, Marnie Bourne, Senior Manager, The Careers & Enterprise Company and Kate Hawthorn, Director Consultant Talent, FDM Group. Together they explored how work experience doesn’t just bring benefits for employers and future employees but also how the traditional models of work experience do not meet the current challenges in terms of experience and scale. 

The question of opportunity was one that came up early with Simon Riechwald noting that some 81% of young people rely on family and friends to secure work experience. He also explained how Covid and trends such as hybrid working had put additional strain on the traditional work experience model. 

The positive elements of work experience were examined by Marnie Bourne who explained how these initiatives fuelled aspiration and essential skills among young people as well as offering a variety of pathways and routes into work. Done correctly, work experience also opens employers to a wider diversity of talent, an aspect that can mean organisations are generating social value through the opportunities they offer. 

However, while Kathryn Baddeley explained that her organisation offered a wide range of work experience programmes – from day experiences to week-long hybrid experience which includes working from home – she also said there were barriers to making this work. One of the biggest challenge for her organisation, and indeed for many others was capacity – simply not having the resources to do more. 

One answer to this is increasing the flexibility around what work experience actually is. While the traditional model suggests a blocked period of time for teenagers to be in the workplace, there are increasingly more flexible models offering multiple experiences. These can even be 2-3 hour periods for young people to access or day-long sessions rather than requiring a longer commitment. Not only can this be better for employers, it can open opportunities to a more diverse range of students – young people who may not otherwise have been able to access to workplace. 

The webinar went on to discuss the creation of Discover Tech. This initiative brought together a wide variety of tech employers and around 300 students for an immersive two day work experience event. On day one the participants took part in sessions on AI, cybersecurity, programming, and digital storytelling while the second day saw smaller groups visiting employers to find out what working in the sector was really like. 

By uniting employers into this initiative it was possible to offer a great resource for work experience which excited both students and organisations alike. It gave students a real insight into the word of tech and made the idea of working for these businesses something they could relate to and believe in. 

As Kate Hawthorn noted, getting work experience right right now is now less about willingness and more about delivering capacity. From this discussion it is clear that the way ahead lies in creating initiatives that are meaningful and creative, rather than seeking to provide the traditional model.  

The panel encouraged employers to think strategically about what they can provide in order to make work experience in the future scalable, inclusive and sustainable. 

The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete and explores some of the biggest questions facing HR leaders today, including:

• How prepared are you for AI-driven disruption?
• How aligned is HR with the wider transformation agenda?
• Which leadership capabilities will be the highest priority over the next two years?
• Where do the real barriers to AI transformation sit?
• What is already working?

Take part today. In return for your contribution, you’ll receive an exclusive benchmarking report showing how your organisation compares with peers on AI readiness, innovation, and leadership capability—providing valuable insights to support confident decision-making around AI and transformation.

We’ll also share anonymised insights from participants, highlighting successful AI initiatives and practical approaches being implemented across the HR community. Following the success of our pilot project last year, participants gained candid intelligence on areas including vendor selection, technology integrations and pricing strategies.

The more HR leaders who take part, the richer and more valuable the insights become. Our vision is to build one of the leading peer-led benchmarks for sharing best practice, innovation and practical learning across the HR profession.

The HR World hosted an exclusive panel discussion exploring the challenges and solutions around managing and recruiting people within the public sector at a time of significant change and technological development.

Skills, Security Clearance and AI: How Do You Plan a Workforce in a Rapidly Evolving Environment? brought together a panel of experts to identify and discuss the challenges facing public sector organisations and the potential solutions available to help them create and maintain an effective workforce.

The discussion came at a time when organisations – particularly across government and defence – were under increasing pressure to deliver more with less. Growing demand for skills and pressures on the talent pool meant workforce planning was becoming significantly more complex, while rapid advances in AI, together with the constraints of security clearance, were reshaping how talent could be accessed, deployed and developed.

Despite these pressures, organisations still needed to effectively plan and build workforces that were secure, skilled and adaptable. The event brought together HR and Talent leaders operating within secure and regulated environments to explore how organisations could respond to these challenges in a practical and sustainable way.

The discussion addressed:

• How to anticipate and plan for rapidly evolving skills needs in the age of AI

• Strategies for navigating the impact of security clearance requirements on talent availability and workforce flexibility

• How to balance immediate delivery pressures with long-term capability and workforce development

• How AI could be leveraged to support workforce planning, productivity and decision-making

• Building resilient, future-ready workforce models across government, defence and the wider public sector

The evening also provided an opportunity for attendees to connect with peers over drinks and canapés in an informal setting.

Alongside this collaborative discussion, the session will provide clarity on the transition from the Apprenticeship Levy to the Growth and Skills Levy, and what the changes mean for your talent pipelines. As AI and technological change reshape job roles and expectations, early‑career employees need strong foundational, digital and future‑focused skills to thrive and employers need confidence that their workforce is ready for long‑term success.

Join us to explore how organisations can build the digital capability, early‑career pathways and sustainable skills needed to remain competitive in an increasingly digital world.

The current status and possible future for the HR function came under close examination at a webinar hosted by The HR World and sponsored by Cezanne. At a time of great change and turbulence in the workplace – disruption and change brought about through technology, legal and compliance issue and more – this seems to be a moment when HR has the opportunity to surge ahead and become a strategic and critical part of senior business leadership. However, making this step forward requires focus and commitment from HR professionals themselves.

The webinar’s panel – Simon Mounsey, Interim Chief People Officer & HR Transformation Specialist; Erica Farmer, Professional Speaker, Trainer, Author & Podcast Host. Quantum Rise Talent Group & EricaFarmer.ai and Caroline Gleeson, Chief Transformation Officer at Cezanne discussed the topic from diverse viewpoints.

While the need to adopt and adapt to technology and AI in particular is unavoidable the panel made clear it was important that HR should remain a ‘human first’ function. Despite the need for efficiency and cost effectiveness in the business, organisations still need to be human centred and appreciate the value of being so. Erica Farmer put forward the idea of HR professionals as being change architects – the people who would design and manage the workforces of the future – it’s a task which many HR professionals are well placed to take up, but need to take the initiative to realise.

The use of data and analytics can also play an important part in securing a clear future for HR. Simon Mounsey and Caroline Gleeson both highlighted how data and metrics can not only demonstrate the impact of HR’s work but become predictive in areas such as recruitment and employee engagement. Through this the function can have a marked impact on efficiency and productivity.

Overall, the webinar clearly shows that HR does have the potential to reach and succeed at C-suite level within businesses without having to redefine itself. HR certainly has a critical part to play in the future, but it will not come automatically and HR leaders need to be bold and confident and demonstrate the impact they can have within the companies they serve.

As such the webinar is vital viewing for anyone who wants to realise their full potential in the profession and who wants to ensure HR takes a leading role in the future of the workplace.

At a virtual round table, held by The HR World and sponsored by Vizzy, these and other aspects of the CV came under debate among HR professionals and experts. With lead speakers, Michelle Rajkumar, Director, Talent, People Team, Railpen; Chris Bleakley, Director of Resourcing, Spire Healthcare Group and Jess Woodward-Jones, Co-Founder of Vizzy, the round table became a lively debate featuring a sharing of ideas and practices used within the talent search arena.

While some people in the discussion still saw the use and value of the CV, there was a general acceptance that AI-generated CVs and cover letters, as well as an increase in application volume and a challenging jobs market, were problematic. For example, CV screening followed by in person or online interviews is generally being used to verify and backup first impressions.

While there was some openness toward other formats there was also some reservation – video CVs were given as an example of a format that didn’t always feel right for employers. There was a general acknowledgement however that the CV did not always capture the skills and aptitudes of individuals, and that Generation Z in particular could feel constrained by the format. In some professions the concept of the CV no longer exists, while questions were also raised over whether the document worked when considering internal talent.

Whichever format was chosen to package and communicate talent the discussion made it clear that anyone making recruitment selections in this way should undergo training in order to understand how to interpret and use the format effectively. When better insights are uncovered, talent acquisition teams and hiring managers can make more informed decisions as long as teams have a clear understanding of the skillsets – soft and hard – that are desired.

With experience and ideas being shared enthusiastically, the event demonstrated how methods and tools used to assess talent were evolving and adapting to current challenges. This aspect of talent acquisition will be interesting to follow in the future as new generations of employees enter the workplace and employers continue to try and find the skills their organisations need.

The latest webinar from The HR World, sponsored by Cognisses Talent Analytics, part of the DeepLearn Group, brought together three experienced individuals on HR data and analytics to discuss how talent analytics could up the game for HR on early careers and more general talent management. Understanding Your Talent Needs Before The Search gave an insight into ideas and practices for HR which would make the most of the data their departments already generate resulting in smoother talent management practices.

Cian Short, Early Years Career Manager for the Irish company Kepak explained how his business had already started to engage with analytics in order to identify the potential of newcomers to the company as well as beginning to map out their training needs and career path across the organisation. Johanna Reategui, Client Services Director from Cognisess was on hand to explain the process behind using analytics while Ross Crook, Chief Revenue Officer at Lifetime Training gave a view from the senior end of the HR spectrum, outlining the strategic thought and investment that needed to supporting the effective implementation and use of talent analytics across organisations.

Between the three of them the panelists demonstrated how HR already has copious amounts of useful data that can be drawn upon to give insight into many aspects of talent management – identifying skills and skills gaps before they are required – rather than simply recording what has already occurred.

Organisations already engaged in this work are driving towards being able to strategically plan their workforces, reflecting and tying employees into the needs of the business as that changes and develops. It was also noted that sometimes accessing and carrying out the necessary analytical work can cause a pause in the recruitment process but it can sometimes be more desirable to take that time and ensure you are recruiting the right talent in the right way and onboarding or managing that talent effectively, than simply bringing in the most likely looking candidate as soon as possible.

Whatever stage you may be on the road of talent analytics this webinar provides a comprehensive and valuable insight into how companies can make analytics work – from every perspective. As AI takes an ever larger role in the recruitment process analytics will continue to play an important role in supporting the human decision maker whose responsibility it is to ensure the organisation always gets the talent it requires.

Has the CV had its day? Is it now impossible to put an accurate picture of a life and an individual’s work potential on to a few sheets of A4? More to the point, does your talent actually want to create a CV? Do they find it frustrating when they have to approach your business in a way that doesn’t match what they think they can offer?

These questions and more were discussed in The HR World webinar, Gen Z Doesn’t Do CVs — Are You Ready? sponsored by Vizzy, the company that has reimagined the CV and is already revolutionising how employers approach, assess and select talent.

On the call were Chris Woodward-Jones, CEO and Co-founder of Vizzy; Lynne Cutts, Talent Acquisition Specialist, Footasylum & SEVENSTORE, Tobi Ogundipe, Founder and CEO of JABARI (formally DIVERSE) and Lisandra Radu, L&D Senior Coordinator EMEA, VML.

Together they explored this area of recruitment with a particular emphasis on early careers. It became clear that while the CV sometimes has its place, when it comes to understanding more about their candidates, employers are becoming more open to receiving diverse material, illustrating what candidates can do and what they’re like. Indeed, Lynne Cutts said that having used Vizzy she and her team felt as if they knew their prospective candidates well before they’d met them in person.

Changing processes to go beyond the CV alone may require time and effort but it could be exactly what you need if today’s processes aren’t giving you the results you want. From the panel, it was clear that there is a strong likelihood that better hiring signals can lead to better hires, faster. Is your process giving you the signals you need to understand candidates and make informed hiring decisions?

This webinar is well worth a view – packed as it is with insights, inspiration, and first-hand experience. Check it out – it might change your view on CVs forever.

If you’d like to get in touch with the sponsor, Vizzy, who help brands like Burberry, Virgin, Montagu Evans, and Tiffany and Co. find top talent fast, please reach out to jess@vizzy.com