Designing Educational Experiences to Support the Future Employability of Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Supervisor: Karen Burland Clark | University of Leeds
The scale of the challenge is significant. In 2023-24 the ISE reported, 1.2 million applications were submitted for just 17,000 UK graduate roles.
Clearly, the UK labour market is changing fast - faster than education is keeping up. The skills, experiences and ways of working that defined graduate employability a decade ago are not the same ones that will define it now - let alone by 2030 and beyond - and yet the educational experiences available to young people have been slow to respond.
This summer, as a Scholar at the University of Leeds, I'll be researching exactly that gap. My project - Designing Educational Experiences to Support the Future Employability of Gen Z and Gen Alpha - starts deliberately and crucially as an open question: what do these two generations actually need from education to thrive in a rapidly changing world of work? Before drawing any conclusions, it is pertinent to understand what the evidence genuinely says.
Motivations:
What drew me to this project specifically is the inequality dimension. Access to the experiences that build employability: internships, careers coaching, professional networks - is far from evenly distributed. Where you grew up, what school you went to, and your family's socioeconomic connections all shape your chances in ways that are well-documented - but insufficiently addressed. I want to understand those gaps properly, and explore whether there are scalable, equitable ways to begin to close them.
Impact:
The research will combine a structured literature review with primary research at Leeds - via surveys and interviews with students and employers - to build an evidence base that is grounded in reality rather than assumption. The goal is to produce concrete design recommendations that educators, universities and policymakers can actually use.
I'm excited to get started and to connect with fellow scholars doing similarly meaningful work this summer. If your research touches on education, employability, inequality or the future of work, I'd love to hear from you!