King's College London

King's Careers & Employability convened nearly 90 employers for an event in Bush House to enable reflection and discussion on key trends across the graduate labour market and early careers talent.

Inviting representatives of the varied employers who have engaged with the University through recruitment, educational or opportunity development initiatives in recent months the event also welcomed academic leadership from across King's faculties and leads across Students & Education, Research Talent, Global Brand & Marketing and Alumni Relations.

Discussing skills, technology advances and the future of work, the Brunch was opened by Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Shitij Kapur, and enbled guests to engage with senior leadership across the University and hear updates on King’s research, partnerships and strategic initiatives to support careers and employability.

Professor Kapur spoke to King's emerging strategic ambitions for success beyond university, which are expected to be central to our institutional 'Strategy 2030' to launch in late 2025. Also, King's existing strengths in interdisiplinary education and the ambition to lead work on the "AI-ready graduate of the future" which King's is developing work upon.

The event also heard from Stephen Isherwood, Joint CEO of the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) on the future of early careers talent and participants joined interactive discussions on the key skills sought across different industry sectors as King's Careers & Employability launched their "King's Skills for the Future" to employers, and how this helps us differentiate our students and graduates in the labour market.

Guests heard how King's is equipping our students using Generative AI, including  innovating educational delivery with corporate partners and employers.

A case study from Executive Dean Professor Dan Hunter on the Linklaters’ GenAI Expert Training programme, delivered in collaboration with The Dickson Poon School of Law, designed to enhance the technical and practical expertise of its lawyers in generative AI (GenAI) showcased just one example.

The work on this initiative is already driving innovations across our undergraduate and postgraduate legal programmes enabling students to work with law firms through hackathons and problem-solving curriculum activities.

Dr Martin Compton, College Lead for AI & Innovation in King's Academy also led an interactive session showcasing work underway across the University and identifying employers' own confidence in using artificial intelligence in their own recruitment and working practices.

His session ended by producing a 10-minute "podcast" of the entire event in real time, covering all the aspects of the day in a digestible format, proving the power of tools to support learning and allowing guests to take away ideas from the morning before Professor Mark Peace, Academic Director (King's Experience) led a networking lunch with academic leaders to spark new ideas for engaging in the curriculum.

At their core, the event was an opportunity to focus on the sector-leading work of our careers provision for our students, researchers and graduates led by King's Careers & Employability.

The event showcased their strategic focus of support across areas of integrating employability into King's curricula, supporting international students (such as our China Careers Fairs - to be held in August 2025) and work supporting under-represented students.

Future events will focus on other key areas of interest enabling our academics and leaders across King's to develop their own understanding of what employers are seeking in their early careers talent, and spark new ideas for experiential learning as part of our compelling educational offer for students.