Politics Home | From campus to careers: building the partnerships that power the UK workforce

Party conference season is not just a chance for politicians to set out their vision – it is also a moment for every sector to ask whether we are ready for the future. For universities, the challenge is stark: a cooling jobs market, the rise of AI, and shifting demographics are reshaping what it means to prepare grad­uates for work, and the skills needed for economic growth. The sector cannot rely on past assumptions of value – it must demonstrate its additionality to the economy and society with clarity and purpose.

Reflection, however, must be matched by action. At this year’s Labour Party Conference, the University of East London (UEL) convened parliamentarians, business leaders, and representatives from higher education to outline the approach needed to maximise inclusive growth through collaboration.

At our panel event, Tech, Talent, and the Future of Health: Powering Up Britain, we launched new research undertaken with leading consultancy London Economics, showing that fewer than half of the employers feel that recent graduates are ready for the future workplace. As the panel went on to discuss, however, these findings point to a deeper issue – not in the capabilities of graduates, but in a broken jobs market that is failing both young people and the UK economy.

Covering a breadth of issues from talent pipelines to placement shortages to the transformative role of AI and digital tools, our panel saw leaders from global businesses including Siemens and Accenture, and parliamentarians Dr Zubir Ahmed and Uma Kumaran MP, focused on the health sector – a frontline example of where the right mix of skills, technology, and collaboration could transform outcomes for the UK. Speakers emphasised the shared responsibility of government, industry, and education in helping the public see technology as a force for good, while also underlining the need for communities to feel confident engaging with new tech through grassroots initiatives.

At UEL, we have pioneered new approaches to working directly with employers, reshaping recruitment pipelines and embedding real-world skills development across degree programmes. As a result, the university has increased the number of its graduates in work 18 months after leaving by 25 per cent in just five years.

Our invest­ment in inclusive enterprise has seen us become the UK’s largest, fastest mover in new business growth, now ranked 2nd in the UK for student start-ups, having surged from 90th in just a few years, with the number of UEL-backed firms still trading after three years increasing over 1,000 per cent, demonstrating the role universities can play as engines of innovation, with impacts reaching well beyond the campus gates.

But no university can fix this alone. Unless we take bold, innovative steps in partnership infrastructure, the UK risks falling behind. The government’s recent announcement of £9.7m for the National Centre for Universities and Business underlines the urgency of this mission – and UEL is ready to accelerate as the partner business and the economy need.

In our pulse survey, employers told us they want systemic solutions – nearly 9 in 10 back the creation of a national digital “front door” for graduate recruitment, a bold platform for talent search, onboard­ing, and professional development. With intelligent talent-matching to plug skills and innovation gaps, such a reset could ensure the diverse talent the UK needs is no longer missed every single day. It’s an idea that echoes recent calls from the Education Secretary and Universities UK’s Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce.

If we want a truly world-class pipeline of talent, piecemeal initiatives won’t cut it. Graduate hiring is broken, and we need joined-up action to fix it.  Unless universities, employers, and policymakers step up together, our brightest generation risks becoming our greatest wasted asset. Join us to help shape the solutions our graduates – and our economy – cannot afford to wait for.