NextGen STANDOUT™

The job market changed. Learn how to compete in it.

NextGen STANDOUT™ helps young people choose their direction, understand employer expectations and build credible evidence of what they can do. Through practical projects, professional visibility, industry conversations and recruitment preparation, they develop the capability to compete for early-career opportunities.

For sixth-formers, university students and graduates competing for degree apprenticeships, internships, placements and first professional roles.

Explore the Career Sprint →See the research →
The market changed

Good grades still matter.
They are no longer the whole strategy.

Competition is higher, recruitment is changing fast, and employers need credible evidence that a candidate understands the work and is ready to contribute.

140

Applications per graduate vacancy

ISE reported a record average of 140 applications per graduate vacancy. The same survey found 89 per school/college-leaver vacancy, 101 per internship hire and 123 per undergraduate placement hire.

79%

Recruitment is being redesigned for AI

Nearly four in five early-career employers surveyed by ISE were reviewing or redesigning selection processes in response to generative AI.

80%

Built evidence beyond school

In NextGen’s 2026 research, 98 of 123 successful Degree Apprenticeship respondents had built meaningful evidence outside school.

External market data: Institute of Student Employers, Student Recruitment Survey 2025. NextGen figure: survey of confirmed Degree Apprenticeship offer-holders, 2026; valid responses n=123 for this question.

One methodology · three career stages

The opportunity changes. The skills to navigate it do not.

NextGen STANDOUT™ meets young people at different decision points while building the same underlying professional capability.

01
Sixth form

Choose direction and start building evidence.

University decisions · Degree Apprenticeships · employer understanding · first professional proof

02
University

Turn education into professional momentum.

Internships · placements · work experience · visibility · industry conversations

03
Graduating

Convert preparation into opportunity.

First professional roles · applications · interviews · assessment centres · recruitment performance

Different starting points.The same six-module method.
The NextGen STANDOUT™ Method

The skills nobody teaches as one connected system.

Strong candidates need more than qualifications and application technique. They need to understand where they are going, explain their value, create evidence, become visible, learn from people inside the market and perform when opportunities arrive.

01

Clarity

Identify target industries, employers and roles.

02

Positioning

Understand your strengths, experience and evidence gaps.

03

Evidence

Build real-world evidence of what you can do.

04

Visibility

Make your work, thinking and capability discoverable.

05

Conversations

Build relationships, gain insight and test your understanding.

06

Opportunity

Turn preparation into stronger applications, interviews and assessment performance.

92%
spoke with someone in their target industry or company before applying112 of 123 respondents in NextGen’s 2026 Degree Apprenticeship study.

This is not networking for the sake of collecting contacts. It is learning from people inside the market: understanding the work, the employer, the language and what stronger candidates know before they apply.

Evidence in practice

Give employers something concrete to see.

Employers need examples of how a candidate thinks, solves problems and contributes. During the Career Sprint, students work on a focused project relevant to their target industry, developing practical skills and turning their work into evidence they can use in portfolios, applications and interviews.

01

Tackle a relevant brief

Investigate a defined problem with clear deliverables and a four-week timeframe.

02

Develop the work

Research, make decisions, create an output and improve it through guidance and feedback.

03

Build evidence you can explain

Capture your contribution, decisions, results and learning alongside the finished work.

The output might be a prototype, analysis, campaign or set of recommendations. What matters is being able to explain what you contributed, why you made particular decisions and what the work demonstrates.

Beyond the first role

The next opportunity matters. The capability lasts much longer.

Career clarity, professional positioning, evidence-building, visibility, relationship-building and opportunity creation are not skills young people use once. They are skills they will return to whenever they change role, industry or direction throughout their career.

The Career Sprint

One Career Sprint. Three possible starting points.

The complete Sprint delivers the full NextGen STANDOUT™ method across 12 weeks. All participants speak with Kamila before joining. We recommend progressing through the three stages in sequence. Each four-week stage can also be taken separately, with a Stage Readiness Check during the suitability conversation to recommend the most useful starting point.

Complete Career Sprint

12 weeks · all three stages

£2,997

The complete route across Clarity, Positioning, Evidence, Visibility, Conversations and Opportunity.

Pay for the Complete Sprint →
Most participants join after a suitability conversation with Kamila.
Stage 1 · Weeks 1–4

Clarity + Positioning

£1,297

Choose your direction. Understand your strengths and gaps. If you later upgrade to the full Sprint, the amount already paid is credited against the £2,997 full programme price.

View Stage 1 details ↓
Stage 2 · Weeks 5–8

Evidence + Visibility

£1,297

Build your capability. Create evidence. Make it visible. Direct entry suits candidates with clear targets, initial positioning and identified evidence gaps.

View Stage 2 details ↓
Stage 3 · Weeks 9–12

Conversations + Opportunity

£1,297

Build relationships. Turn preparation into performance. Direct entry suits candidates with clear targets, credible evidence and professional foundations.

View Stage 3 details ↓
Start smaller without paying twice.Begin with Stage 1 for £1,297. If you continue into the complete Sprint, your Stage 1 payment is credited against the £2,997 full programme price.Start Stage 1 for £1,297 →
Three four-week stages

The method becomes practical work.

Each stage has a clear outcome. Explore the detail behind each four-week starting point and how all three combine into one 12-week progression.

Stage 1 · Weeks 1–4

Clarity + Positioning

Choose your direction. Understand your strengths and gaps.

£1,297 standalone

Students investigate target industries, employers and roles, audit their existing experience against employer expectations and build a credible professional story. They identify priority evidence gaps to address in Stage 2 and establish their professional foundations.

By the end of Stage 1: I know what I am targeting, how to explain my value and which evidence gaps I need to close.

CLARITY
  • Career Fit Diagnostic
  • Industry, Company & Role Profile
  • Employer Requirements Checklist
  • Target Role & Employer Shortlist
POSITIONING
  • Personal Positioning Statement
  • Existing Evidence Bank
  • Evidence Gap Map
  • Foundational LinkedIn Profile
Stage 2 · Weeks 5–8

Evidence + Visibility

Build your capability. Create evidence. Make it visible.

£1,297 standalone

Students develop relevant capability through a focused four-week project, capturing their individual contributions, decisions, outputs and learning. The project runs across Stage 2 as students develop, document and showcase their work through a credible professional presence.

By the end of Stage 2: I have relevant project work, portfolio evidence I can explain and a professional presence that showcases it.

EVIDENCE
  • Relevant Project Brief & Deliverables
  • Practical Project Output
  • Proof-of-Work Portfolio
  • Competency Stories & Reflection
VISIBILITY
  • Strengthened Professional Profiles
  • Published Project Evidence
  • Relevant Content & Industry Insights
  • Professional Engagement
Stage 3 · Weeks 9–12

Conversations + Opportunity

Build relationships. Turn preparation into performance.

£1,297 standalone

Students learn purposeful outreach, gain industry insight and use their relationships and evidence to strengthen recruitment preparation. They target opportunities and practise presenting their capability through applications, interviews and assessments. Conversations can begin earlier; this stage develops those skills in depth.

By the end of Stage 3: I can approach relevant professionals, use industry insight and present my evidence through stronger applications, interviews and assessments.

CONVERSATIONS
  • Target Contacts & Outreach Plan
  • Outreach Messages & Conversation Practice
  • Industry Insight & Feedback
  • Follow-up & Relationship Plan
OPPORTUNITY
  • Target Opportunity Pipeline
  • Tailored CV & Application Pack
  • Evidence-based Interview Examples
  • Interview, Test & Assessment-centre Preparation
How the Sprint works

Learn it. Build it. Test it. Improve it.

This is not passive career education. Every stage produces work that can be used in the real market.

01

Learn

Understand the principles and see what strong candidates actually do.

02

Build

Create the evidence, positioning and professional assets you need.

03

Bring it live

Work through your thinking, applications and decisions in live sessions.

04

Improve

Use feedback, insight and repetition to make everything stronger.

Book a suitability call →
NextGen Hired research

Built from evidence, not assumptions.

NextGen Hired combines quantitative research with qualitative interviews to understand how young people are actually securing competitive early-career opportunities.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH124

Confirmed Degree Apprenticeship offer-holders

Structured research identifying patterns across successful candidates in the 2026 cycle.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH100+

In-depth candidate interviews

Detailed conversations across apprenticeships, internships, placements, graduate roles and first professional opportunities.

The numbers show the patterns. The interviews explain what those patterns look like in practice.
99%+123 of 124 did not identify school or college as their main source of recruitment preparation.
92%spoke with someone in their target industry or company before applying.
80%built meaningful evidence outside school.

The 92% and 80% figures use valid responses n=123. Percentages are displayed as whole-number headline figures; underlying counts are retained in the Research methodology.

Explore NextGen Hired Research →
NextGen Spotlights

Different people. Different industries. The same patterns of success.

These are research stories, not generic testimonials. Each Spotlight shows a behaviour, decision or piece of evidence that helped a young person compete more effectively.

NextGen Spotlight Oscar Sitwell

Oscar Sitwell

Level 6 Quantity Surveying DA · Gleeds
Visibility · conversations · opportunity
 NextGen Spotlight Nicole Malkowska

Nicole Malkowska

Work Placement · Accord Marketing
Clarity · positioning
 NextGen Spotlight Gavin Arora

Gavin Arora

Level 6 Software Engineering DA · Rolls-Royce
Evidence · targeting
 NextGen Spotlight Oluwatobi Salawu

Oluwatobi Salawu

Software Development Intern · National Highways
Projects · proof of capability
 NextGen Spotlight Oliver Alderwick

Oliver Alderwick

Finance / Audit DA · Crowe UK
Conversations · employer insight
 NextGen Spotlight Jack Frampton

Jack Frampton

Marketing Apprenticeship · Queen’s College
Portfolio · evidence
 NextGen Spotlight Rebecca Hansen

Rebecca Hansen

Index Data Analyst Apprenticeship · Legal & General
Positioning · transferable skills
 NextGen Spotlight Peter Ogbonmwan

Peter Ogbonmwan

Finance & Investment DA · Bloomberg
Recruitment skill · resilience
 NextGen Spotlight Amaya Sophia Ahmed

Amaya Sophia Ahmed

Level 6 Real Estate DA · Colliers
Initiative · conversations
 NextGen Spotlight Charles Blunt

Charles Blunt

Enterprise Business Management DA · Rolls-Royce
Projects · practical evidence
Explore the Spotlights →
Kamila Sitwell, founder of NextGen STANDOUT
Founder · journalist · researcher

The research started with one question I could not ignore.

After watching my son struggle to secure a single degree-apprenticeship interview, I began investigating what successful candidates were doing differently. That question became a wider research programme across apprenticeships, internships, work placements, graduate roles and first professional opportunities.

FounderJournalistEarly-careers researcherSpeaker
Read the research →
Speaking & institutional engagement

Speaking about how the next generation gets hired.

Kamila speaks at universities, sixth forms, employability programmes and conferences about the changing early-career market and what young people need to compete within it.

Universities

University of Manchester

Sessions exploring the changing recruitment market, work readiness and how students can build a stronger professional advantage.

Pathways & employability

LEAF Pathways

Keynote content for young people preparing for highly competitive apprenticeship and early-career recruitment.

Schools · sixth forms · conferences

Future-facing career education

Talks and masterclasses for students, parents and educators on the skills and behaviours that sit beyond qualifications.

January 2027 cohort

Ready to prepare differently?

Explore the complete 12-week Career Sprint, begin with Clarity + Positioning, or discuss whether Evidence + Visibility or Conversations + Opportunity fits your existing preparation.

Explore the Career Sprint →Book a free 30-minute suitability call →