This work started personally, after helping my own son navigate the highly competitive degree apprenticeship market. Since then, I’ve worked with ambitious students applying for internships, placements, apprenticeships and first roles.
That personal mission has now become a wider research project into what successful young candidates are doing differently.
The pattern is clear: grades matter, but they are no longer enough. Students now need direction, visible proof of potential, confidence and a strategy before applications open.
This assessment is built from those real stories and hiring patterns.


