The work readiness challenge is a shared responsibility
This article summarises an ISE insights webinar featuring ISE’s Anne-Marie Campion, Mike Grey, Director of Gradconsult and Louisa Palmer, Global Early Careers Programme Manager at Howden. You can find it here.
‘Work readiness should not be viewed as a deficit in young people. Rather, it reflects the complexity of moving from education into an increasingly demanding and rapidly changing world of work.’
In July 2027, Mike Grey (Director of Gradconsult) took part in a Institute of Student Employers (ISE) insights webinar on work readiness and the student to professional transition. In it, he shared Gradconsult’s research showing that the most significant challenges in transitioning effectively from education to the workplace are:
Task navigation (managing competing priorities and ambiguity)
Pragmatism (working within constraints rather than striving for perfection)
Self-sufficiency (managing oneself reliably in a workplace context)
Work readiness is a transition issue, not a talent issue. Employers are not seeing lower levels of intelligence, ambition or capability among graduates and apprentices. The challenge is not whether young people can perform successfully, but whether they have had sufficient opportunities to develop workplace habits and expectations before entering employment.
