Graduate Mentor’s 2026 Q&A webinar brought together mentors, partners, and supporters to reflect on the past year, explore the realities facing today’s graduates, and outline ambitious plans for the year ahead.
Led by Dan Hawes (Co-Founder, GRB Group) alongside Zia and Karyma from Graduate Mentor, the session highlighted both the scale of the challenge and the growing impact of the organisation’s work-ready programme.
A Tough Landscape for Graduates
The webinar opened with a clear picture of the current graduate job market. A stalled economy, reduced hiring levels, and increasing automation have created significant barriers for early-career talent. Graduate vacancies are down, job switching is at a decade low, and many employers report gaps in graduates’ self-awareness, resilience, and workplace communication skills.
Beyond market conditions, graduates are also dealing with:
- Limited practical experience due to pandemic disruption
- A widening skills gap between academic study and workplace expectations
- Mental health pressures and confidence issues
- Inequality of opportunity linked to background, university attended, and access to professional networks
- Additional barriers for international graduates, including visa constraints
Karyma explained that many students feel underprepared, not because of a lack of ability, but because they have had fewer chances to build real-world skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, and networking.
The result is a generation entering the workforce “on the back foot”, despite years of investment in higher education.
Graduate Mentor’s Impact So Far
Against this backdrop, Graduate Mentor shared strong progress over the last 12 months:
- Over 7,000 students and graduates registered on the platform
- More than 3,000 individuals engaged in one-to-one mentoring sessions
- A growing network of 150 active volunteer mentors from diverse sectors including major corporates, SMEs, universities, and professional services
- Delivery of 26 online skills workshops, covering topics such as CV writing, interview preparation, and navigating AI screening tools
- Partnerships with multiple universities including Kent, Roehampton, Leeds, Middlesex, Bangor, and Bedfordshire
- A social media community exceeding 4,000 followers
All mentoring is delivered online, removing geographical barriers and making support accessible nationwide. Sessions typically focus on CVs, applications, interview preparation, and career direction, with many graduates returning for follow-up conversations or engaging with multiple mentors.
Graduate Mentor also formally became a Community Interest Company (CIC) in February 2025, strengthening its position as a social enterprise with a clear mission to improve employability outcomes for young people.
The Work Ready Programme: More Than Mentoring
A key theme of the session was that Graduate Mentor offers far more than traditional mentoring alone.
Graduates move through a structured “Work Ready” journey that combines:
- One-to-one mentoring
- Group skills workshops
- Access to curated e-learning platforms (including Santander Open Academy, FutureLearn, McKinsey resources, and specialist programmes for international graduates)
- Practical career resources from Graduate Recruitment Bureau
- Direct introductions to employers once candidates are deemed work-ready
This end-to-end approach is designed not just to build confidence, but to actively help graduates secure employment.
Importantly, some mentors have gone on to offer internships, work experience, or even permanent roles to their mentees, demonstrating the power of human connection in an increasingly automated recruitment world.
Embracing AI While Doubling Down on Human Support
AI featured heavily in the discussion.
While acknowledging that automation is reshaping entry-level roles, the team emphasised that Graduate Mentor’s core value lies in human connection. Graduates are already navigating highly automated application processes, often without ever speaking to a real person. The programme intentionally restores that personal element.
At the same time, Graduate Mentor plans to expand AI-focused learning, helping graduates understand tools such as prompt engineering and workplace applications of AI, while equipping mentors to guide mentees on becoming “AI-ready” rather than AI-replaced.
The overall message was optimistic: AI is expected to augment graduate roles over time, creating opportunities for those who learn to work alongside it.
Priorities for 2026
Looking ahead, Graduate Mentor outlined several clear objectives:
- Increase graduate participation by 25% through deeper university partnerships, targeted outreach (especially to humanities students), and expanded marketing to parents.
- Build employer referral pathways, encouraging organisations to signpost rejected candidates to Graduate Mentor, turning a negative experience into a supportive next step.
- Recruit 50 additional mentors, with a focus on underrepresented industries and universities.
- Secure £25,000 in funding via grants, CSR partnerships, and donations to sustain and scale operations.
- Strengthen impact measurement, introducing before-and-after surveys to track confidence, employability, and job outcomes more rigorously.
Longer term, the organisation also shared aspirations to support non-university pathways and potentially expand internationally, subject to future funding.
A Community Effort
The session closed with heartfelt thanks to the volunteer mentors, university partners, and employer supporters who make Graduate Mentor possible. Dan Hawes reinforced that even one hour a month from experienced professionals can make a meaningful difference to a graduate navigating an overwhelming job market.
Graduate Mentor’s mission remains simple but powerful: provide accessible guidance, practical skills, and real human support to help young people transition from education into meaningful work.
In a climate where many graduates feel invisible behind algorithms and application portals, Graduate Mentor is proving that mentorship, empathy, and opportunity still matter.
