The Awards

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The 2025 panel awards are now open to enter

‍Who is eligible to enter?

All graduate, apprenticeship and school leaver employers or their agencies may submit a nomination. You can submit work from 2023/24 or 2024/25 campaigns (unless otherwise stated).

How are the awards judged?

All student panel awards are shortlisted and judged exclusively by undergraduates and school students, making the targetjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards the most accurate reflection of recruiters’ standing with their audience.

Entries should be booked by Friday 31 January 2025 (you will then have until midnight Thursday 6 February 2025 to complete your submission). Once closed we will host an independently adjudicated judging process in which carefully selected final-year undergraduates, apprentices, school leavers shortlist and industry professionals select winners for each category. Their decision is final and neither GTI, the adjudicators nor the student panel will enter into any correspondence on the decisions made.

In addition to the student panel awards there are sector awards, which are voted for by students in a national poll administered by our research partner Cibyl and the Graduate Employer of the Year Award, which you can enter if you are shortlisted for any of the award categories.

What are the judging criteria?

Each award has specific judging criteria, which are outlined under each category in this pack. Please follow these criteria as these will directly correspond to the points awarded by the student judges. Please do not exceed the stated word count for each criteria.

How do I submit an entry/entries?

When you are ready you can book and submit your entry here. You will be asked to login to a secure platform to complete your entry online.
You will see the costs associated with entering and can pay by credit card or receive a proforma-invoice by email as a booking confirmation.
For each entry, a fee of £199 is payable (£238.80 including VAT). There is a special rate (£850+VAT) available for five entries or more for the ‘Rising star’ and ‘Apprentice of the year’ awards.
There is a special fee of £120 (£144 including VAT) for HE institutions entering the 'best university employability strategy' and the 'HE careers and employability team of the year' awards.
If you are a member of the The Sustainable Recruitment Alliance you can enter the sustainability in early talent recruitment award free of charge.
Please book all your entries on one order by clicking the box 'Add more entries'. Contact Paul Clarke (paul.clarke@groupgti.com) if you have any queries.
You may wish to include relevant supporting material (eg promotional material, photographs or links to video) with your submission. Bear in mind each judge will spend the same amount of time (usually between 15–20 minutes) on each submission. These can be uploaded when you complete the entry.
Shortlisted entries will be notified after the judging has taken place.

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Panel awards for employers – judged exclusively by students

The apprentice of the year

This award recognises the contribution made by a recent apprentice. The person you nominate must have started an apprenticeship in the last three years or still on an apprenticeship programme. You may enter more than one apprentice for this award. A special price is available for five entries or more.

Please introduce your nominated apprentice. Tell us a bit about their personal and educational background and their current role. Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

How has your apprentice exceeded the expectations set by the organisation or manager and the performance of their peer group? (250 words)
How have they contributed to the success and culture of their team, department, business area or wider organisation? (250 words)
How have they made a positive impact on the working environment and on their colleagues? (250 words)
How have they demonstrated their ambition and potential for future success? (250 words)

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The best apprenticeship programme

This award recognises excellence in the design of your apprenticeship programme, the buy-in from leadership, a clear proposition suited to the target audience and a positive experience for your apprentices.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

What are the reasons why your organisation recruits apprentices? (100 words)
What is your specific programme offering to apprentice candidates? (200 words)
How has your organisation identified and targeted students for your programme? (200 words)
What channels and tools have you used to attract, assess and recruit students for your programme? (200 words)
What development programme do you have in place, including training, development and progression opportunities, to ensure future success in the organisation? (200 words)
Tell us about the impact of your apprentice recruitment. (100 words)

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The best diversity and inclusion strategy

This award celebrates organisations that are proactively increasing the diversity of their early years’ intake through a more inclusive approach to attraction and selection.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Tell us how and why diversity and inclusion are considered as part of your student recruitment activity. (200 words)
Please outline your diversity recruitment strategy and objectives. (200 words)
How has your organisation identified and targeted students from an under-represented group(s)? (200 words)
What channels, tools and techniques have you used to attract, assess and recruit students from these groups? (200 words)
Tell us about the impact of your diversity and inclusion activity. (200 words)

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The rising star

This award recognises the contribution made by a recent graduate. The person you nominate must have joined the organisation within the last three years. You may enter more than one graduate for this award. A special rate is available for five entries or more.

Please introduce your nominated graduate. Tell us a bit about their personal and educational background and their current role. Judges will score your entry against the following criteria.

Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

How has your graduate exceeded the expectations set by the organisation or manager and the performance of their peer group? (250 words)
How have they contributed to the success and culture of their team, department, business area or wider organisation? (250 words)
How have they made a positive impact on the working environment and on their colleagues? (250 words)
How have they demonstrated their ambition and potential for future success? (250 words)

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The best candidate, onboarding or post hire experience

This award recognises quality and impact in candidate and/or recent hire experience. This may be across one or any stage from first applying to receiving an offer, onboarding and post hire. It maybe be human process, technology or a blended solution.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

What candidate stage(s) does your approach or solution cover. If the solution is focused on defined student groups, please summarise. (100 words)
Please describe the candidate/new hire experience and how it is delivered. Your answer should briefly highlight how the experience distinguishes from standard. (250words).
Summarise the benefits to candidates, recruiters or other stakeholders and how this arises. Benefits examples may include candidate engagement, employer brand or candidate productivity in role. (200 words).
Tell us about the impact of the experience, ideally including metrics. (200 words)

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The best placement or internship programme

This award recognises industry-leading programmes designed for students to experience your organisation during a placement, internship or other period of work experience.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

How do you identify, target, attract and recruit students onto your programme? (250 words)
Tell us about the design, structure and implementation of the programme, including how you interact with the business to maintain an excellent experience. (250 words)
Please outline the quality of the work and opportunities made available to students on your programme. (250 words)
How do you manage students on the programme and beyond so that successful students remain part of your talent pipeline? (250 words)

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The best student marketing campaign

This award examines how you have developed an integrated attraction campaign that has successfully led to the engagement and attraction of your target audience(s).

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Tell us about your marketing campaign objectives and the measures you put in place to determine success. (200 words)
Explain your delivery, execution and promotion through social and professional networking channels, what part these channels played in the campaign and how you used them to target and reach the right students. (200 words)
How did you integrate your website into your overall campaign? Tell us what functionality you relied on here and how the user experience and design of your website fed into and complemented your overall marketing campaign. (200 words)
Tell us about any other innovative/creative features, tools, channels or media you used as part of the campaign and how you measured their success. (200 words)
Please outline your campaign success against your objectives. (200 words)

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The best innovation in assessment and selection

This award captures innovation in the assessment of studentsin early careers education or recruitment. Innovations typically balance candidate and recruiter needs and improvethe quality and fairness of support and decisions.

You can enter any innovation from preparing candidates and online testing to interviewing and assessment centre design and delivery. It should be a new idea, method or technology.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Please outline the problem space and objectives of the innovation. This should include some metrics where possible. (200 words)
What is the solution. How is it robust, inclusive and fair and how does it balance candidate and employer needs (and maybe other stakeholders). (250 words)
Innovation perspective. Would you describe the innovation as disruptive or incremental. How did you develop and test the solution – for example, involving students. To what degree is the innovation scalable. (200 words)
Tell us about the impact of your innovation (including any feedback) and how it might influence the future of recruitment. (200 words)

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Panel awards for employers – judged by industry professionals

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The best use of AI in recruitment – new for 2025

This award celebrates the most impactful AI solution in recruitment, either pre or post hire. This category acknowledges outstanding efforts in bringing AI projects from concept to reality. The award highlights deployments that have significantly transformed recruitment operations, driven innovation, and delivered measurable benefits.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Describe the stages or functions in the recruitment process that you have deployed an AI solution into and explain why. Have you solved a problem in an innovative andunique way? (200 words)
How did you develop the solution, evaluate it and (if applicable) integrate it into existing platforms or processes? (250 words)
How has this helped the recruitment process and how is it scalable? (200 words)
Evaluate the tangible benefits that the AI solution has brought to its intended users or the broader recruitment process. (200 words)

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The best social mobility strategy

This award recognises organisations that have set out to widen participation in their early years programme(s) by identifying, targeting, attracting, selecting and recruiting students from lower socio-economic groups.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Tell us how and why widening participation and social mobility are considered as part of your student recruitment activity. (200 words)
Please outline your social mobility strategy and objectives. (200 words)
How has your organisation defined, identified and targeted students from lower socio-economic groups? (200 words)
What channels, tools and techniques have you used to attract, assess and recruit students from lower socio-economic groups? (200 words)
Tell us about the impact of your social mobility activity. (200 words)

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The award for sustainability in early talent recruitment

This award recognises the commitment made by an organisation to take an eco-friendlier approach to early talent recruitment.

If you are a member of The Sustainable Recruitment Alliance you can enter this category for FREE.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Tell us how you have reviewed your early talent processes and operations, identifying opportunities to be more sustainable. (200 words)
How have you reduced and/or switched to sustainable alternatives? How have you found greener ways of engaging with your target audience? We are particularly interested in how you’ve innovated and reimagined what’s possible. (300 words)
Tell us about the impact you have made. How have you reimagined what’s possible? Report what you’ve changed, demonstrating with facts and figures. (250 words)
Make a pledge and tell us how you in intend to build on this ambition and embed sustainability over the next 12 months. (200 words)

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The early careers professional of the year

This award recognises the contribution made by a member or head of a recruitment or talent development team.

Please introduce your nominated professional. Tell us a bit about their background and current role. Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

How has your nominee exceeded the expectations set by the organisation or manager and the performance of their peer group? (250 words)
How have they contributed to the success of their team, department, business area or wider organisation? (250 words)
How have they made a positive impact on the recruitment or talent development process for students/graduates/apprentices and on their colleagues? (250 words)
How have they demonstrated their commitment and contribution within the early careers profession more broadly? (250 words)

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Panel awards for higher education institutions

The best university employability strategy

This award celebrates the achievements of higher education institutions in ensuring that their undergraduates are best equipped to achieve their potential when searching and applying for graduate roles and transitioning to employment.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Describe your broad approach to student employability. (100 words)
How do you work with academics and other departments to ensure that students develop a broader range of skills throughout their time at university? (200 words)
Describe the engagement/relationship you have with the senior management of the university in the design and implementation of your employability strategy. (200 words)
Tell us about the activities and opportunities you provide for your students to ensure that they are equipped for future success, including the involvement of alumni, parents and employers and innovations in this area. (400 words)
How do you encourage students to make the best use of the careers service and participate in your activities? (100 words)
How do you measure and demonstrate success in employability? Your answer should include your key achievements and progress in this area. (200 words)

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The HE careers and employability team of the year

This award recognises a department, committee or special project team that has made a significant impact or achieved significant results over the last year. The team will have overcome obstacles, utilised skills of all members, or collaborated with others to achieve high quality outcomes demonstrating overall service in the wider HE community.

Judges will score your entry against the following criteria. Please provide answers under each of the headings below.

Describe in detail how TOGETHER the team have demonstrated exceptional collaboration towards a common goal. (What have you achieved to think of yourselves as an exceptional team.) (250 words)
Explain how you have created an environment that encourages EVERYONE to work together. (How do you utilise skills, communicate and acknowledge everyone.) (250 words)
Describe how has the team ACHIEVES and displays a united effort implementing high quality outcomes, professional development or programmes. (250 words)
Citing specific examples, quantify how the team has achieved MORE to the department, university or community. (250 words)

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The sector awards – voted for by students

The winner of each award is determined by an online student poll conducted by our research partner Cibyl and we have captured over 66,000 student votes in 2024. All shortlisted organisations are also eligible to enter for the graduate employer of the year award. These awards recognise the most popular graduate recruiters in the following categories:

Accounting and financial management
Banking, insurance and financial services
Construction, civil engineering and surveying
Consulting
Consumer goods – manufacturing and marketing
Energy and utilities
Engineering, design and manufacture
Investment banking and investment
Law – solicitors
Public sector
Retail
Scale-up
Scientific research and development
Technology

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The AGCAS award – voted for by careers and employability professionals

The AGCAS award for excellence in careers and employability service engagement focuses on employers who develop and sustain good working relationships with higher education careers and employability services.

Voted for by careers and employability professionals, the award recognises those employers who provide outstanding support for careers services’ work with students and graduates.

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The graduate employer of the year award – judged by HR and recruitment industry leaders

The pinnacle of the evening is always the graduate employer of the year award

Shortlisted employers and campaigns from all categories judged to be ‘the best of the best’ by a group of HR and recruitment industry leaders.

Who is this award for?

The award highlights the standout recruiters in the graduate recruitment space, understanding and recognising what recruiters are doing to attract, recruit, onboard, train and retain talent. The award is not looking to judge the flashiest campaigns or those organisations that have the biggest budgets, but the employer creating a great, consistent experience for candidates at each stage. The key is consistency. This is what makes a graduate employer of the year.

How is it judged?

Employers’ responses to the application questions are benchmarked against responses from the current graduates working in that organisation. Each organisation is required to submit a minimum of five graduate responses. The judges are seeking to determine what each employer is doing across the entire candidate lifecycle and how these actions are received by, and benefit, the graduates who have joined the organisation. Entries are judged by a group of handpicked professionals from around the graduate recruitment sector, with the winner crowned at the targetjobs Awards!

Importantly, this prestigious award is ONLY open to shortlisted organisations.

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Graduate Employer of the Year – employer submission

The elevator pitch – why should your organisation be Graduate Employer of the Year? In what way has your organisation delivered an engaging and meaningful experience for your graduates? NB: This question is not scored; it is to give the judges an overview.
How does your graduate programme set you apart from other graduate employers?
How do you manage the candidate experience from application to offer? How do you integrate graduates into the business and keep them engaged during the process?
How do graduates progress into the wider business once initial programmes have been completed? Are graduates aware of the opportunities that will be available to them? What do you do to retain talent upon completion of a programme?
How do you ensure that your graduate opportunities are open to everyone and that selection, development and retention strategies fully support diversity and inclusion in your organisation?
What is the most innovative strategy or activity your organisation currently has in place to support graduate attraction, development and/or retention?
What interventions are you undertaking pre-application to ensure the effectiveness of your future graduate recruitment processes?

Graduate Employer of the Year – graduate submission

Why should your employer be crowned Graduate Employer of the Year?
What was it about your current employer that made you apply? What differentiated them from others? Have they lived up to your expectation so far?
Overall, how would you rate your employer’s recruitment process (from marketing to selection and on-boarding)? Did they provide any activities you found meaningful before joining? You may have undertaken an internship how did this influence the process?
Since starting have you been supported? Do you feel opportunities are communicated well and a good future with the employer?
From your experiences throughout the recruitment process and development programme so far, does your employer ensure that opportunities are open to everyone and that diversity and inclusion are fully supported in your organisation? How?
Were you actively seeking a role with this company or was your application a result of their attraction efforts? And if so, what engaged you most?

All questions max. 300 words.

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