The South West Early Careers Index is live
I’m delighted to announce that the South West Early Careers Index is officially live.
Early careers is full of activity and good intentions, but there’s still little evidence of what actually works for the people going through these pathways. The Index sets out to change that. It builds on the approach we developed for Talent Yfory in Wales, using SROI methodology to estimate the wellbeing value of different routes into work.
This first edition draws on 400 responses from apprentices, graduates and students across the South West of England.
The headline numbers
- £11,000 is the annual social value per apprentice. Apprenticeships are the most consistent, supportive and equitable pathway in the Index.
- £9,000 is the annual social value per graduate job participant (an unstructured entry-level job). In the South West’s competitive graduate market, these roles act as a social mobility lever.
- £5,000 is the annual social value per graduate programme participant. This is the most unequally accessed and least equitable pathway.
What else we found
- Gender and socioeconomic background shape outcomes significantly, particularly around stress, anxiety, autonomy and access to opportunity.
- Work experience is the biggest driver of employability skills, yet access is unequal, especially to better and longer experiences.
- Structured pathways deliver business ROI when they are done well and equally accessible. Retention is strongest in apprenticeships and graduate programmes.
- Students are concerned about AI, but not because they think it will take their jobs. Their fear is being filtered out before a human ever sees their application.
Why the access gap matters
The graduate programme result is the one that stands out. Higher-income graduates are more likely to secure year-in-industry placements and then move into graduate programmes, which feeds through into the lower wellbeing value for programmes overall. Outputs matter as much as outcomes: it’s not just how good a pathway is, but who gets to reach it.
What happens next
We’ll be talking to employers, policymakers, and, education providers across the South West about the findings and exploring opportunities to collaborate in the future. If you’re an employer, university or college in the South West and want to help shape what good looks like in early careers, we’d love to hear from you.
Please note that the figures above represent wellbeing social value only, independent of wider economic or fiscal impacts, and vary across other sectors and apprenticeship types.
