Work
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Ventures

First jobs, new barriers

How can technology support young people without degrees through the transition into work?

Aish Moothan
Aish Moothan
Louise Marston
Louise Marston

This briefing note examines the transition from education into work for young people and asks where technology can credibly help them navigate it. It is written for the founders, technologists and investors building tools in this space.

We find that young people without degrees face the steepest transition of all, with unemployment for those qualified to GCSE level or below running at around three times the rate for graduates. Yet they are the group least well served by the tools being built, most of which are aimed at graduates who already hold a degree, a network and an earnings premium to cushion an early stumble.

The note highlights four elements of the transition, and considers where technology can credibly help, and where it cannot. These are: knowing the options and reaching the right one; signalling ability and getting past screening; finding a first job that fits and lasts; and staying well and confident enough to see it through.

Key findings

  • Careers guidance tends to concentrate inside school and thins out once a young person leaves, while the training routes meant to offer an alternative to university are the hardest to navigate. Around 70 per cent of higher-level, levy-funded apprenticeship starts over the past decade went to workers aged 25 and over.
  • Without a degree to easily signal ability, non-graduates are often filtered out by automated recruitment. 71 per cent of UK firms use an automated applicant tracking system, and more than a third of those use it to screen candidates out.
  • What looks like a lack of motivation is often a matching problem set before the first day. Young people often accept roles without an accurate picture of the work and leave early on when the day-to-day realities of the job do not match young peoples’ expectations, and thin onboarding gives them little to hold on to.
  • Mental health and confidence compound the barriers at every stage, with 76 per cent of young people in a 2026 survey saying their well-being affects their ability to look for work.

Recommendations

  • Build tools that let young people sample work before committing to a job, such as virtual work experience and short placements. Experiential exploration does more to help young people know their options than predictive career-recommendation engines and addresses points of failure across several elements of the school-to-work transition at once.
  • Prioritise interventions that translate informal experience into terms employers recognise, and that build feedback into screening, converting a dead end into information a candidate can act on.
  • Design for the young people who need it most: mobile-native, low barriers to access, and working alongside a trusted person rather than replacing one.
  • Focus on how you can employer adoption because a tool that does not have employer engagement nor investment may not be viable and will fail to reach the young people it is built for.

Further reading

First jobs, new barriers
How can technology support young people without degrees through the transition into work?
·
Aish Moothan, Louise Marston
Policy Landscape 2026
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Anand Menon, Ruth Curtice
All by myself
Exploring the change in time spent alone over the last decade
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Parth Pandya

https://doi.org/10.63492/avh6147

Aish Moothan
Aish Moothan Ventures Manager
Louise Marston
Louise Marston Director of Ventures