Written by Alison Price
2025 is already shaping up to be the year to get your voice heard, share your 3E practice, shape the future and draw in the resources and expertise you need!
Firstly, whilst national consultations take place on role of the Office for students and their future strategy, please encourage disabled entrepreneurs to share their experience for the next The Lilac Review which seeks to identify the barriers faced by disabled founders in the UK to develop action plan to remove them. *Why not also check out the wider work of Small Business Britain, who lead on this, as they also offer resources like walks and meet-ups, virtual events, as well as podcasts, and videos (such as those exploring side hustles) so take a look and signpost others!
Also keep an eye on opportunities for you to share what you do – such as Advance HE’s Employability Symposium on the 3Es (Employability Enterprise and Entrepreneurship) which aims to spotlight new and evolving themes such as AI integration, future-proofing graduates, authentic assessment, and sustainable development.
It is clear that “AI” will remain a key area to watch especially as some obvious freelancer opportunities are being lost to our future graduates, as is the “first rung” on the work-experience ladder, which once taken away will fundamental shift careers and futures. EEUK will keep you posted on its impact, sharing observations, reflections and identifying critical shifts, such as how AI has impacted applications for jobs (as” everyone” can apply for “all” the jobs) and highlight discussions that help use “reframe the work-ready myth” from a binary state (“ready” or “not”) as we keep an eye on “what do graduates do” (report). In addition to committing to “mainline” AI, the Labour Government also created youth guarantee declaring an expectation ‘that every young person is earning or learning’ so expect the skills agenda to continue to dominate education. Whether you work from your own institutional graduate attributes, EntreComp,DigComp, LifeComp and GreenComp or the Universal Skills Builder, check out approaches like the “topical talks” from the Economist and expect to see a “changing world of employer-university collaboration” (take a look at JISC’s “vision for 2030” which recognises that the world of work is changing so rapidly that neither employers nor universities can address this alone). Collectively such change will inform and drive our conversations at IEEC, as we focus on “Disruptions, Futures and Enterprise Education” – put the IEEC dates in your diary (10th-12th Sept 2025) now and look forwarding to seeing you there!