Partnering with universities to host employer insight visits strengthens your graduate talent pipeline, explains Anna Fons Garcia at Queen Mary University of London.
Early careers teams are navigating unprecedented application volumes. ISE’s article How to ride the tidal wave of applications recently highlighted how the sheer volume of applications has created a disconnect between employers and candidates, making it harder to identify genuinely motivated applicants and harder for students to stand out.
From within our university careers service, I see the other side of this challenge every day. Many capable students struggle to secure their first meaningful industry experience and often feel overwhelmed by the graduate recruitment process.
Recent findings from Prospects’s Early Careers Survey 2026 reinforce this picture, with students and graduates saying that keeping motivated was the biggest challenge of the past year, ahead of balancing commitments and money.
These challenges create an opportunity for employers and universities to work more intentionally together.
I would encourage early careers teams to consider inviting students into the workplace early in the recruitment cycle. This approach has consistently strengthened our employer partners' talent pipelines while helping students make more informed career choices and maintain their motivation throughout recruitment processes.
Employer insight visits: investing in informed applicants
At Queen Mary University of London, our careers and employability team delivers QTaster, a programme of employer-hosted insight visits designed to connect undergraduate students with graduate employers just before or as internship and graduate role applications open.
Each academic year, more than 250 undergraduate students take part in visits lasting around three hours, combining office tours, employee panels, networking and interactive activities.
Over the last four years, we have partnered with more than 50 employers across London, including Expedia Group, ING Bank, the Civil Service, British Airways, the Local Government Graduate Programme, World Resources Institute, Gattaca plc, Pearson and Mulberry College of Teaching.
These visits are intentionally small, allowing employers to spend meaningful time with 20–30 carefully selected students whose academic discipline, year of study and career interests align with their recruitment priorities. Cohorts can also be tailored to support employers' wider EDI or social mobility objectives.
Students consistently tell us that these visits leave a far stronger impression than meeting employers on campus, employer videos and social media, or virtual events.
These experiences help them better understand an organisation's culture, roles and recruitment process before deciding whether it is the right fit.
Our evaluation reflects this impact: 90% of QTaster participants reported increased confidence in their next career step, while 78% gained greater clarity about the sector they were exploring.
For employers, this translates into more motivated, better-informed applicants who are potentially less likely to renege on offers.
The tangible recruitment impact for employers
Following one QTaster visit with Expedia Group last October, six students from a cohort of 30 secured summer internships. As one student reflected: "My QTaster visit to Expedia led to me accepting an offer for a summer internship as a Technical Program Manager."
Hayley Bowd, Director of Emerging Talent & Careers at Expedia Group and ISE Board Director, explains: “Our partnership with QMUL over the last few years has been one of real value to our hiring and programs.
“Our approach with running the QTaster events has been to target those who may be interested to then apply for an internship, and each year the event has been hugely successful with a high quality of relevant, engaged attendees and excellent support and coordination from the QMUL team. importantly, we see a direct impact to conversions of interns who then join our program the following summer. With internships being a pipeline to our graduate hiring, this provides a tangible and high-quality talent pipeline.”
Similar benefits have been reported across other sectors. Ruth Smith, Director of the East London Teaching School Hub, says QTaster has helped the Mulberry School Trust and Mulberry College of Teaching connect with motivated, high-quality graduates through visits tailored to their recruitment needs and organisational values.
Lucy Pope, Head of ESG at Gattaca described a QTaster event as "a fantastic example of the power of collaboration," introducing engineering students to careers in offshore wind while improving their job-readiness and supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Making employer insight visits successful
The success of an employer insight visit depends on a strong partnership between the employer and its university careers team.
- University careers teams help identify the right student cohort, share student data and insights to inform planning, schedule visits to align with recruitment campaigns, coordinate logistics, prepare students to engage professionally and evaluate outcomes.
- Employers maximise the impact by involving colleagues from across the organisation, particularly alumni and employees in relevant roles; sharing authentic career journeys; creating interactive activities that give students a genuine insight into the work; offering office tours; and allowing time for informal networking.
Looking ahead to 2026–2027
As you plan your autumn outreach strategy, it may be worth asking your university partners the question: could a focused, well-designed employer insight visit deliver greater long-term value than another large-scale attraction event?
Our experience suggests that, in many cases, the answer is yes.
In a market where application volumes continue to rise, the greatest return on early careers investment may come from reconnecting employers and students before recruitment begins.
Earlier engagement helps the right students make informed career choices, stay motivated throughout the recruitment process and apply because they genuinely see themselves working in your organisation.