The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook. This week: AI is tuning into our emotions. Workers prioritise employability over passion. Gen Z want job offers within a week. Training is slipping down the agenda despite widening skills gaps. Meanwhile, office mandates unpopular.
First multi-sensory platform to allow AI to adapt to human emotion
Neurologyca, a leading developer of human-centric artificial intelligence, has launched Kopernica, a first-of-its-kind AI platform. The platform uses “multi-modal” inputs – a combination of real-time cognitive, vocal, and behavioural intelligence – to allow AI applications to “understand” human emotions. Using a combination of advanced technologies, the platform will be able to detect and measure facial expressions, behaviours, mental states, markers for stress and anxiety, and even the risk of acute medical emergencies such as strokes.
Talent trade-offs unlocked: Employability emerges as the top priority – 3 in 5 workers choose employability over a job that inspires them
Randstad’s latest Workmonitor Pulse survey, derived from the views of over 5,000 workers around the world, shows that talent are navigating the labour market with increased intentionality. From employability and stress reduction to time autonomy and flexibility, talent across generations and job types are making deliberate trade-offs.
For employers, understanding these talent trade-offs offer a clear opportunity to align business goals with evolving workforce priorities and drive performance, even amid shifting economic conditions.
Leading recruiter reveals Gen Z jobseekers expect offer within week of interview
Leading recruiter Gi Group, part of global workforce experts Gi Group Holding supporting more than 25,000 businesses worldwide, has released fresh insights from its 2025 Candidate Survey. The findings highlight a growing impatience among UK jobseekers, with nearly half (47.62%) of all candidates saying they’d lose interest in a role if they haven’t received a response within a week of applying.
In a competitive labour market where candidate experience significantly influences employer brand perception, speed and communication are no longer optional. Jobseekers now expect fast, clear responses, but the recruitment cycle continues to lag behind, often taking several weeks or even months to complete.
Huge gulf and mismatch between ‘traditional’ career aspirations and the current job market
UK charity, Education & Employers, is calling for urgent action to avert a ‘lost generation youth unemployment crisis’ that is now taking hold in the UK. The call comes on the day that the OECD publishes ‘The State of Global Teenage Career Preparation’ a major report of 700,000 15 year olds in 80 countries on the huge mismatch globally between young people’s career aspirations and the future job types available.
Whilst jobs have grown rapidly since the year 2000 in the digital, computing, data science, renewable energy and green sectors, the jobs that young people aspire to has hardly changed in 25 years. And young people are more uncertain about their future careers than ever before according to research.
In need of talent but with training deprioritised, HR pros are stuck in a catch-22
When it comes to talent, some HR professionals are stuck in a Catch-22. Organizations say they are having a hard time finding the right people with the right skills, but the training to get them there keeps moving lower and lower on the priority list.
According to HR Dive’s Identity of HR survey, companies say they’re still struggling to find skilled talent, but at the same time, training as a top priority dropped from 12% in 2024 to just 5% in 2025.
UK workers increasingly rejecting return-to-office mandates, study finds
New research reveals that less than half of UK workers would comply with a full-time return-to-office mandate, with women and some parents showing the strongest resistance to employer demands for in-person attendance. Despite high-profile CEO announcements and media reports suggesting a “great return” to workplaces, researchers found no evidence of a mass move back to offices, with working-from-home rates remaining stable since 2022.
The study, by researchers at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and King’s Business School, analysed over 1 million observations from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and 50,000 responses from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK (SWAA), providing a comprehensive picture of remote working patterns across the UK workforce from early 2022 through to the end of 2024.
English and Maths still highly valuable for UK employers
Functional Skills resources creators who are passionate about using real life scenarios to help learners have reported employers still highly value vital skills in English and Maths – despite recent Government moves to scrap the requirements for older apprentices. Functional Skills tests are typically undertaken by young people who have not achieved a pass grade in English and Maths and need a qualification in order to gain employment, an apprenticeship, or even work abroad.
With tens of thousands of learners undertaking Functional Skills qualifications annually in the UK, Midlands-based educators Lyn Calver and Pete Middleton have created hundreds of written and video resources to help tutors and training providers across the UK.
How trade apprenticeships are closing the skills gap
Apprenticeships are increasingly recognised as a key solution to addressing the skills shortages across the UK. Builder’s merchant and cheap bricks supplier Travis Perkins has shone the spotlight on trade apprenticeships and why they should appeal to those leaving school to get set up for success in life.
According to provisional data provided by GOV.UK’s Explore Education Statistics Service, there has been an increase in those undertaking apprenticeships in England. A total of 132,560 people started apprenticeships programmes across the country for the 2024/25 academic year between August and October 2024, which is an increase of 1.3% compared to the same period during the previous year.
Survey: share insights on menstrual health and endometriosis in the workplace
HR and benefits software provider Ciphr and Endometriosis UK – the country’s largest charity supporting all those impacted by endometriosis – have teamed up to launch a new survey exploring how menstrual health, and conditions such as endometriosis, are being supported in UK workplaces.
The six-minute survey is open to people who work in HR, and business owners. The results will be published in the summer by Ciphr, an Endometriosis Friendly Employer, and Endometriosis UK. Insights from the survey will also help shape future support available from Endometriosis UK.
