Platform · Candidate Marketing · TalentConnect

A brand that wasn’t there at year 9 is competing for second-choice candidates.

Cost-per-click is up. Cost-per-hire is up. Brand-recall on graduate-target lists is down. The math has flipped on every classic candidate-marketing tactic of the last decade. TalentConnect rebuilds the funnel around branded immersive experiences, multi-touch nurture from year 9, and the 1.1-million-strong GetMyFirstJob candidate network.

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Network reach: 1.1m candidates
Engagement uplift: 38× (DHL)
Cost-per-hire: −62%
Brand recall: +21pp

TalentConnect · At a glance Production

Candidate Marketing

Part of the TalentHub. Connected natively to the Assessment Platform, TalentPortal and the rest of the platform.

Built forEarly careers, volume
Sectors8 regulated UK sectors
ComplianceGDPR, EHRC, ISO 27001
RoadmapQuarterly, customer-driven

What it does

Candidate marketing, rebuilt for early careers.

Generic ad-buying platforms weren’t designed for a 4-year decision cycle, school-college-university funnels or the post-AI brand-recall problem. TalentConnect is built specifically around how 16- to 22-year-olds actually decide.

Branded mini-experiences

Branded, sector-specific immersive mini-experiences distributed through the GetMyFirstJob network. Candidate doesn’t just see your brand — they spend 18–28 minutes inside a realistic version of the work.

01 · Experience

1.1m candidate network

Direct distribution into 1.1m permission-based early-careers candidates across the GetMyFirstJob network. Targetable by sector, region, qualification, stage and protected-characteristic mix.

02 · Network

Year 9 → year 13 nurture

Multi-touch nurture journeys spanning the four-year decision window. Branded touchpoints from year 9 brand-decision moment through year 13 application moment, with re-engagement at university transition.

03 · Nurture

Full-funnel attribution

Source-to-hire attribution across every touchpoint: school engagement, IWX completion, application, assessment, interview, offer, retention. Practitioners see which marketing investments deliver retention, not just applications.

04 · Attribution

Sector + regional segmentation

Targetable across 17 sectors and every UK region. Particularly strong on priority-postcode (POLAR Q1/Q2), first-generation candidates and Russell-Group-light geographies.

05 · Segments

GMFJ syndication

Cross-syndication into 800+ school relationships, 14 university partner programmes and the Causeway / RAE / SRA practitioner networks. Reach the candidate where they already are.

06 · Syndicate

How it works

From year 9 brandto year 13 application.

Step 01
Build branded experience
Sector-specific branded immersive mini-experience built with the TalentXP platform team. Typically 18–28 minutes, ages 14+ accessible. Live in 6–8 weeks.
Step 02
Distribute through network
Distribute through the GMFJ candidate network, school relationships and university partnerships. Targetable across sector, region, qualification stage.
Step 03
Multi-touch nurture
Branded nurture sequence across year groups, with re-engagement at university transition. Behavioural triggers based on engagement signal, not just calendar dates.
Step 04
Convert to applications
Applications surface inside TalentPortal, with full attribution back to first marketing touch. Year-on-year uplift visible per cohort.

Outcomes

Validated across 38,000-student deployments.

Customer-validated outcomes from candidate marketing deployments across financial services, professional services, engineering and the public sector, 2024–2025.

Engagement

38×

Engagement uplift on the DHL year 9-12 schools campaign vs prior-year traditional ad spend.

CPH

−62%

Reduction in cost-per-hire vs the previous-year graduate marketing programme on a like-for-like target list.

Brand

+21pp

Brand-recall uplift on aided-recall surveys among year 12 candidates in target geographies.

Diversity

+34%

Increase in priority-postcode (POLAR Q1/Q2) candidates reaching application stage.

Integrations

Works with your stack.

TalentConnect plugs in alongside your existing employer-brand work, not on top of it. Marketing-ops handovers, attribution back to your enterprise tools, and full data parity with TalentPortal.

TalentPortalNative

WorkdayATS

SuccessFactorsHRIS

GreenhouseATS

EployATS

OleeoATS

iCIMSATS

Smart RecruitersATS

Microsoft TeamsCollab

Get started

See TalentConnect on your
candidate funnel.

Book a 45-minute working session. We’ll plug your last cohort’s funnel data into the TalentConnect attribution model and show you which marketing investments are delivering retention — and which are buying applications you didn’t need.

Talk to us Schools engagement playbook