The entry-level door is harder to open than it was a year ago. The UK tech sector cut graduate jobs by 46 percent in the past year, with a further 53 percent drop projected, according to figures from the Institute of Student Employers. The wider picture is just as sharp: Adzuna reports a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT's launch, leaving graduates facing the toughest market since 2018.
Engineering feels this squeeze acutely. Government data shows entry-level hiring in engineering has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap. So there's a real question for every engineering leader today: if you stop hiring juniors, who becomes your next generation of senior engineers?
The work a graduate does is shifting, not disappearing. Demand for AI skills is climbing fast: Accenture data cited by The Register shows demand for AI skills rose nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK.
Teams are rethinking how they bring people in, too. The DSIT AI Labour Market Survey shows apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025. And the skills push is national in scale: during London Tech Week 2025 the UK government announced a partnership to upskill 7.5 million UK workers in essential AI skills by 2030, around 20% of the workforce. A graduate who pairs with an agent from day one is learning exactly the blend of judgement and AI fluency the market now wants.
Start by changing what you test for. The old interview measured how much syntax someone could recall. Now the stronger signal is how someone works with an agent: can they prompt clearly, read generated code critically, spot the bug the model missed, and explain why they rejected a suggestion? Those are the habits that compound into senior judgement.
Do this and a graduate stops being a cost you carry and becomes someone who contributes quickly while growing into the senior engineer your roadmap needs.
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