What are we seeing in the early talent market, and what can organisations learn from the New Zealand experience? NZAGE Board Member, Naomi Houston, will share the latest insights and emerging trends across early talent recruitment, candidate expectations and employer activity, exploring what these shifts could mean for organisations planning and evolving their early careers programmes.

Like many New Zealand employers, Powerco runs a relatively small graduate programme, where growth often needs to be achieved without the resources, infrastructure or dedicated support available to much larger programmes. When its annual intake grew from four graduates to nine, Powerco needed to find practical, fit-for-purpose ways to evolve the programme while retaining the personal, relationship-led approach that had worked well at a smaller scale.

This presentation shares Powerco’s journey from a small, relationship-led programme toward a more structured and scalable early careers approach. It will explore what they wanted the programme to achieve, including stronger technical capability, broader business exposure, improved retention, diverse perspectives and a sustainable pathway into permanent roles. It will cover how they adjusted selection to reach candidates with varied backgrounds, disciplines and ways of thinking, rather than recruiting more of the same.

It is also a personal story. Coming into this work from outside both engineering and early careers, Trish Mouton has grown alongside the programme and become passionate about ensuring their graduates are equipped not only as engineers, but as confident, self-aware and connected people who can become the energy industry’s future leaders.

The session will examine the practical changes introduced to support a larger cohort, including clearer rotations, mentoring, quarterly presentations, development conversations, technical and professional training, and stronger stakeholder engagement. It will also share the gaps growth exposed, including consistency, governance, evidence of development and readiness measures, and how our Early Careers Capability Framework is helping us prepare with clear purpose for what comes next.