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New to Market

27 May 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms

NEW TO THE MARKET: 27-30 MAY 2025

• Technology recruitment provider itris has launched itris X, a cloud-based CRM and applicant tracking system (ATS) built specifically for recruitment agencies and staffing professionals. The new platform is designed to streamline the entire talent acquisition process with a focus on automation, scalability, and ease of use. itris X addresses core operational challenges in recruitment by offering AI-powered automation to reduce repetitive tasks, advanced reporting tools for performance insights, and personalised candidate communication features. The system is accessible across devices and integrates with a wide range of recruitment tools and platforms. Key features include lead and marketing management, user-friendly design and comprehensive customer support. itris X is scalable for use by both small agencies and large global firms, maintaining performance and usability regardless of company size.

• ManpowerGroup has launched the Work Intelligence Lab, a new global initiative designed to help employers and workers understand and adapt to the impact of AI on jobs and skills. With over half of employers (53%) already using AI in hiring and onboarding, the Lab provides real-time insights into how automation is transforming the labour market. The Lab leverages Manpower Group’s workforce data, drawn from millions of placements over 70 countries, and integrates real-time hiring trends, employer demand and worker sentiment. It aims to give organisations clearer visibility into emerging skill requirements, role changes and workforce dynamics.

27 May 2025
Oil & gas/Energy, Engineering

Energy recruitment firm launches in Aberdeen

Founded by Alan Golightly (pictured), an experienced recruitment professional with more than 27 years in the industry, the company targets small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) requiring tailored support for complex hiring needs. 

The firm provides permanent recruitment solutions for technical and engineering roles, as well as short-term internal recruitment assistance to help businesses manage hiring fluctuations without increasing fixed costs. Agilient also offers custom recruitment strategies that align with clients’ specific values and growth plans.

Golightly previously worked for, among other oil & gas recruiters, NES Fircroft, and launches Agilient from global energy recruiter Simpson Booth.

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20 May 2025
Oil & gas/Energy, Transport & logistics

International manufacturer invests £170m in North Wales facility

The UK and Welsh governments have welcomed the investment into a new facility from the international manufacturer.

The announcement comes as the UK and EU hold a summit to discuss future opportunities to boost economic growth.

The landmark development will produce more than 100,000 tonnes of non-combustible rock mineral wool insulation per year and create around 140 direct jobs, with more in local supply chains.

The announcement coincides with the UK-EU Summit that took place on Monday [19 May 2025].

Secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens said: “This £170m investment by Knauf Insulation is fantastic news for North Wales and our UK government mission to drive economic growth.”

Using UK-First Submerged Arc Furnace technology, the new factory will produce non-combustible, low embodied carbon, recyclable rock mineral wool insulation to support the need for safer, more energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

The UK and Welsh government-backed North Wales Growth Deal and the Flintshire and Wrexham Investment Zone collectively support the decision by Knauf Insulation to lo-cate a second plant in the area.

As leaders in the production of sustainable building materials, Knauf Insulation’s expansion further supports the growing advanced manufacturing cluster in North Wales.

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20 May 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms

Human skills as important as ‘oven-ready’ tech skills

So says the CEO of the CIPD, the UK’s professional body for HR, learning & development, Peter Cheese.

Speaking last Friday [16 May 2025] at the Houses of Parliament launch of the UK Hiring Taskforce, Cheese told the 200 attendees that at the same time, however, instead of filling skills gaps, employers are also looking for potential in applicants through characteristics such as “attitude, aptitude to learn human skills like collaboration and communication, and critical thinking. The more we debate the future of work, the more we debate about AI impacting jobs and skills in the future, the more we are coming back to these core skills”.

Humanities knowledge is part of building such capabilities into organisations, Cheese said: “People talk now about the half-life of job skills is somewhere between three and four years. In other words, every three or four years, we’re going to have to retrain half of our workforce.”

Access to and retention of talent are a top issue for business leaders around the world, with “almost every organisation saying they can’t find all the skills. But then you question them on that, they say yes, we’ve been getting too focused on hiring what I’ve often described as ‘oven-ready employees’ and they don’t exist – partly because we are changing the nature of jobs at an ever-increasing rate”, Cheese said. “So, the reality of how we approach recruiting has got to be expanded from the point of view of the employers as well.”

He asked the audience: “So why do we seem to be reverting back to saying ‘I just want tech skills’? We know the world is not, unfortunately, going to be a better place if all we have are a lot of tech people. Frankly, we need humanity to work alongside that as well.”

Cheese has been appointed to the UK Hiring Taskforce steering committee.

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15 November 2021
IT/Telecoms, HR

NEW TO THE MARKET: 15-19 NOVEMBER 2021

• Jobtrain has launched JTGO, a new applicant tracking system (ATS) developed specifically for SMEs. The system enables organisations to manage many functions in-house, reducing their overall recruitment costs. JTGO also helps to reduce advertising costs by providing direct access to all of the UK’s job boards by “seamlessly” allowing small businesses to post job vacancies free of charge on Indeed, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and their company’s own website.

8 November 2021
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers

WMCA launches digital skills bootcamps with £21m funding for West Midlands

Armed with £21m funding to improve the digital capabilities of residents, the bootcamps are free of charge for learners and equip West Midlands residents with digital skills, enabling them to access roles in areas like coding, cybersecurity and digital marketing. 

They support the unemployed, those seeking a career change, as well as employed people looking to gain the digital skills required to secure more responsibility or a promotion with their current employer.

Through a £7m grant, the WMCA has so far piloted over 30 digital bootcamps, training around 2,000 adults who were unemployed or in low-paid jobs with vital tech skills. 

£21m has been made available from the Adult Education Budget to support the new bootcamps over the next three years, with a target of helping more than 4,000 people. These will run from November 2021 to October 2024.

Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, said: “Re-training and upskilling have such critical roles to play in our region’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We know that training in the skills of the future that employers want and need is a crucial way to help people bounce back into employment quickly, and technology is an area of huge employment possibilities that we must help people get the right skills in.”

The 10 providers selected to deliver WMCA digital bootcamps are: Generation You Employed; University of Birmingham; School of Code; Tech Talent; Capita; The Skills Network; LEAD; Resume Foundation; Twin Training International; and Code Your Future.

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8 November 2021
Transport & logistics, Creative/Digital/Media, Engineering, IT/Telecoms, HR, Hospitality/Leisure, Healthcare/Medical, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers

NEW TO THE MARKET: 8-12 NOVEMBER 2021

• 360WORK has announced its all-in-one global hiring platform, established to connect and match high quality professionals with international businesses. 360WORK combines machine learning and human intelligence to offer an “efficient” and “cost-effective” solution for finding, vetting and hiring proven talents, according to a company statement.

• Access Recruitment has launched video interview technology within its Recruitment CRM [client/customer relationship management]. The tool shortens interview schedules from weeks to days, and can be used by consultants to create video content about open roles to send to potential candidates, as well as talking about their own specialism to send to clients.

• Former board director of Scotland’s recruitment giant Hudson Lesley Cameron has launched Cameron Connect in Glasgow. Cameron Connect will focus on recruitment within mid to senior-level permanent and fixed-term contract positions within operations, customer experience, technology, digital and business change recruitment. The business will work with clients across Scotland and the UK.

• Network Rail has launched a competition for its IT careers available for BAME individuals. It is hoped that the competition will encourage more young people from minority ethnic backgrounds to consider a career in IT, STEM areas more widely and in the rail industry. The competition challenges young people to use their creative and technical skills to invent something new or innovative. Prizes will include IT equipment, Windows 10 laptops, work experience days and mentoring from IT professionals.

• New Directions Health & Social Care has expanded its services to offer short and long-term nursing placements and permanent nursing positions in private healthcare. The new service will be led by Sam Marriott, who has extensive specialist knowledge of nursing recruitment. New Directions now provides a range of work opportunities for qualified and unqualified staff in a number of areas including acquired brain injury, autism, alzheimer’s, EMI, acute mental health, substance abuse, general nursing and psychiatric mental health.

• The QHotels Collection has launched a new spa academy, which will see the creation of new positions across the group, and training and qualifications for existing spa, beauty and wellbeing practitioners. The academy will also help those already working in the industry to gain more professional qualifications, which will be recognised in the UK and abroad.

• Workscan has launched a placement platform utilising the power of automation and AI to match students with suitable employers. The platform informs students about their chances of getting into a particular placement by taking the volume of other applications into account. The platform conducts background checks on businesses to verify that they are a genuine and have passed compliance checks with compliance liability. Workscan will launch in early 2022 and it invites employers to register online and learn more about its platform.

3 November 2021
Retail, Transport & logistics, IT/Telecoms, HR, Hospitality/Leisure

NEW TO THE MARKET: 1-5 NOVEMBER 2021

• Travel insurance specialist AllClear Group has announced 70 new job openings in Southend, following its recent acquisition of InsureandGo.

• Career Masterclass, a career growth platform, has launched its upgraded platform which offers a “superior” and personalised experience for users. The new platform combines existing resources with brand new features to further help its users develop in their chosen careers, overcome challenges and manage transitions when they happen.

• Distribution company CitySprint is recruiting more than 500 additional couriers across the UK, adding to its existing fleet of over 3,500 vans, bikes and cars. To help ease the increased pressure on the delivery network throughout peak season, the business is focusing primarily on small and large van couriers, particularly in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Cardiff, Medway, Norwich, Nottingham and Reading.

• Recruitment firm gap personnel has placed thousands of Squid Game-style recruitment cards around England and Wales to hire people for in-demand warehouse, logistics and FCMG jobs. The #JobsNotGames stunt encourages people to scan the card’s QR code to register on their website. Those who sign up will be contacted by a recruiter to help them find a suitable job in their area. Applicants can register for gap’s #JobsNotGames campaign here.

• IN4 Talent has launched to work with technology employers in the North-West region to provide a diversity and inclusivity support service. The joint venture between IN4 Group and technology recruitment firm Langham Recruitment will work with firms such as Siemens, Cisco, Missguided and Codurence.

• Metrocentre Gateshead is putting on a Hospitality ‘Discovery Day’ today [3 November], inviting jobseekers and industry professionals to find out more about the hospitality sector. The recruitment day will take place inside the shopping centre’s Qube with participants set to gain insight into current vacant roles at the likes of wagamama, TGI Friday’s, Zucchini, Pizza Express plus many more.

• Personio has launched its digital HR accelerator program to help Europe’s small and mid-sized organisations recover from the coronavirus pandemic. In November and December Personio will give SMEs tailored support to transform their HR practices through digitalising and automating people processes. Businesses will also be able to work with Personio experts on a one-to-one basis to ensure they are making the most of the latest in HR software, including people workflow automation technology, to improve the way they work.

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