FOR EMPLOYERS
See Them Build Before You Hire Them
Launchpad gives you 6 weeks of evidence before you commit to a junior hire. Sponsor a cohort, set a real business challenge, watch participants build with AI, and hire the best — having already seen them work.
Junior Hiring Is Broken
of UK employers report skills gaps they can't fill
ManpowerGroup, 2025
You need junior people who can work with AI from day one. But CVs don't tell you who can actually build. Interviews test confidence, not capability. Graduate schemes cost six figures and take months to show results. And the candidates who look good on paper still need months of ramp-up before they're contributing.
What if you could watch candidates work on your actual business problems for 6 weeks before you made a single hiring decision? That's what Launchpad does.
What Sponsorship Delivers
6 weeks of observed evidence
Forget CVs and hypothetical interview questions. You see candidates solve real problems, handle setbacks, collaborate with peers, and present their work to a professional audience. This is the lowest-risk junior hire in the market.
AI-capable hires from day one
Participants spend 6 weeks building with the tools your business needs — prompt engineering, natural language coding, agentic workflows, AI orchestration. They arrive contributing, not learning.
A real solution to your challenge
Participants don't just learn — they build. Your sponsored challenge may produce a usable automation tool, a validated prototype, or a fresh AI-native approach to a problem your team hasn't cracked. You get value during the programme, before any hiring decision.
Employer brand with the next generation
Position your company as a forward-thinking employer that invests in young talent and AI capability. In a competitive hiring market, being known as the company that gives people a real shot matters.
A Better Way to Hire Junior Talent
Traditional Hiring
CV screening and a 45-minute interview
With Launchpad
6 weeks of observed building and delivery
Traditional Hiring
What candidates claim they can do
With Launchpad
What candidates actually do
Traditional Hiring
Unverified — "proficient in AI tools" on a CV
With Launchpad
Demonstrated — they've built working software with AI
Traditional Hiring
3–6 months of onboarding and ramp-up
With Launchpad
Contributing from week one — you've already seen them work
Traditional Hiring
£6,125 average (CIPD), plus onboarding costs
With Launchpad
A fraction of graduate scheme costs. Placement fees only apply when you hire
Traditional Hiring
High — you're betting on a CV and an interview
With Launchpad
Low — you've seen 6 weeks of evidence before committing
Traditional Hiring
None
With Launchpad
Your challenge gets tackled by AI-native builders — you may get a usable solution
Two Ways to Work With Us
Shared Cohort
Join a small group of sponsors in a cohort of participants. Set your own challenge, observe the full build phase, and hire from the cohort on Demo Day.
Best for: Scale-ups and mid-market teams hiring 1–3 junior roles who want access to the pipeline without running a dedicated programme.
- Your challenge briefed to the cohort
- Weekly progress updates
- Demo Day attendance and hiring priority
- Employer brand visibility throughout the programme
Exclusive Cohort
A fully dedicated cohort working entirely on your challenges, mentored by your team, and integrated into your technology stack.
Best for: Larger organisations building an AI-capable junior talent pipeline, or companies with complex challenges that benefit from dedicated focus.
- Your challenge briefed to the cohort
- Weekly progress updates
- Demo Day attendance and hiring priority
- Employer brand visibility throughout the programme
- Fully dedicated cohort
- Bespoke challenge design with your team
- Deeper integration with your tools and processes
- Priority placement across all participants
Sponsorship is designed to cost significantly less than a traditional graduate scheme or recruitment agency — and you get 6 weeks of evidence before you commit to a hire. Placement fees are only charged when you make an offer.
What This Looks Like in Practice
A fintech scale-up sponsors a shared cohort and sets a challenge around automating part of their client onboarding process.
Three participants tackle the challenge. One builds an AI-powered document collection and verification tool using Lovable and n8n. On Demo Day, the Head of Ops sees it in action.
The company hires two participants from the cohort. Both are contributing within their first week — because the company already knows what they can do.
The result: Two AI-capable junior hires, already proven, for less than the cost of a single senior recruitment agency placement. No ramp-up. No guesswork.
Built on a Decade of Doing This
Launchpad is built by Scott Hatfield, who has spent 10 years at the intersection of education, digital skills, and corporate training.
professionals trained with Squared Online (Google)
young people trained through FastFutures
corporate sponsor NPS at FastFutures (perfect score)
programme completion rate
Companies that sponsored Scott's previous programme, FastFutures, include BT, Octopus Energy, Legal & General, and Shell.
Common Questions
What if we don't end up hiring anyone?
The sponsorship fee covers your participation in the programme — the challenge, the visibility, the employer brand, and the potential output from participants working on your problem. Placement fees are only charged when you make a hire. If nobody is the right fit this cohort, you're welcome to carry your priority access to a future one.
How much time does this take from our team?
Minimal. The core commitment is a 15-minute scoping call, a 1-hour challenge briefing, and a half-day for Demo Day. Beyond that, you can be as involved as you like — some sponsors attend weekly check-ins, others prefer to wait for Demo Day.
What happens to the IP from our challenge?
Participants retain ownership of what they build as portfolio pieces. If a build has direct commercial value to your business, we'll work with you on appropriate arrangements before the cohort begins.
Can we set a commercially sensitive challenge?
Yes. We work with you to frame the challenge at the right level of abstraction — specific enough to be a genuine test of capability, broad enough to protect anything confidential. Many sponsors set challenges based on real problems without exposing proprietary data.
What kinds of companies is this best suited for?
Launchpad works best for mid-market scale-ups and SMEs in fintech, B2B SaaS, professional services, and digital agencies — companies that need AI-capable junior talent but don't have dedicated graduate recruitment teams. That said, the model works for any company that hires juniors and wants a better way to assess them.
How is this different from a graduate scheme?
Graduate schemes typically cost £100,000+ per year, take months to show results, and assess candidates on credentials rather than capability. Launchpad delivers AI-capable hires in 6 weeks, at a fraction of the cost, with 6 weeks of observed evidence before you commit. It's the graduate scheme outcome without the graduate scheme overhead.
How It Works
Four steps from challenge to hire. The whole process takes 8 weeks from first conversation to Demo Day.
- 1
We Scope Your Challenge
A 15-minute discovery call to understand your hiring needs and business priorities. We work with you to define a focused challenge that participants will tackle using AI tools — something real enough to produce genuine value and specific enough to assess talent against.
Your time commitment: 30 minutes.
- 2
You Brief the Cohort
At the start of the build phase, you present your challenge directly to participants. This is your first touchpoint with the talent — and your first opportunity to see who engages, who asks sharp questions, and who thinks commercially.
Your time commitment: 1 hour.
- 3
You Watch Them Build
Over 6 weeks, participants use Claude, Cursor, Lovable, and n8n to build working solutions to your challenge. You receive weekly progress updates and can attend check-ins or provide feedback. By week 4, you'll already know who stands out.
Your time commitment: As much or as little as you want. Most sponsors spend 1–2 hours per week.
- 4
Demo Day: See the Work, Hire the Best
Every participant presents what they've built — the problem they addressed, how they approached it, and a live demonstration of their product. You've had 6 weeks of evidence. You shortlist the candidates you want to interview. Hiring conversations start that week.
Your time commitment: Half a day.
The Next Cohort Starts Soon
Sponsor slots are limited to a small number of companies per cohort. Book a 15-minute discovery call to scope your challenge and reserve your place.
Or email scott.hatfield@yourlaunchpad.uk directly.