Educate North Awards 2025: Uni wins Digital Education and Development prize
(Image: Educate North Awards/ER Photography)
The University of Huddersfield has been recognised at the Educate North Awards 2025, winning the Digital Education and Development Award for its new career learning tool.
Graduate Career Explorer is an intuitive tool that uses AI to help show students the breadth of careers their degree can lead to and where those jobs are geographically.
It can help students easily widen their options, see which job titles to use in their career search and to weigh up the benefits of commuting.
The resource itself has been developed by the University of Huddersfield's Careers and Employability Service in partnership with Lightcast, a leader in labour market analytics, for the benefit of its students.
The project which built on an original idea from Ben Hull, drew on expertise from the University’s data analysts, academics and careers consultants and was led by Dave Stanbury from the Careers and Employability Service.
It is considered a major innovation that will support students in developing employability and was launched to current University of Huddersfield students last year.
Judges praised the University for its innovative and transformative approach to tackling career uncertainty.
They added: “Using AI and machine learning, the Graduate Career Explorer empowers students with tailored insights, supports academics in curriculum planning, and revolutionises career decision-making with its sophisticated yet user-friendly design."
Claire Aydogan, Head of Careers and Employability at the University of Huddersfield, who accepted the Digital Education and Development Award on the night, commented: “GCE is a transformational career learning resource which can really bring the labour market to life for home and international students that has a huge potential to enhance individual careers advice as well as how employability is embedded in the curriculum.”
The University of Huddersfield was also shortlisted at the Educate North Awards 2025 in the Business School of the Year and Apprenticeship Award categories.
The Awards, in their 11th year, aim to celebrate, recognise and share best practice and excellence in the education sector in the North of England.
The ceremony itself was held on 3 April in Manchester with more than 20 awards being handed out on the night.