Campus Recruitment Forum

Campus recruitment is evolving quickly as employers navigate shifting hiring volumes, rising application numbers, new technologies, and changing student expectations. Understanding what other organizations are experiencing can help employers benchmark their strategies and adapt more effectively.

Drawing on findings from the latest Canadian Campus Recruitment Outlook Report, this session highlights key insights from Brainstorm’s national survey of employers who recruit post-secondary students and graduates across Canada.

We’ll explore what the data reveals about hiring forecasts, recruitment timelines, employer branding, and the skills employers prioritize when evaluating student candidates. The session will also examine how employer expectations, student priorities, and emerging technologies are influencing the early talent landscape.

For employers hiring post-secondary talent, this session provides a practical snapshot of what peers across industries are seeing — and what these trends may mean for campus recruitment strategies in the year ahead.

Participants will learn:

• What current data reveals about student hiring trends and employer outlook
• The biggest challenges employers face in attracting and selecting student talent
• How recruitment timelines, engagement strategies, and employer branding are evolving
• The skills employers prioritize when evaluating early talent
• What these trends may signal for campus recruitment in the next hiring cycle

This session explores how aligning campus recruitment and early talent programs with Gen Z expectations can strengthen student attraction and long-term retention. As students place greater value on purpose, transparency, and meaningful work experiences, organizations are rethinking how they design internships and early talent programs.

Through real-world examples, this session will examine how thoughtfully designed early talent experiences can strengthen employer brand, improve return rates, and position organizations as places where emerging talent wants to start — and build — their careers.

Decoding the modern student journey and how employers can respond

What are students actually looking for and how does that compare to how employers show up?

In this interactive session, we’ll bring key insights from the Brainstorm Student Interests survey into the room and invite you to unpack them with your peers. Together, we’ll decode what these signals reveal about the modern student journey and explore how employers are responding in practice.

Expect honest conversation about what’s resonating, what’s being missed, and where there’s opportunity to rethink your approach. You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of student expectations and practical ideas you can apply right away.

More than 24,000 university and college students across Canada evaluated and ranked the employers they would most like to work for, offering a powerful, student-driven view of employer brand strength and career preferences.

In this special session, we’ll announce the Future Workforce Top Employers for 2026, recognizing the organizations that are standing out to Canada’s next generation of talent based on results from Brainstorm’s national student survey.

We’ll provide brief context on how the rankings are developed and what they reflect, before revealing the top employers across key categories. Winning organizations in attendance will be invited to the stage for recognition, certificate presentation, and a group photo.

While this session focuses on celebrating this year’s top employers, it also offers a snapshot of how students are evaluating organizations today and which brands are earning their attention.

The landscape for hiring students and early talent is shifting quickly — and many of the most important questions don’t have simple answers.

These roundtable discussions bring together campus recruitment and early talent professionals to share experiences, compare approaches, and explore how others are navigating today’s hiring environment. Through candid peer conversations, participants will exchange ideas, benchmark strategies, and discuss what’s working — and what isn’t — when it comes to attracting and hiring student talent.

These sessions often surface some of the most practical insights of the Forum, offering a real-time pulse check on how organizations are adapting their campus recruitment strategies.

Examples of topics may include:

• How campus recruitment strategies are shifting in response to hiring uncertainty
• What’s working (and not working) to engage students today
• How AI is affecting student applications and early talent hiring
• Making the case for campus recruitment internally
• Deciding where to focus: target schools, programs, and engagement formats
• Managing campus recruitment with limited time, budget, or team capacity
• How employers and campuses can work together more effectively

For employers hiring student talent, success on campus depends on understanding how schools are prioritizing employer partnerships, student engagement, and recruiting activities.

Employer relations and career teams sit at the intersection of student expectations, institutional priorities, and employer demand — shaping how employers access talent and how recruitment activity unfolds on campus.

In this candid panel discussion, employer relations leaders from post-secondary institutions will share what they’re seeing across their campuses — including shifts in employer engagement, changing student participation patterns, and how schools are prioritizing their efforts.

For employers, this session provides valuable insight into how campus teams are thinking about partnerships, what helps organizations succeed when recruiting students, and where stronger collaboration can make the biggest difference.

Questions panelists will address

• What major shifts are you seeing in employer engagement and campus recruitment activity?
• How are student attitudes, participation, and expectations changing?
• Where are schools focusing their efforts — and what are you doing less of?
• What helps employers build stronger, more effective partnerships with campuses?
• What distinguishes employers who are most successful in engaging students today?
• How are schools demonstrating the value and impact of campus recruitment within their institutions?

Campus recruitment isn’t just evolving — it’s being recalibrated.

Between AI-enabled screening, shifting hiring volumes, budget scrutiny, hybrid engagement models, and students questioning the value of entry-level roles, early talent programs are under pressure to prove impact while delivering better candidate experiences.

In this candid, in-person panel discussion, campus recruiters and early talent leaders will share what’s changing inside their organizations — and how they’re adapting their strategies in real time.

From defending campus investment to redesigning engagement models, panelists will explore what’s working, what’s being cut, and what they’re watching closely as they plan for the next recruiting cycle.

Questions panelists will address:

• What strategic shifts are reshaping your campus recruitment model right now?
• How are AI and automation affecting early talent roles — and how are you responding?
• Where are you doubling down on (schools, programs, formats) — and where are you pulling back?
• How are you balancing efficiency, scale, and authentic student engagement?
• What do you need from campus partners to deliver stronger hiring outcomes?

For campus recruiters, this is a chance to benchmark your strategy against peers and gain practical insight into how others are navigating complexity and constraint.

For employer relations and career professionals, it’s an unfiltered look at employer decision-making — and what partnership, access, and program design need to look like going forward.