Springpod

Springpod operates an online careers education platform that connects young people, primarily secondary-school students from age 13 to 18, with employers and universities. The platform lets students explore careers and companies, interact with industry professionals, take part in virtual work experience programmes, and find apprenticeships, school-leaver programmes and other opportunities. For employers, it provides a channel for engagement with schools and the construction of an early-stage talent pipeline.

Virtual work experience programmes typically run for around two weeks and involve roughly 10-15 hours of student activity, structured to approximate in-person placements through live interaction, webinars, Q&A sessions, quizzes, assessments and a final exercise. Students who complete a programme receive a certificate intended to support their CV and employment profile. The company tracks four stated impact measures: increased awareness of a career, industry, company or university; increased aspiration toward that pathway; increased aptitude or learning; and increased likelihood of the student entering a related industry or joining that employer.

The company began with a focus on STEM careers, reflecting the composition of its pilot group of schools, and later broadened to be sector-agnostic, adding finance, professional services, healthcare and legal employers.

Founding story

Founder and CEO Sam Hyams stated in a 2021 interview that the company was formed around five years earlier out of dissatisfaction with the quality of careers advice available to young people, which he described as heavily dependent on which school a student attended, parental background or alumni networks. While studying engineering at university he encountered the STEM skills shortage and gender imbalance in those fields, and concluded that the underlying issue was that young people were not exposed to such careers and industries early enough to make informed choices. The company was formed in recognition of the need for employer engagement in schools and to address the national STEM skills shortage.

Business model

The platform sits between employers and universities on one side and students and schools on the other, with employers using it for schools engagement and early talent pipeline building while students access career exploration content, virtual work experience, apprenticeships and school-leaver programmes.

Traction

As of October 2021 the platform reported approximately 250,000 students, with around 5,000 joining each week, and UK headcount of about 70 with a stated target of 100 within six months.

Latest developments

Following the Series A closed in 2021, the company said it planned to scale UK headcount toward 100, pursue international expansion into two new territories within a year, and build domestic hubs connecting students to local employers and universities as well as to UK universities. Management described a four- to five-year timeline toward a trade acquisition or IPO.