Emma O’Dell is Director of Skills and Capability Planning. She previously worked in the Financial Services and Legal sectors across a range of HR, Early Career, Talent and Learning and Development roles. At BPP she is responsible for helping organisations understand current and future skills needs across their business. In an era marked by rapid technological advancements, shifting job markets, and complex global challenges all of which are changing the landscape of skills requirements, Emma actively works to understand recent trends around talent shortages in the skills market and advocates for bridging these gaps.

Claire joined ISE as Head of Insights in April 2025. Working closely with Stephen Isherwood, Claire is responsible for developing ISE’s labour market intelligence and thought leadership within the emerging talent market. She manages ISE’s research and analysis activities, including the two core ISE annual surveys (Student Recruitment Survey and Student Development Survey). She works closely with ISE members and stakeholders to identify knowledge needs and with ISE Solution Provider partners to deliver co-created research activities.

Claire is also a Senior Research Fellow in education and labour market economics at the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities where she specialises in education to work transitions, including early careers recruitment, social mobility, people analytics and diversity data. She has over ten years’ experience building data-led research collaborations with large UK employers including building an ‘early careers recruitment data hub’ containing detailed job application and EDI data on over 2.5 million ‘entry-level’ job applicants – the largest research data resource of its kind.

Prior to joining ISE and UCL, Claire held corporate training and senior leadership roles at BPP meeting the education and training needs of large employers and aspiring young professionals in the financial sector. This included preparing students for entering professional careers (leading the design and delivery of degree programmes) and enabling employers to develop early talent (graduate training programmes and leading portfolios of professional qualifications). Claire started her career working in Corporate Finance at EY as a qualified Chartered Accountant specialising in financial due diligence.

Gillian has worked as a senior HR practitioner and OD specialist for several organisations including Swiss Re, Vodafone and BAA. Prior to her HR career, she was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting and is also a qualified solicitor. Gillian has written various CRF reports on subjects including HR strategy, organisation design and development, leadership development, coaching and diversity.

Emma Pollard is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies. She is a mixed methods researcher with 30 years’ experience of applied research and the author of over 60 reports on higher education and careers covering topics including career decision-making, navigating the graduate labour market and establishing professional careers. Her work has looked at the policies and practices of education providers, professional and sectoral bodies, employers, and government to support transitions and career entry and progression; and explored the motivations and drivers, decisions, actions and experiences of individuals in their early careers including learners, graduates and postgraduates as well as those making career changes later in their lives.