Why Educating Futures has never mattered more

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford FinTech & AI Executive Career Networking Event in London. An invitation-only evening organised by Nita Lad and Maria Dooley that brought together senior leaders, Executive MBA students, alumni, career coaches, and executive search professionals from across the FinTech, AI, and leadership ecosystem.

The calibre of experience in the room was impressive. But what stood out most was the quality of conversation, and how a single theme kept surfacing from every angle.

The question has changed

Businesses are no longer simply asking: who can we hire? They are asking: how quickly can we create impact?

That shift changes everything. The best organisations are moving beyond individual hires and focusing on capability, adaptability, and speed to impact. They want leaders who can assess, decide, and act. Not just fill a seat.

At the same time, the strongest talent in AI, FinTech, and transformation is rarely sitting on the open market. These people are already building, advising, and operating across multiple environments. Access to them depends on community, relationships, and long-term engagement. 

This was a point of strong consensus across the room. Senior leaders and executive search professionals alike recognised that the traditional hiring model is losing its grip and that access, not process, is becoming the competitive advantage.

What this means for the next generation

Here is what struck me most about that evening. If the future of leadership belongs to people who can create impact quickly, who are adaptable, capable, and connected, then the question we should all be asking is: who is preparing the next generation for that reality?

Because the shift happening at the top of organisations does not start at the top. It starts much earlier. It starts with education, access, and opportunity. The leaders who do well in this new world are the ones who were given the chance to learn, to build confidence, to develop skills, and to connect with people who believed in their potential.

Not everyone gets that chance, and that is a problem we can do something about.

Oxford Saïd itself recognises this. Alongside its executive education and MBA programmes, the business school runs youth programmes for students aged 15 to 18, residential summer schools in areas like entrepreneurship, AI and machine learning, climate tech, and leadership. These programmes are designed to stretch young people’s thinking, build future-ready skills, and give them access to world-class teaching and a global peer network. It is a model that understands leadership development does not start at 30 it starts much earlier.

Why Educating Futures matters more than ever

This is exactly why we created Educating Futures at Salt. We believe that if you want to change the future of leadership, you have to invest in the people who will become those leaders, long before they reach the boardroom.

Through Educating Futures, our teams around the world are working with organisations and communities to make that investment real. In South Africa, we partner with the Spirit Education Foundation to support scholars from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and our Cape Town team runs career workshops with Le Wagon’s coding bootcamp graduates to help them build the skills and confidence employers are looking for. In the US, our team works with Per Scholas to provide equitable access to tech education. In the UK, we attend career fairs with the EEEA Academy Trust, giving school-age students a window into careers they might never have considered. In Australia, we lead youth career development workshops in Melbourne. In New Zealand, we support undergraduates at Auckland University of Technology with career guidance.

We also raise the voices and initiatives of organisations like Code First Girls, who have taught over 100,000 women to code, and Ambitious about Autism, who are building inclusive career pathways for autistic young people. Through our community, we amplify the stories of organisations making a tangible difference to education and opportunity.

Why? Because visibility drives change.

These are not token gestures. They are a direct response to the reality I saw in that room in London: that the future of work rewards capability, confidence, and connection and that too many talented people are being locked out before they even get started.

Education is the bridge

The conversation at Oxford Saïd confirmed something I have believed for a long time. The organisations that will lead in the years ahead are the ones that think about talent as an ecosystem, not a transaction.

That means investing in communities, creating pathways, and making sure that the next generation of leaders, wherever they come from, has the education, support, and access they need to create impact.

The future of leadership hiring will belong to organisations that combine talent, capability, and execution. But that future only works if we invest in the people who will make it happen.

Starting now, starting early, and starting with education.