Transforming Early Careers Assessment at Scale for EDF
EDF is one of the UK’s largest energy providers, recruiting hundreds of early careers candidates each year across graduate schemes, apprenticeships and industrial placements.
What began as a solution to enable recruitment during COVID has evolved into a long-term strategic platform that underpins assessment centre delivery across EDF’s national early careers programmes.
About the Customer
EDF
Utilities & Energy
Assessing large candidate volumes across multiple programmes
700+ candidates attended assessment centres in 2025 alone
The Challenge
When face-to-face assessment centres became impossible during the pandemic, EDF needed a way to continue recruiting at scale without compromising candidate experience, assessment quality or hiring outcomes.
EDF needed a solution that could:
– Assess large candidate volumes across multiple programmes
– Reduce administrative burden and logistical complexity
– Improve recruitment speed and flexibility
– Support sustainability goals by reducing travel and paper usage
– Deliver a positive and consistent candidate experience
Traditional assessment centres required significant coordination, including venue management, travel arrangements, printed materials and manual scheduling, creating challenges when candidates or assessors changed plans at short notice.
“We didn’t stop recruiting during COVID, however the environment and our commitment to our Zero Harm safety culture meant face-to-face assessments we not a viable option.”
The Solution
EDF implemented TopScore across its Graduate, Apprenticeship and Industrial Placement programmes, creating a central hub for assessment centre delivery and coordination.
Today, the platform supports approximately 50 assessment centres annually, with up to five centres running per week during peak recruitment periods.
Impact
Significant Cost Savings
Moving away from venue-based assessment centres has substantially reduced operational costs associated with travel, facilities and administration.
EDF estimates an overall cost reduction of almost 80% compared with traditional assessment centre delivery.
Flexibility & Reliability
TopScore has reduced scheduling complexity and made it easier to adapt assessment centres in real time.
“Using TopScore, we can change timetables at the drop of a hat.”
EDF also reports exceptional platform reliability.
“We’ve never had technical difficulties, never had an issue.”
Enhanced Candidate Experience
Candidate experience remains a key priority for EDF. Every application is reviewed by a person, ensuring candidates are not excluded through automated screening alone.
“The point of Early Careers is to nourish talent – we don’t want to lose candidates through an automated AI process with no human interaction.”
Candidate feedback consistently highlights the platform’s ease of use, clear navigation and smooth assessment experience.
Sustainability Impact
Supporting EDF’s sustainability ambitions has been a major benefit of the platform.
TopScore has enabled:
– Significant reductions in candidate and assessor travel
– Fully paperless assessment delivery
– Elimination of printed assessment materials
– Reduced environmental impact from assessment centre operations
“Sustainability is really important to us at EDF.”
Long-Term Impact
More than five years after implementation, TopScore remains a core part of EDF’s early careers recruitment strategy.
The platform continues to support scalable hiring, operational efficiency, improved candidate experiences and sustainability objectives, demonstrating how a solution introduced during a period of disruption became a long-term strategic advantage.
Key Results
TopScore has enabled EDF to manage high recruitment volumes more efficiently while maintaining assessment quality.
In 2025 alone:
23,000 applications received
716 candidates attended assessment centres
192 offers accepted
EDF estimates that virtual assessment centres save candidates approximately five hours of travel time per person, while enabling recruitment teams to assess more candidates in a shorter timeframe.
“We can assess 25 candidates over a day much more easily now.”
Demo TopScore’s full range of features
Chat to our team to book your bespoke demo of Unseen’s digital assessment centre platform, TopScore.
Test its full range of features and see how it can streamline your assessment centres.
