Startups bubbling with new perspectives, fresh technologies, and a war chest to spend on disruption while their businesses find their footing are often rife with innovation, but they don’t hold a monopoly on it. Young talent looking to disrupt legacy industries traditionally looked to entrepreneurship and startups. As corporations prepare for AI they’re trying to convince innovators that the best place to turn their ideas into reality is within the enterprise.
“It’s fundamentally shifted in the last year and a half to two years,” says Michele Capra, a senior client partner for talent recruiting and consulting firm Korn Ferry. “Clients are now coming to me saying, ‘we’re looking at our skills across the organization at the entry level, those skills have changed, and we need to recruit differently because of that.’”
That transition, Capra explains, has also forced large employers across industries — from tech to financial services to consumer goods — to abandon one of their signatures selling points, namely a clear and predictable career development plan.
“Traditionally you knew which roles would be here in 10 years, so there were career paths that offered true stepping stones,” she says. “Now organizations don’t know what roles will be like in 10 years, so they’re hiring for skills, because the career paths will look very different for these individuals.”
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While some formal AI credentials are widely valued amongst large employers Capra says they’re also looking to hire those that demonstrate more human or “soft” skills, which can help them put the technology to use solving challenges or developing new products or services.
Traditionally, many courses on innovation within a larger business, or “intrapreneurship”, have targeted executives in professional learning programs. Cornell University offers an online course to obtain a certificate in intrapreneurship. Some programs, like one at Temple Univerisity, offer courses that span organization types, focusing on “big-picture thinking needed to launch your own business or propose innovative initiatives within existing organizations.”
Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation however, offers an advanced class in Corporate Innovation, wherein students “delve into corporate venture capital, internal incubation processes, M&A decisions, and gain the tools to champion change within organizations.”
While the Northwestern course is offered through its engineering college, the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence is compelling many institutions to broaden students’ technology education experience.
“We have several institutional partners that are doing this, but one I would call out is Emory University in Atlanta,” says Christine Cruzvergara, the chief education strategy officer for Gen Z career platform Handshake. “They proactively hired AI experts within each of their academic domains to be embedded into those programs.
Cruzvergara adds that, in her experience, graduates with highly desirable skills and attributes are often less concerned with a prospective employer’s size, and more concerned with its values, “They’re usually looking for a place that has a larger mission or vision around something that they can get behind,” she says. “[Employers’] ability to articulate that pretty clearly and upfront in early conversations really determines whether that conversation is going to continue.” That said, as with graduates pursuing startups, savvy candidates may realize that a lofty mission can have negative consequences.Nor does it mean that the corporate career ladder is the endgame. Cruzvergara says enterprises, much like many colleges, are highlighting the accomplishments of alumni— especially those who went on to become successful entrepreneurs — to imply that the company can offer young innovators a crucial stepping stone whenever they’re ready to trade greater risk for a greater potential reward.
This story is part of Fast Company and Inc.‘s 2025 Ignition Schools awards, the 50 colleges and universities making an outsize impact on business and society through entrepreneurship and innovation. Read about the methodology behind our selection process.