Yondr has launched a scholarship programme for a student from Slough, linked to the area around the company’s 100MW London campus.

The scholarship will provide GBP £27,000 to support a Slough-based student studying a digital infrastructure-related STEM subject in higher education. The bursary will be paid in instalments over the three- or four-year course of the student’s degree.

Alongside the funding, the recipient may also receive mentorship and internship support. The programme is part of Yondr’s wider work on community engagement and social value in the places where it operates.

The Slough award is the fourth scholarship programme introduced by the data centre developer, owner and operator, which already runs schemes in Northern Virginia, Toronto and Belfast.

Ross McConnell, VP Energy & Sustainability at Yondr, said: “Our goal is to be a welcome neighbour in each of our locations. We are also committed to developing the future skills our industry needs. Offering scholarship programmes combines those two aims, while fuelling social mobility by providing financial support and opportunity to a talented and ambitious student from a lower socio-economic background.

“Our scholarships are already supporting students in Northern Virginia, Toronto and Belfast, reflecting our broader investment in community value and developing future talent.”

Yondr linked the new programme to work it has carried out with Activate Learning Education Trust, which manages the Digital Futures Programme at several University Technical College institutions in the UK, including UTC Heathrow and UTC Reading, both near the Slough campus.

Previous schemes

Yondr’s first scholarship was launched in Belfast and focused on women in engineering. It was awarded through The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queens University Belfast to MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering student Orla Quail.

In Northern Virginia, Yondr worked with the NOVA Educational Foundation and Northern Virginia Community College on a programme for five students enrolled in Engineering Technology or Data Centre Operations courses. In Toronto, it established a scholarship for applicants studying STEM-related undergraduate degrees at the University of Toronto, with annual admission awards of USD $5,000 from a total commitment of USD $25,000.

The latest announcement comes as Yondr nears completion of its third data centre on the 100MW London campus in Slough. The scholarship was presented as part of the company’s local investment alongside its operating footprint.

Ciara Murray, Sustainability Manager at Yondr, said: “Data center development has the potential to transform communities and create opportunity for local people. Our scholarships are a vehicle to both invest in the locations where we operate and help build the local talent our sector needs.

“We are proud to have launched a new scholarship programme every year for the past four years. As we approach completion of our third data centre on our 100MW London campus, this latest scholarship highlights our ambition to grow and invest in the community alongside our operations. We look forward to reviewing the applications and informing our new scholar of their award.”

Oleeo Chief Executive Officer Charles Hipps has outlined five recruitment trends he believes will shape hiring in 2026, highlighting growing pressure on employers as application volumes rise and candidate expectations shift.

Hiring teams are managing much larger applicant pools without a matching increase in recruitment headcount. Some campaigns now attract more than 20,000 applicants, while application volumes across several sectors are rising by 40% year on year.

That imbalance is changing how employers handle the early stages of selection. Instead of relying on recruiters to screen large numbers of CVs manually, companies are turning to tools and processes that identify suitable candidates earlier in the hiring journey.

Pressure on teams, Hipps argued, means employers need to rethink how they narrow longlists. The goal is to identify strong candidates efficiently without creating excessive workloads for hiring staff.

Assessment shift

One of the main changes Hipps identified is the growing use of structured and behavioural assessments at the start of the process. In his view, these are beginning to replace the CV as the first point of evaluation for many employers.

The shift reflects a broader effort to assess potential and job fit earlier, rather than relying mainly on educational background or previous employers. Qualities such as resilience, adaptability and determination are gaining more weight in initial screening.

He linked the move to both efficiency and fairness. Reducing manual sorting allows employers to handle larger candidate volumes while widening the basis on which applicants are judged.

Changing expectations

Hipps also said candidate expectations are changing, particularly among younger workers entering the labour market. Flexibility, career progression and workplace culture are increasingly seen as core requirements rather than optional benefits.

That puts pressure on employers with more rigid working practices. Those that fail to adapt risk losing candidates to rivals offering more flexible arrangements and clearer development paths.

Hipps added that employers with adaptable policies are seeing stronger retention and engagement. In his view, workplace flexibility is becoming tied not only to talent attraction but also to broader workforce performance.

Interview bottlenecks

While technology and assessment methods may ease pressure earlier in the process, interviews remain a significant operational challenge. Scheduling and conducting interviews at scale becomes harder when senior decision-makers are involved and candidate experience must still be maintained.

For many businesses, that creates a bottleneck after initial screening. Recruitment leaders are therefore being pushed to simplify interview stages and make each step more focused on specific competencies.

Hipps said structured interviews and stronger early-stage assessment can reduce unnecessary complexity. That approach, he suggested, allows organisations to maintain standards as hiring volumes grow.

Strategic role

Across his comments, Hipps presented recruitment as a business function moving beyond an administrative role. Employers are redesigning hiring processes in response to scale, labour market shifts and the need to make selection decisions more consistently.

The broader message is that recruitment is becoming more closely tied to workforce planning and organisational strategy. Employers that can update their processes without undermining fairness or overloading staff are likely to be better placed in a competitive market for talent.

Furze Farm near Horton-cum-Studley has been listed for £1.95 million by Savills, with the agents highlighting its “very accessible location” between Oxford, Thame and Bicester.

Grace Gardiner of Savills rural agency team said: “Furze Farm is a great arable farm with plenty of opportunities to generate a diversified income.

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“The farmhouse sits at the centre within mature lawned gardens, beyond which there are various farm buildings, commercial storage units, commercial offices and a 48 kWh solar PV array with Feed-in-Tariff.

“The land extends to around 109 acres, encompassing arable, pasture and woodland.”

Furze Farm in Oxfordshire is set over 109 acres (Image: Savills)

The four-bedroom farmhouse was built by the current owners in 1996, constructed using red brick under a tile roof and approached via a private driveway.

It has a pond as well as a stone Ha-Ha and a summerhouse for entertaining.

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There is 68 acres of arable land, 17 acres of pasture land, 20 acres of woodland area and four acres of miscellaneous areas.

Farm buildings include a grain store and a dryer, with a capacity of approximately 500 tonnes, as well as a workshop, lean-to, tractor shed, machinery shed and building currently used as container storage.

It features commercial offices which are currently let as two office units to tenants occupying on licence agreements.