Top100 Future Leaders Awards

What are the Top100 Future Leaders Awards?

The Top100 Future Leaders Awards are your opportunity to make friends with students from universities across the country, gain exposure to Australia's top grad employers and have your name printed in The Australian Financial Review! These Awards provide you with a unique experience to develop your application skills, communication skills, and your personal branding, and as a Finalist you'll be able to accelerate your career.

"By being recognised as a Top100 Leader, it just opens up so many doors to you, and every employer wants to come and have a conversation with you and see what you’ve done, where you’re going." - Anthony Takyi, Head of Careers Engagement at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

Why should you apply?

Networking

“I think just putting yourself out there and putting yourself through the experience of interviewing and talking to people, talk to companies that you want to one day work for. I think it is really valuable for building confidence and also reveals opportunities you might not have thought of.” - Isabella Andrews (Coles IT Top100 Future Leader Award Finalist, 2023)

Practice Applying for Jobs

"I really didn't think I was going to win but I just thought it would be a really rewarding process to go through. Like what a corporate interview is like, get that exposure to companies, and put myself out there and represent my community as well" - Saraa Al-Saddik (Transition Hub First in Family Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

Make New Friends

"I feel like I've made some lifelong friends and I've said to several of you - we've seen each other for 12hrs and I feel like I've known you for weeks!" - Emerson Nugent (Goodman Fielder FMCG Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

Be Inspired

"I'm going to leave this feeling very inspired by all the people I've met and really inspired by seeing so much diversity on the stage tonight - this is really cool!" - Stephanie Dunn (Quantium Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

“I would encourage everyone to apply to the award whether you want to put yourself out there, have some practice, meet cool people, or potentially land a job.”

Lily Miranda - 2025 Quantium Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award Winner

How it Works

1

Application

First we need to find out a little bit about you - things like who you are, what you study and where you're going to university.

Start your Top100 Future Leaders Award application here.

2

Online Skills Testing by SHL

Online skills testing (sometimes referred to as psychometric testing) is used by recruiters to understand a grad's skills and match them with specific roles and the company's values and culture.

Successful Top100 applicants will be invited to complete SHL's Graduate+ Job Focused Assessment (JFA). The Graduate+JFA is used by many of Australia's top graduate employers and is designed to assess the behavioural skills required for success in graduate roles and give hirers a rapid view of your fit for the role. It also incorporates a cognitive ability test that can help us understand how quickly you learn and analyse information.

Want to know more? Take a practice test to familiarise yourself! - https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/

3

Video Interview

Video interviews are an important step in the graduate hiring process, as they're a way for hirers to learn more about applicants and their communication skills without having to meet with every single person face-to-face!

Successful Top100 applicants will be invited to complete a video interview in addition to online skills testing. This will happen in SHL's dedicated platform, TalentCentral+, where you'll be given plenty of information about how to record and submit your video interview.

Never done a video interview before? Don't worry! Here's are some helpful video interview tips. Read: What Do Employers Look for During the Top100 Future Leaders Awards?

4

Assessment Centre

Assessment Centres are used in grad program recruitment to determine which students are a good fit for the role. They can include a combination of group tasks, case studies and interviews, and assessors are looking out for relationship building, collaboration and communication skills.

After you've completed the Online Skills Testing and the Video Interview, our team will create a shortlist and invite the top students to attend our in-person Top100 Assessment Centre (run by our partners at Chandler Macleod) and be assessed directly by employers from your award's sponsoring company! Past Top100 students have told us that this was a lot of fun and a great insight into how Assessment Centres work.

Get prepared by taking a look at our top tips to succeed in graduate assessment centres. Read: Top Tips to Succeed in Graduate Assessment Centres

5

Awards Ceremony

Following the Assessment Centre, the winners of the Top100 Future Leaders Awards at a spectacular Awards Evening in Sydney. This is an opportunity for finalists to be recognised and celebrate making it through the Top100 process, as well as a chance to network with graduate employers and industry leaders.

Take a look at the photos from previous Top100 Awards Ceremonies.

6

Australian Financial Review

Top100 Future Leaders Awards finalists and winners are published in the AFR, alongside our list of Top100 Graduate Employers.

Our 2026 Top100 Future Leader Awards

Ashurst Law Top100 Future Leader Award

Ashurst is a truly global law firm with a reputation for high performance, a wealth of industry experience and a refreshingly open and diverse culture. For you, this means being part of a collaborati… read more

BDO Accounting Top100 Future Leader Award

BDO is one of the world’s leading audit, accounting, and advisory firms. Offering a range of services to clients of all sizes and industries across Australia, BDO’s ‘why’ is empowering people and rea… read more

Protiviti Innovation Top100 Future Leader Award

Protiviti is a rapidly growing global business consulting firm, with solutions spanning business problems from technology, digital, business process and analytics, to risk, compliance and internal au… read more

PwC Management & Commerce Top100 Future Leader Award

At PwC Australia, your expertise meets purpose. PwC is not just a professional services firm – they're a community of bold thinkers working across industries like financial services, energy, technolo… read more

Quantium AI & Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award

Founded in 2002, Quantium is a global leader in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. With over 1,200 team members across 14 locations worldwide, they help organisations maximise the potential of… read more

Suncorp Technology Top100 Future Leader Award

Suncorp is home to Australia and New Zealand’s most trusted names in Insurance. A sustainable and responsible financial services group that helps their customers, people, shareholders and communities… read more

Westpac Banking, Insurance & Financial Services Top100 Future Leader Award

Westpac is Australia’s first bank and oldest company, one of four major banking organisations in Australia and one of the largest banks in New Zealand.When you join Westpac, you’ll be empowered to ma… read more

Lendlease Engineering & Construction Top100 Future Leader Award

As the only Australian-owned tier one construction partner, Lendlease go beyond traditional delivery – working with governments, investors, and communities to create places that endure and leave a le… read more

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Sustainability & Social Impact Top100 Future Leader Award

The Sustainability & Social Impact Award is seeking students who are currently studying any discipline, with a specific interest in or passion for a career in Sustainability or Social Impact. read more

Transitioning Well First in Family Top100 Future Leader Award

Students who identify as being the first in their immediate family to complete a university degree can opt-in for consideration for the First in Family Award, in addition to the award selected above. read more

Student Eligibility

To apply, you must:

Currently & continue to reside in Australia into Feb 2026.
Be enrolled as a student at an Australian university and be continuing your study into 2026 (undergraduate or postgraduate).
Be available to attend a full day’s assessment centre and the awards evening that follows, if required, in February 2026.
Be registered on SEEK Grad. It's free and easy to sign up!

Reside outside of the greater Sydney area?

Should you reside outside of the greater Sydney area, Seek Grad will organise your return flights and accommodation so you may attend. This is subject to terms.

For further information, please contact: [email protected]