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Gatsby – Good Career Guidance

Gatsby Benchmarks - How do you meet yours?

Our activities & Gatsby

From inspirational speakers to subject tasters, LMI research to revision strategies, our core activities provide individualised support when it matters most.

Working to support the development of your stable careers programme, our interventions provide meaningful encounters with FE and HE (Gatsby Benchmark 7).

Click here to see which Gatsby Benchmarks each of our core activities satisfy, and contact us to arrange further bookings.

What are the Gatsby Benchmarks?

The Gatsby benchmarks outline the best careers provision for schools and colleges to align with. The 8 benchmarks, and the elements within each of them, provide a framework around which the government’s Careers Strategy is based – a strategy recognising that, in the past, students from disadvantaged backgrounds have been the least likely to receive careers guidance, leading to cycle of inequality.

The Benchmarks and their descriptions are:
(Source: The Careers & Enterprise Company 2019)

1. A stable careers programme

  • 1.1 Every school should have a structured careers programme that has the explicit backing of the senior management team, and has an identified and appropriately trained person of authority responsible for it.A
  • 1.2 The careers programme should be published on the school’s website in a way that enables pupils, parents, teachers and employers to understand the school’s offer in this area.
  • 1.3 The programme should be regularly evaluated with feedback from pupils, parents, teachers and employers as part of the evaluation process.

2. Learning from career and labour market information

  • 2.1 By the age of 14, all pupils should have accessed and used information about career paths and the labour market to inform their own decisions on study options.
  • 2.2 Parents and carers should be encouraged to access and use information about labour markets and future study options to inform their support to their children.

3. Addressing the needs of each pupil

  • 3.1 A school’s careers programme should actively seek to challenge stereotypical thinking and raise aspirations.
  • 3.2 Schools should keep systematic records of the individual advice given to each pupil, and subsequent agreed decisions.
  • 3.3 All pupils should have access to these records to support their career development.
  • 3.4 Schools should collect and maintain accurate data for each pupil on their education, training or employment destinations after they leave school.

4. Linking curriculum learning to careers

  • 4.1 By the age of 14, every pupil should have had the opportunity to learn how the different STEM subjects help people to gain entry to, and be more effective workers within, a wide range of careers.

5. Encounters with employers and employees

  • 5.1 Every year, from the age of 11, pupils should participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer.

6. Experiences of workplaces

  • 6.1 By the age of 16, every pupil should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.
  • 6.2 By the age of 18, every pupil should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

7. Encounters with further and higher education

  • 7.1 By the age of 16, every pupil should have had a meaningful encounter with providers of the full range of learning opportunities, including Sixth Forms, colleges, and apprenticeship providers. This should include the opportunity to meet both staff and pupils.
  • 7.2 By the age of 18, all pupils who are considering applying for university should have had at least two visits to universities to meet staff and pupils.

8. Personal guidance

  • 8.1 Every pupil should have at least one such interview by the age of 16, and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.

At Next Steps South West, we offer interventions to our target schools that assist in meeting several of the benchmarks outlined by Gatsby. If you’re a Next Steps South West target school and want to see how we can support your careers guidance, have a look at our Core Offer pages.

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