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Careers education at school

2.Gatsby Benchmarks

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    Introduction

    Every school uses eight Gatsby Benchmarks to provide careers guidance.

    These benchmarks help make sure all students, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), receive good careers advice and plenty of opportunities to explore different careers.

    Alongside each benchmark, we’ve provided some advice and tips to help you support your child’s career development at home.

    1: Stable career programme

    This means:

    • Every school and education setting should have a career education and guidance programme that is clear and well understood by pupils, parents, teachers, and employers.
    • The programme must be managed by a designated, appropriately trained member of staff.
    • Details of the programme should be available on the school or education setting's website.

    To support this you can:

    • Have regular conversations about the jobs you see around you.
    • Try to think of the less visible jobs too
    • Talk about the skills needed for them.

    2: Learning from career and labour market information

    This means:

    • Every pupil and their parents should have access to good-quality information about future study options and job opportunities.
    • They should have support from an informed adviser to make the best use of the available information.

    To support this you can:

    • Learn about the local labour market and future study options.
    • Think about how you can use this information to support your child or young person.

    3: Addressing the needs of each pupil

    This means:

    • Pupils have different career guidance needs at different stages, so advice and support must be tailored to each pupil.
    • A school’s career programme should consider equality and diversity at all times.
    • The programme should actively challenge stereotypical thinking and raise pupils' aspirations.

    To support this, you can:

    • Talk about different jobs that may be suitable for your young person.
    • Raise aspirations by exploring career options and matching them to their skills and interests.

    4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

    This means:

    • All teachers should connect curriculum learning with careers.
    • For example, teachers of science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) should explain how their subject relates to a wide range of career pathways.

    To support this you can:

    • Talk about different jobs when helping with homework or doing activities together.
    • Show how many different jobs are involved in everyday life.

    You don’t need to know everything - just help your young person to recognise that there are more jobs out there than they realise.

    5: Encounters with employers and employees

    This means:

    • Every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment, and the skills valued in the workplace.
    • This can include a range of enrichment activities, such as visiting speakers, mentoring, and enterprise schemes.

    To support this you can:

    • Encourage your young person to learn about different jobs by listening to other people’s experiences.
    • Ask friends and family to talk about their jobs. Hearing real stories can help your young person discover jobs they haven’t thought about before.

    6: Experiences in workplaces

    This means:

    • Every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing, and/or work experience. This helps them to explore careers and expand their networks.
    • By the age of 18, every pupil should have had one extra experience, in addition to any part-time jobs they may have had.

    To support this, you can:

    • Think of every place you visit as a possible workplace.
    • Talk to your young person about what it might be like to work there.
    • Consider how your young person can get work experience if their school or college doesn’t arrange it. This could be through formal work experiences, volunteering or part-time work.

    7: Encounters with higher and further education

    This means:

    • By the age of 16, every pupil should have had a meaningful encounter with providers of all learning opportunities, including sixth forms, colleges, universities, and apprenticeship providers. This should include the chance to meet both staff and pupils.
    • By the age of 18, all pupils considering university should have had at least two visits to universities to meet staff and pupils.

    To support this, you can:

    8: Personal guidance

    This means:

    • Every pupil should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, either internal (a member of school staff) or external, as long as they are trained to an appropriate level.
    • These interviews should be available whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all pupils but should be timed to meet their individual needs.
    • As per Gatsby Benchmark number 8, all schools and colleges must provide impartial careers guidance for every young person, regardless of whether they:

    To support this, you can:

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    • Create an A to Z list:
      • List all the different jobs you can think of.
      • Then organise them from A to Z.
    • Visit a supermarket together:
      • Count how many jobs you can spot.
      • Talk about which of those jobs your child or young person might like to do and why.
      • Discuss the skills they would need for those jobs.
    • Look out for uniforms:
      • Ask your young person to keep an eye out for people wearing uniforms.
      • When they see someone, try to guess together what that person’s job is. Look for clues:
        • Does their uniform include a warm jacket?
        • Does it have reflective materials or a logo?
        • What might the logo mean?
    • Think about your young person’s needs, abilities, and interests:
      • Talk with your child or young person about their hopes for the future and the kind of jobs they would enjoy.
      • If the job they choose seems unlikely to match their skills and qualification level, discuss what they like about it and explore similar roles.
    • Explore other jobs in the same industry
      • Find roles that might better match their skills, qualifications, and aspirations.
    • Plan visits early

      Open days help your young person decide what to study and where. Plan visits to the colleges or training providers your young person is considering in the academic year before they need to apply. This gives them time to visit all the places and make a shortlist for the following year.

    • Contact the school or college for a quieter visit

      If you feel a public open day would be too challenging for your young person, contact the school or college to arrange a quieter visit. Visiting on a typical day will give you and your young person an idea of how busy the setting is normally.

    • Talking to tutors and students

      Open days are a great chance to talk to tutors and staff about the support your young person might need. Your young person can also ask about course content, and hear from current students about what life is like at the setting.

    Activities to try

    Activities to try

    Activities to try

    Activities to try

    Read a bedtime story together:

    • Ask your child which jobs are needed to create the book.
    • They may know about the author and illustrator, but talk about others involved like the layout organiser, the machine operator, the delivery driver, and the advertisers.
    • Tell them that there are more than 30 professions involved in making a book.

    Activities to try

    Talk to your young person about the questions they could ask friends and family. They could ask:

    • What is your job?
    • What do you like about it?
    • How did you get into this type of work?
    • What other jobs have you done, and what did you think of them?

    Attending open days

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