Last week, newly-published data from the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) revealed that schools’ and colleges’ national performance against the Gatsby Benchmarks for good career guidance has more than doubled in the last five years. Alongside a robust dataset from young people and employers, this shows a continuing trend towards broad, structured and inclusive career guidance programmes which are helping young people feel better prepared for their futures.
The CEC’s Now and Next report, published to coincide with the start of National Careers Week, is based on data up to the 2022-23 academic year, which includes:
- Over 4,500 schools and colleges, reporting their performance on the eight Gatsby Benchmarks of good career guidance;
- Over 100,000 students who have completed the Future Skills Questionnaire on their career readiness, knowledge and workplace skills;
- 342 employers and over 1,100 Enterprise Advisers, who volunteer their time to provide business support to careers programmes.
This is presented alongside Department for Education data on post-16 and post-18 destinations, Youth Employment UK’s mass survey data from young people in 2023 and University College London’s Millenium Skills Survey.
