Government Careers Strategy launched

In December 2017, the Department for Education released its new career guidance strategy which placed the eight Gatsby Career Benchmarks at its heart. 

Gatsby believes that every young person needs high quality career guidance to make an informed decision about their future, and this is even more important with reforms to technical education on the horizon in 2020. Career guidance is also a vehicle for social justice: those young people without social capital or career support at home suffer most from poor career guidance.  

We therefore welcome the government’s new ambitious careers strategy and are particularly pleased to see the adoption of the eight Gatsby Career Benchmarks. The Gatsby Career Benchmarks outline world-class career guidance and were developed as part of an international study completed by Sir John Holman.
We agree with many other organisations that it’s vital that every school has a Careers Leader to coordinate and deliver the Gatsby Career Benchmarks, and so are pleased to see the government investing in this critical role. The success of schools and colleges in our pilot of the benchmarks in the North East of England demonstrates that an empowered Career Leader is an essential part of driving forward changes to career guidance on the ground. 
We look forward to working in partnerships with Careers & Enterprise Company, senior leaders and many others to help schools and colleges across the country work towards world-class career guidance. 
 
Sir John Holman, Senior Advisor to the Gatsby Foundation and author of the Gatsby Career Benchmark report said,
 “Good Career Guidance is the key to social mobility. For young people coming from a background of low socioeconomic aspirations, school career guidance is their best hope of charting the way to a rewarding future career. We now know, from our international study and from the work of career guidance experts, what makes for good career guidance: it is described by the eight Gatsby benchmarks which have been shown in the pilot in the North East of England to have such a powerful positive effect in schools and colleges. I am very pleased that the Department for Education has put these benchmarks at the heart of its strategy."

 “For the first time, schools and colleges have a clear description of what they need to do to get good career guidance for each and every student, whatever their needs. Employers can equally clearly see the important part they play in a single coherent framework. The schools and colleges in Gatsby’s pilot have shown that an essential part of success lies in leadership at the school level, and I am pleased to see that DfE has acknowledged this and has committed to a programme to identify the role of Career Leaders and to help to train them."

 “With new technical training routes coming from 2020, and with Brexit making it more important than ever to develop home-grown skills, this is an auspicious moment at which to launch this imaginative and pragmatic strategy.”
 
Ryan Gibson, Facilitator of the Gatsby Career Benchmark pilot in the North East LEP said,
“Since the North East became the first UK region to pilot the Good Career Guidance Benchmarks, the approach has proved to be transformational for careers guidance in our schools and colleges. At the pilot’s start, no UK school was achieving more than five benchmarks and 50% of schools and colleges in this region weren’t achieving any at all. Now 88% of our schools and colleges are achieving six to eight, with every single one achieving a minimum of four – the benchmarks are a vital part of our plan to ensure that every young person in the North East can make a successful transition into their future career.”
 
To find out more about the benchmarks and the stories from the schools and colleges in the Gatsby pilot of the benchmarks visit: www.goodcareerguidance.org.uk  
To download Sir John Homan’s report, and to find out about the Gatsby Foundation’s work supporting good career guidance, see here.