Careers Education Progress
How to understand the new Gatsby data?
The CEC’s Insight Briefing 2024/25 draws on returns from 4,863 state-funded secondary schools, special schools, alternative provision settings and colleges, covering 94% of institutions in England.
Here are some of the key headlines:
- The average school or college fully achieved 6.0 out of the 8 benchmarks, up from 5.8 the previous year.
- Nearly half (49%) of institutions achieved seven or eight benchmarks, compared with 46% last year.
- The largest improvements were in Benchmark 3 (Addressing the needs of each pupil) and Benchmark 7 (Encounters with further and higher education), each up about 3 percentage points.
- Despite progress, Benchmark 8 (Personal guidance) dipped slightly (from 78% to 77% fully achieved) and remains a challenge.
- Schools and colleges that engage more fully with support (e.g., through Careers Hubs, training, using Compass+, FSQ, ILRs) achieved higher benchmark averages (6.6 vs 4.4).
- The updated Benchmarks (effective September 2025) introduce stronger emphasis on leadership, inclusion, data use, and parent/carer engagement.
In short: progress has been made. But the bar is rising, and your careers education strategy needs to keep pace.
Why does it matter for schools and colleges?
For Careers Leaders and SLT, the message is clear: good intent isn’t enough any more. What matters now is evidence, inclusion, impact and transparency. The new results show that schools who embed careers strategically, treat it as part of their core offer, and use evidence to drive continuous improvement are gaining traction.
You’re under increasing pressure to demonstrate that your careers and work-experience offer is not tokenistic, but meaningful, aligned to expectations, inclusive of every learner, and clearly linked to both curriculum and employer engagement. That’s exactly the space in which the Changing Education Group supports you: bridging the gap between education and employment, with a seamless careers and work experience solution that is Gatsby-aligned and Ofsted-ready.
What are the strengths and gaps highlighted?
Strengths
- Schools and colleges are making good headway with employer encounters (Benchmark 5), performance remains strong here.
- The fact that nearly half of institutions are achieving seven or eight benchmarks shows that careers education is becoming more embedded and strategic.
- The narrowing of performance gaps between more disadvantaged schools and the national average is a positive sign of improving equity of access.
Gaps
- Personal guidance (Benchmark 8) remains uneven; it is still one of the harder benchmarks to fully deliver.
- Some institutions struggle with addressing the needs of each pupil (Benchmark 3) and encounters with further/higher education (Benchmark 7), though both are improving, they remain challenging.
- The shift to the updated framework (from September 2025) brings new expectations around leadership, data use and parental engagement, some schools may not yet feel fully ready.
- Many schools are yet to fully harness the support available (Careers Hubs, Compass+, ILRs) which correlates with higher benchmark scores.
How to act on the findings?
Here are six practical actions you can adopt this academic year to align with the results and position your careers education for the next phase of improvement:
- Complete the updated Compass self-review now: Audit your current benchmark performance using the Compass tool (or Compass+) and map your gaps against the upcoming changes (leadership, inclusion, data, parent/carer engagement). The new briefing emphasises that schools which analyse themselves now will be better placed for continuous improvement.
- Embed destination data and learner voice into your evaluation cycle: The data shows that high-performing schools collect feedback, track destinations and use it to tailor provision. If you are not yet doing this systematically, begin this term.
- Train subject staff to use and reference local labour market information (LMI): Benchmark 2 (Learning from career and labour market information) underpins much of the updated framework. Help curriculum teams bring real-world contexts into lessons and ensure pupils understand the connection between study and future pathways.
- Strengthen parental and carer engagement: The refreshed benchmarks emphasise the role of parents/carers in careers decisions. Schedule interactive sessions, send targeted information, make your careers programme visible to families.
- Deepen employer and provider engagement: Go beyond one-off encounters. Ensure every young person has meaningful, varied employer and provider touch-points, employer-led projects, virtual/remote experiences, small-group placements, short blocks. That will support Benchmark 5 (Encounters with employers) and 6 (Experiences of workplaces) especially as work experience expectations begin to ramp.
- Use a platform-based approach to evidence and compliance: As the data emphasises, schools where the careers programme is embedded and monitored strategically perform better. Using a unified digital solution makes tracking, reporting and monitoring far simpler, freeing up staff time while giving you oversight.
How can The Changing Education Group help?
We know how busy careers leaders and SLT are. You’re balancing strategy, delivery, employer engagement, pupil experience, risk-management and reporting. That’s why at the Changing Education Group we’ve built a complete Work Experience Suite, a seamless careers and work experience solution designed to align with the Gatsby Benchmarks, support your data use, and make programme management effortless.
- Careers Leader Portal: Real-time dashboards and reports showing your performance against key benchmarks, giving you inspection-ready evidence at your fingertips.
- Learner Portal: Enables pupils to self-assess skills and aspirations, engage with LMI, reflect on employer encounters and placements, supporting inclusion of every young person.
- Employer Engagement Tools: Streamlined management of employer encounters, work placements, risk assessments and safeguarding, full employer engagement, zero hassle.
- Data and Evaluation Module: Built-in tools for monitoring destinations, gathering learner voice, producing accessible evidence for governors and inspections, empowering you to move from intent to impact.
With our platform and delivery team (with 18+ years’ experience), you can free up time, reduce cost, and deliver modern work experience for modern learners, bridging the gap between education and employment, while remaining Gatsby-aligned, confident and compliant.
Final thoughts
The 2024/25 Gatsby Benchmark data tells an encouraging story, one of progress, increased coverage and greater maturity in careers education across England. But it also serves as a reminder: embedding meaningful, data-led practice for every learner is still very much a work in progress.
If you’re a Careers Leader, SLT member or MAT executive, now is the moment to reflect, plan, and act. With the updated framework on the horizon, the time-saving, cost-effective and compliant solution of The Changing Education Group offers you a way to lead confidently and deliver impact.