In 2023, 39% of employers rated school and college leavers as work-ready. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 25%. In a single year, employer confidence in the readiness of 16-year-olds dropped by more than a third. For Senior Leadership Teams and Careers Leads trying to make the case for meaningful careers provision, this is not a peripheral concern. It is the central challenge of the decade.
The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) data is unambiguous, and it arrives at a moment when employers are simultaneously increasing their engagement with schools. There was a 22% rise in work experience opportunities for school students in 2024 as employers, frustrated with the quality of graduate applications, began looking earlier in the pipeline for talent they could develop. The window of opportunity for schools is real. But so is the risk of missing it by continuing to do what has not worked.
This article examines what the evidence says is driving the decline, what early employer engagement actually looks like in practice, and where measurable capability development fits into a credible careers strategy for schools in 2026.
What Is Actually Declining
The headline figure of 25% work-readiness masks a more specific and instructive story. The ISE 2024/2025 data identifies the capabilities that have deteriorated most sharply, and they are not academic. They are human.
| Capability | Employers Reporting Shortfall 2023 | Employers Reporting Shortfall 2024 | Change |
| Self-awareness | 35% | 54% | +19pp |
| Resilience | 30% | 46% | +16pp |
| Work-appropriate communication | 7% | 22% | +15pp |
These are not skills that can be developed by attending a careers talk or completing a personality quiz. They are built through repeated, structured practice in realistic contexts, with feedback and reflection. The fact that all three have deteriorated simultaneously suggests a systemic gap in how schools are currently approaching capability development, not a one-off cohort issue.
The British Chambers of Commerce and Open University Business Barometer 2024 confirms the broader picture: 62% of organisations face skills shortages, with 68% reporting increased workload on existing staff as a direct consequence, and 49% facing reduced output. The cost of the UK’s skills gap to the economy runs to an estimated £39 billion annually, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. This is not a graduate problem. It begins at 16.
Why Passive Provision Is No Longer Sufficient
Careers education in English schools has historically defaulted to passive provision: assemblies, guest speakers, career fairs, and online exploration tools. These activities have genuine value in helping students understand what careers exist. They are not, however, the same as building the capabilities required to succeed in those careers.
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) published research in 2024 that illustrates the gap. In a survey of 1,012 teachers, 76% said the majority of pupils finish their education without the financial knowledge they need for adulthood. Less than half of children (48%) report having had a meaningful financial education, and only 33% recall receiving one they considered useful. The most common reason teachers gave for this shortfall was that other subjects take priority (79%), followed by a lack of staff confidence (25%) and uncertainty about where to find the right resources (26%).
Financial literacy is one of eight core capabilities that employers consistently identify as critical. The pattern the MaPS data reveals, where provision is nominal rather than substantive, and where teachers lack the tools and confidence to deliver it meaningfully, applies equally to resilience, self-awareness, communication, and commercial awareness. The curriculum is not the problem. The delivery model is.
The OECD’s analysis of PISA 2022 data on teenage career development in England reinforces this point. Students in England and across the OECD fail to engage sufficiently in career development by the age of 15. Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds engage less consistently than their more advantaged peers. And the career expectations of all students align poorly with actual patterns of labour market demand. The OECD’s longitudinal cohort analysis shows that career development activity at age 15 is associated with better employment outcomes ten years later, including lower rates of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). The evidence for early, structured intervention is strong. The evidence that current provision delivers it is not.
What Early Employer Engagement Actually Looks Like
The 22% increase in school-level work experience opportunities from employers is a significant data point, but it requires careful interpretation. Employers are not simply offering more of the same. They are changing what they offer and why.
Two-thirds of employers are now engaging with students earlier than before, according to Bright Network research. The rationale, articulated by Stephen Isherwood of the ISE, is direct: “Students who have done work experience often make better hires as they understand the role they are taking on.” Employers are not doing this out of altruism. They are doing it because the graduate recruitment market has become so competitive, and so flooded with AI-generated applications, that early identification of capable students has become a commercial priority.
For schools, this shift creates an opportunity that is also a test. Employers are not simply looking for students who have been exposed to the world of work. They are looking for students who have demonstrably developed the capabilities that workplace exposure is supposed to build. A student who has completed a work experience placement but cannot articulate what they learned, or who lacks the self-awareness to reflect on their performance, has not benefited from the experience in the way the employer hoped.
This is the distinction between exposure and preparation. Career discovery tools and employer encounter programmes are valuable for exposure. They show students what careers exist and what employers look like. Preparation requires something different: structured practice in realistic scenarios, with measurable outcomes and evidence of development. This is precisely where Skills Hub Workforce and the Human Skills Index bridge the gap between school-based careers provision and what employers are actually looking for.
The Gatsby Benchmarks: Compliance Versus Outcomes
The Gatsby Benchmarks, updated in November 2024, provide the national framework for careers provision in English schools. Meeting all eight benchmarks is the recognised standard for careers education, and the evidence base for their impact is growing.
The Careers and Enterprise Company’s April 2025 report, *Career Readiness Through Time*, provides the most rigorous longitudinal analysis to date. Schools that fully achieved all eight Gatsby Benchmarks saw students make a 2.1 percentage point faster gain in career readiness from 2022/23 to 2023/24 compared to schools achieving the equivalent of just one benchmark. The same schools saw a 1.9 percentage point faster gain in essential skills. The CEC notes that identifying these relationships in longitudinal data increases confidence that the correlations reflect an underlying causal relationship, not just a selection effect.
Critically, the data also shows that strong careers provision can help close the attainment gap. Career readiness scores for students in receipt of free school meals are higher in schools that fully achieve the Gatsby Benchmarks. For SLT focused on equity of outcomes, this is a significant finding.
The average school currently achieves 5.8 out of 8 benchmarks. Benchmark 4 (Linking curriculum learning to careers) is consistently the lowest achieved, due to the coordination complexity of embedding careers across every subject and every year group. This is precisely the benchmark where automated, curriculum-mapped tools can make the greatest difference, by removing the coordination burden from teachers and careers leads while ensuring that commercial awareness and workplace readiness are built into subject learning rather than bolted on.
It is worth being precise about what different types of provision can and cannot claim. A platform that provides virtual business simulations and capability measurement can genuinely meet Benchmark 3 (Addressing the needs of each pupil) through automated tracking and evidence portfolios, and can meet Benchmark 4 for business and economics students through automated UK syllabus mapping. It can meaningfully support Benchmarks 5 and 6 by providing the workplace practice students need to maximise the value of their actual employer encounters and physical work placements. It cannot replace those encounters and placements. The distinction matters, both for honest Ofsted evidence and for the credibility of the provision itself.
Where Measurable Capability Development Fits
The graduate jobs market provides a useful lens on why measurement matters. The ISE reports an 8% decline in graduate vacancies in 2025, with a further 7% decline predicted in 2026. At the same time, applications have increased by 40%, driven largely by AI-generated CVs. The result is that employers are receiving thousands of applications for a small number of roles, and the vast majority of those applications look identical on paper.
In this environment, a student who can demonstrate a quantified, evidence-based score in commercial awareness, decision-making, and teamwork has a material advantage over one who cannot. When 3,500 people apply for 16 entry-level roles, “explored ten careers” does not differentiate a candidate. A verified Human Skills Index score, backed by a portfolio of applied simulation evidence, does.
The Human Skills Index provides every student with a measurable score across eight core capabilities: Decision-Making, Financial Literacy, Communication, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Adaptability, Commercial Awareness, and Leadership. These eight capabilities are validated across every major employer framework: the CBI’s employability pillars, the OECD Learning Compass 2030, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, and Skills England’s September 2024 sector assessments. The scoring methodology is based on demonstrated capability through applied business simulation, not self-assessment or knowledge quizzes. Scores are generated through what students actually do under realistic business conditions, not what they say they can do.
The WEF data is particularly instructive for schools thinking about what to prioritise. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that four of the five fastest-growing skills in the global economy are distinctly human: creative thinking, resilience and adaptability, curiosity and lifelong learning, and leadership and social influence. Leadership and social influence saw the largest importance increase of any skill, up 22 percentage points since 2023. These are not skills that AI will develop for students. They are skills that must be deliberately built, through practice, feedback, and evidence.
Five Things the Evidence Says Schools Should Do Differently
The research, taken together, points to five practical shifts that distinguish schools building genuine career readiness from those managing compliance.
First, measure capabilities, not just activities. Gatsby compliance measures provision. It does not measure outcomes. Schools that track capability development over time, using tools that generate scored evidence rather than participation records, have a fundamentally stronger case for Ofsted and a fundamentally better picture of which students need intervention.
Second, integrate commercial awareness into the curriculum, not just careers sessions. The OECD and CEC data both show that career development embedded across the curriculum is more effective than careers provision delivered in isolation. Benchmark 4 is the hardest to achieve and the most valuable to achieve. Automated syllabus mapping removes the coordination burden that makes it difficult.
Third, use employer engagement as preparation, not just exposure. The 22% increase in employer work experience opportunities is an asset schools should use strategically. Students who arrive at employer encounters having already practised commercial decision-making in a structured environment get more from those encounters. The encounter confirms and extends capability; it does not create it from scratch.
Fourth, prioritise the capabilities that are deteriorating fastest. Self-awareness, resilience, and work-appropriate communication are the three capabilities that have declined most sharply in employer assessments of school leavers. These should be explicit targets in any careers strategy, with measurable baselines and tracked progression.
Fifth, make the evidence portable. A student who leaves school with a Human Skills Index score and a portfolio of evidence can demonstrate their capabilities to employers and further education providers in a way that grades alone cannot. Portable, verified evidence of capability is the differentiator in a market where qualifications are increasingly commoditised.
The Practical Implication for Careers Leads and SLT
For Careers Leads, the immediate implication is straightforward. The Gatsby Benchmarks provide the framework, but the evidence shows that meeting them fully, particularly Benchmark 4, requires tools that automate the curriculum mapping and evidence generation that currently consume disproportionate time and resource. The ROI calculation is clear: manual achievement of Benchmark 4 through staff coordination costs an estimated £5,600 in teacher time and planning. Automated provision costs a fraction of that, while generating better evidence.
For SLT, the strategic implication is about destination data and Ofsted readiness. Schools that can demonstrate measurable improvement in student career readiness, not just participation in careers activities, are in a significantly stronger position with inspectors. The CEC’s longitudinal data provides the evidence base: more benchmarks, better outcomes. The question is whether the school’s current provision is generating the outcome evidence to support that claim.
For training providers and further education institutions working with school-age cohorts, the Human Skills Index for Training Providers offers a partnership model that integrates measurable capability scoring directly into existing programmes, turning “hours delivered” into “capabilities developed” with the evidence to prove it.
The decline from 39% to 25% work-readiness in a single year is a signal that the current approach is not working at scale. The evidence on what does work is available, consistent, and actionable. The schools that respond to it now will be the ones whose students are differentiated in the labour market when the next ISE survey is published.
Start Measuring Career Readiness: Discover how the Human Skills Index can transform your whole-school careers provision and provide automated evidence for Ofsted. Explore our solutions for SLT, for Careers Leads, and the Human Skills Index for schools. Organisations looking to develop workforce capabilities can explore Skills Hub Workforce or find out more about the Human Skills Index implementation guide.
Sources
Institute of Student Employers (ISE), Graduate Outcomes Survey 2024 and Student Development Survey 2024/25.
British Chambers of Commerce and Open University, Business Barometer 2024.
World Economic Forum, *The Future of Jobs Report 2025*, January 2025.
Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), “Hundreds of thousands of young people leaving school every year without money skills,” February 2024. Survey of 1,012 UK teachers conducted by YouGov, November 2023.
Percy, C. (2025). *Technical note: Career readiness through time*. London: The Careers and Enterprise Company, April 2025.
Barclays LifeSkills, *Workforce ready: supporting young people with the employability skills that businesses need for growth*, 2025.
OECD, *Teenage career development in England: A Review of PISA 2022 Data*, OECD Education Working Papers, May 2024.
Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), Skills Shortage Cost Estimates, 2024.
Bright Network, Employer Engagement Research, 2024.
Skills England, *Driving growth and widening opportunities*, September 2024.
