The Gatsby Benchmarks define world-class careers guidance for young people in England. In November 2024, the “Good Career Guidance: The Next 10 Years” report introduced updated requirements that are now recommended by Government statutory guidance from September 2025. These updates place a renewed emphasis on inclusion, meaningful encounters, and embedding careers provision within whole-school strategic leadership.
According to the Careers and Enterprise Company’s 2024/25 Insight Briefing, 94% of state-funded schools and colleges now report their progress, achieving an average of 6.0 out of 8 benchmarks, up from 5.8 the previous year. Progress is real and measurable. Yet some benchmarks remain notoriously difficult to achieve, and for many schools, the administrative burden of coordination and evidence-gathering is a significant barrier to full compliance.
This self-assessment checklist is designed for Careers Leaders and Senior Leadership Teams to audit their current provision against the updated 2025 requirements. For each benchmark, it outlines what is required, what good looks like in practice, common gaps identified during Ofsted inspections, and practical quick wins. Where relevant, it also notes how Enterprise Skills supports compliance.
A note on Ofsted: under the reformed Education Inspection Framework, which came into force in November 2025, careers education sits within the “Personal Development and Well-being” evaluation area. Inspectors expect clarity on how your careers programme links to leadership, strategy, and measurable outcomes. Ofsted-readiness is no longer an optional extra. The Human Skills Index provides the measurable capability evidence that Ofsted increasingly expects, and it travels with students from education into employment through Skills Hub Workforce.
At a Glance: Enterprise Skills and the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks
The table below provides a quick reference for how Enterprise Skills positions against each benchmark. The full checklist follows.
| Benchmark | Summary | Enterprise Skills Role | Key Message |
| BM1: Stable Programme | Strategic careers plan with leadership backing | SUPPORTS | Ready-made programme components that reduce Careers Leader workload |
| BM2: Labour Market Info | Access to LMI and pathways data | CONTEXTUALISES | Helps students use LMI through commercial application |
| BM3: Individual Needs | Tracking, evidence, personalised support | MEETS | Automated tracking, Human Skills Index, Ofsted-ready evidence |
| BM4: Curriculum Links | Careers in every subject, every year | MEETS (business students) | Only platform with automated UK syllabus mapping |
| BM5: Employer Encounters | Meaningful employer encounters from age 11 | SUPPORTS | Virtual business challenges complement broader employer networks |
| BM6: Workplace Experiences | First-hand workplace visits and shadowing | SUPPORTS | Experiential preparation for physical placements |
| BM7: FE/HE Encounters | University, college, apprenticeship encounters | NOT OUR FOCUS | Well-served by ASK programme and Uni Connect |
| BM8: Personal Guidance | 1-to-1 with a qualified careers adviser | INFORMS | Human Skills Index data makes guidance conversations more impactful |
The 2025 Gatsby Benchmark Compliance Checklist
Benchmark 1: A Stable Careers Programme
Enterprise Skills role: SUPPORTS
What is Required
Every school must have a stable, structured programme of careers education and guidance with explicit backing from the headteacher, governors, and Senior Leadership Team. An appropriately trained Careers Leader must be identified and responsible for the programme. The programme must be published on the school website, tailored to pupil needs, sequenced across year groups, and regularly evaluated using feedback from pupils, parents, teachers, employers, and careers advisers. The 2025 update makes it explicit that careers must be at the heart of leadership and linked to the whole-school development plan.
What Good Looks Like
Careers education is treated as a strategic priority, not an isolated activity managed by a single member of staff. The programme is documented, sequenced, and reviewed annually. Governors actively scrutinise the impact of the careers strategy, and parents are engaged throughout the student journey rather than just at key transition points. The Careers Leader has protected time, appropriate training, and a clear reporting line to the headteacher.
Common Gaps
Schools often fail to demonstrate how their careers programme connects to the broader school improvement plan. Another frequent omission is the lack of systematic evaluation using destination data and stakeholder feedback. Many schools publish a careers policy on their website but cannot evidence that it is actively implemented and reviewed.
Quick Wins
Ensure your careers programme is clearly visible and up to date on your school website. Establish a regular reporting cycle to the governing body that focuses on measurable outcomes, not just participation metrics. Add a standing agenda item on careers to your next SLT meeting.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We provide ready-made careers programme components that integrate into your strategic plan. Our automated evidence portfolios support the regular evaluation requirements without adding to your administrative workload, giving you Ofsted-ready documentation at any point in the year.
Benchmark 2: Learning from Career and Labour Market Information
Enterprise Skills role: CONTEXTUALISES
What is Required
All pupils, parents, and teachers must have access to good-quality, up-to-date information about future study options and labour market opportunities. During each Key Stage, all pupils must access and use this information to inform their decisions. Parents and carers must be encouraged and supported to access and use Labour Market Information (LMI) to help their children. The 2025 update emphasises that the focus must be on using information to inform decision-making, not simply providing access to it.
What Good Looks Like
Students do not just read LMI; they actively use it to shape their aspirations and career planning. Information is contextualised, making abstract data about skills shortages or growing sectors tangible and relevant. Parents receive accessible summaries of local labour market trends and are supported to have informed conversations with their children about future pathways.
Common Gaps
Schools often provide access to LMI platforms but fail to ensure students understand how to interpret the data. There is also a frequent lack of tailored support for parents, who may find raw labour market data difficult to navigate without guidance.
Quick Wins
Dedicate specific form time or PSHE sessions to actively exploring LMI, rather than simply signposting students to a platform. Provide simple, accessible summaries of local labour market trends to parents during transition evenings or via your school newsletter.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
Our business simulations contextualise LMI within real commercial scenarios, helping students use labour market information through practical application. We complement dedicated LMI platforms by making the data meaningful and memorable through active learning.
Benchmark 3: Addressing the Needs of Each Pupil
Enterprise Skills role: MEETS
What is Required
Schools must maintain systematic records of participation in all careers activities and individual advice given. This data must include aspirations and intended destinations, and must be used to tailor support. The programme must actively challenge stereotypes, raise aspirations, and showcase diverse role models. Additional or different support must be provided for vulnerable, disadvantaged, and SEND students. Records must be accessible to students and transferred when pupils change schools.
What Good Looks Like
Careers Leaders use robust data to identify which students need additional support or different types of encounters. Every student has an accessible record of their careers learning journey. The programme demonstrably challenges misconceptions through diverse sectors, role models, and scenarios. Data on aspirations and intended destinations is collected, analysed, and used to refine provision.
Common Gaps
Record-keeping is often fragmented across different systems or reliant on manual tracking, making it difficult to identify gaps in provision for individual students. Schools frequently lack the data infrastructure to demonstrate equity of access across all student demographics, which is increasingly scrutinised by Ofsted.
Quick Wins
Implement a centralised tracking system that all relevant staff can access. Ensure that participation data is reviewed at least termly to identify students who have not yet engaged with careers activities. Create a simple one-page student careers profile that can be shared with advisers and transferred at key transitions.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We MEET Benchmark 3 requirements. The Human Skills Index provides automated tracking and Ofsted-ready evidence without the administrative burden. Every student receives measurable capability scores across 8 validated capabilities, allowing you to tailor interventions based on demonstrated need rather than just participation. Learn more about how the Human Skills Index methodology works and how to interpret capability scores for individual students.
Benchmark 4: Linking Curriculum Learning to Careers
Enterprise Skills role: MEETS (business students)
What is Required
Every year, in every subject, every pupil must have opportunities to learn how knowledge and skills from that subject help people gain entry to and succeed in careers. This is not a one-off activity; it must be embedded across the full curriculum. Careers must also form part of the ongoing staff development programme for all teachers.
What Good Looks Like
Careers education is fully embedded in the teaching strategy across all departments, not just business or PSHE. Teachers confidently contextualise their lessons with industry examples, and students clearly understand the commercial application of their academic learning. The Careers Leader does not need to coordinate this individually with every teacher because it is built into the school’s systems.
Common Gaps
This is consistently the hardest benchmark to achieve. The Careers and Enterprise Company’s 2024/25 data confirms that progress remains uneven across institution types. Coverage is often patchy, relying on the enthusiasm of individual teachers rather than a systematic, whole-school approach. The coordination burden on Careers Leaders is immense, with some schools estimating it requires 40 or more hours of planning and meetings per year.
Quick Wins
Start by auditing current practice to identify departments that already integrate careers well, and share their approach as best practice across the school. Provide short, focused CPD sessions for staff on how to make simple industry connections in their subject areas. Even a single, well-evidenced careers link per lesson per term is a starting point.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We MEET Benchmark 4 for business students. We are the only platform with automated UK syllabus mapping, covering all major exam boards. Our Skills Hub Workforce platform links careers to curriculum without requiring any teacher coordination, saving schools an estimated 40 hours of planning time and generating Ofsted-ready evidence automatically.
Benchmark 5: Encounters with Employers and Employees
Enterprise Skills role: SUPPORTS
What is Required
Every year, from age 11, every pupil must participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer. The 2025 updates introduce strict criteria for what constitutes a “meaningful” encounter. It must have a clear purpose shared with both the employer and the young person, be underpinned by learning outcomes, involve two-way interactions, and be followed by dedicated reflection time. Encounters must cover a variety of employers across different sectors and sizes, reflecting actual labour market trends.
What Good Looks Like
Encounters are not passive presentations; they are interactive experiences where students perform tasks, make decisions, and receive feedback. The encounters are carefully planned with preparation time for both students and employers. A variety of sectors and employer sizes are represented across the year groups. Structured reflection activities follow every encounter to consolidate learning.
Common Gaps
Schools often struggle to scale meaningful encounters for every student every year. Encounters frequently lack structured preparation and follow-up reflection, reducing their long-term impact on student capability. Many schools rely on a small number of employer relationships, limiting the variety of sectors represented.
Quick Wins
Ensure every employer visit or virtual encounter includes a pre-session briefing for students and a post-session reflection activity. Use alumni networks to provide relatable role models. Explore virtual formats to scale encounters beyond the logistical constraints of in-person events.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We SUPPORT Benchmark 5. Our virtual business challenges provide curriculum-linked, interactive encounters at scale, complementing the broader employer networks available to schools. The two approaches work well together: broad employer exposure from one, curriculum-connected commercial decision-making from the other. Explore Skills Hub Workforce to see how virtual business simulations work.
Benchmark 6: Experiences of Workplaces
Enterprise Skills role: SUPPORTS
What is Required
By age 16, every pupil must have had at least one meaningful experience of a workplace. By age 18, they must have had at least one further meaningful experience. The 2025 update defines “meaningful” experiences as those with extensive two-way interactions with employees, the performance of workplace-relevant tasks, and employer feedback on the young person’s work. Experiences can include visits, work shadowing, and work experience placements, in-person or with a virtual component.
What Good Looks Like
Workplace experiences are integrated into the broader careers programme. Students are well-prepared before they go, understanding the commercial context of the organisation they are visiting. They perform actual tasks and receive constructive feedback on their professional capabilities. The experience is followed by structured reflection that connects back to their broader careers learning.
Common Gaps
The logistical burden of securing physical placements for entire year groups is significant. Disadvantaged or SEND students often face barriers to accessing high-quality traditional work experience. Many schools also struggle to ensure that experiences are genuinely “meaningful” by the updated criteria, rather than simply observational.
Quick Wins
Broaden the definition of workplace experiences to include project-based learning with employers, structured virtual experiences that simulate workplace tasks, or tiered approaches for students who cannot access traditional placements. Ensure all experiences include a clear task and employer feedback component.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We SUPPORT Benchmark 6. Our experiential learning simulations provide workplace decision-making practice, helping students develop commercial awareness before their physical placements. While simulations do not replace actual workplace experiences, they democratise access to commercial decision-making for all students, ensuring every student is prepared to maximise the value of their work experience regardless of the placement they secure.
Benchmark 7: Encounters with Further and Higher Education
Enterprise Skills role: NOT OUR PRIMARY FOCUS
What is Required
By age 16, every pupil must have had meaningful encounters with providers of the full range of educational opportunities, including sixth forms, colleges, independent training providers, and apprenticeship providers. By age 18, all pupils considering higher education must have had at least two visits to universities. The Provider Access Legislation (PAL) requires schools to allow approved training providers to speak to students at key transition points.
What Good Looks Like
Students receive unbiased, comprehensive information about all pathways, including technical education and apprenticeships, not just traditional academic routes. Encounters involve meeting both staff and current learners to give students a realistic view of the experience. The school’s PAL statement is current and actively implemented.
Common Gaps
Schools sometimes exhibit bias towards traditional academic routes, under-representing vocational or apprenticeship pathways. PAL statements are often out of date or not actively implemented, which is an area of increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Quick Wins
Review and update your PAL statement. Actively invite technical education providers to speak to students at key transition points in Years 9, 11, and 12. Use the ASK programme and Uni Connect resources to supplement your own provision.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
While this benchmark is outside our primary focus and is well-served by the ASK programme and Uni Connect, the capability measurement provided by the Human Skills Index helps students understand their own strengths. This enables more informed conversations about which educational pathway best suits their profile.
Benchmark 8: Personal Guidance
Enterprise Skills role: INFORMS
What is Required
Every pupil must have at least one personal guidance meeting with a qualified careers adviser by age 16, and a further meeting by age 18. These meetings must be scheduled to meet individual needs and conducted by a professional trained to an appropriate level. Information about how to access personal guidance must be communicated to pupils and parents, including via the school website.
What Good Looks Like
Guidance is young person-centred and tailored. Advisers have access to comprehensive data about the student’s aspirations, previous encounters, and demonstrated capabilities before the meeting begins, allowing for highly targeted conversations. The guidance meeting is part of a sequence that includes preparation and follow-up, not a standalone event.
Common Gaps
Advisers often spend a significant portion of a limited meeting gathering basic information because they lack access to a consolidated student profile or capability data. This reduces the time available for the strategic, personalised conversations that make guidance genuinely impactful.
Quick Wins
Ensure careers advisers have direct access to your school’s tracking system before each meeting. Require students to complete a brief pre-meeting reflection to focus the conversation on next steps rather than baseline information-gathering.
How Enterprise Skills Can Help
We inform and enable Benchmark 8. We provide the data to make guidance conversations better. When a student arrives with their Human Skills Index score and an automated portfolio of their demonstrated capabilities, careers advisers can immediately focus on strategic next steps. We do not replace qualified careers advisers; we give them better information to work with. Learn more about the Human Skills Index for HR and L&D teams to see how this capability measurement continues into employment.
Moving Beyond Compliance to Measured Capability
Achieving all 8 Gatsby Benchmarks is a significant administrative and logistical challenge. The Careers and Enterprise Company’s 2024/25 data shows that while average achievement has risen to 6.0 out of 8, some benchmarks remain persistently difficult. Benchmark 4, linking curriculum to careers, is consistently one of the lowest achievers because of the coordination complexity involved. The manual cost of achieving it across a school can exceed GBP 5,600 in staff time.
However, compliance measures provision, not outcomes. The most effective schools are moving beyond simply tracking participation to measuring actual capability development. Under the updated Ofsted framework, inspectors are increasingly focused on evidencing impact, not just activity. That means measurable outcomes: destinations data, learners’ perceptions of career readiness, and demonstrated capability development.
By integrating tools that provide measurable evidence of workplace readiness, schools can meet their statutory requirements while ensuring their students are genuinely prepared for the commercial realities of the modern workforce. The Human Skills Index gives every student a measurable score across 8 validated capabilities, providing the outcome evidence that compliance checklists alone cannot deliver. When students transition into employment, this same capability measurement continues through Skills Hub Workforce, creating a seamless journey from education to career. For HR and L&D Directors looking to implement capability measurement in their organisations, our implementation guide provides a practical roadmap.
Find out how Enterprise Skills supports Gatsby compliance and capability development at /solutions/for-careers-leads/ or explore Skills Hub Workforce at /solutions/skills-hub-workforce/.
References
[1] Gatsby Charitable Foundation. (2024). Good Career Guidance: The Next 10 Years. https://cdn.gatsbybenchmarks.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/11/good-career-guidance-the-next-10-years-report.pdf
[2] The Careers and Enterprise Company. (2025). Insight Briefing: Gatsby Benchmark Results for 2024/25. https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/sites/cweb/files/dbbboivk/2103-insight-briefing-gatsby-benchmark-results-for-2024-25-v11.pdf
[3] The Careers and Enterprise Company. (2025). Education Inspection Framework Guide for Careers Leaders and Education Leaders (Updated Autumn 2025). https://resources.careersandenterprise.co.uk/sites/default/files/2026-02/2110%20-%202025%20Ofsted%20Guide%20update%20v9.pdf
[4] Gatsby Benchmarks. (2025). The Eight Benchmarks. https://www.gatsbybenchmarks.org.uk/
