What Are the Gatsby Benchmarks?The eight things that make careers education actually work
Where the eight came from
In 2014 the Gatsby Charitable Foundation asked a simple question: what do the best careers programmes in the world have in common? The answer came back as eight benchmarks, drawn from schools and colleges across Europe and North America. They now sit inside the Government's statutory careers guidance for schools in England. They are not a ranking and they are not a menu. They are eight things that all have to be present at once.
Why any of this matters
86%less likely to be NEET with 4+ employer encounters
1 in 816-24 year olds are NEET in 2026
Benchmarks 1 and 2
1 · A stable careers programme
A written, funded, published plan with a named careers leader and visible backing from senior leaders. What it looks like here: • Published on the school website • Reviewed and dated every year • Known by staff, pupils, parents and employers - not just by one person
2 · Career and labour market info
Every pupil, and their parents, using real data on pay, entry routes and which jobs are growing - by the age of 14. What it looks like here: • Pay and vacancy data used inside lessons • Local shortages named, not just national ones • Parents get the same information pupils do
Benchmarks 3 and 4
3 · The needs of each pupil
Careers work is tailored, recorded and tracked - including for SEND pupils, disadvantaged pupils and high attainers. What it looks like here: • A record kept per pupil, not per year group • Destinations tracked for three years after leaving • The quiet ones are chased, not missed
4 · Linking curriculum to careers
Subject teachers show where their subject leads. Not one careers week in July - every term, in every subject. What it looks like here: • Careers moments planned into schemes of work • Arts and humanities covered as seriously as STEM • Pupils can name a job their subject leads to
Benchmarks 5 and 6
5 · Encounters with employers
Multiple meaningful contacts with working people every year - talks, mentoring, mock interviews, enterprise days, careers fairs. The standard to aim for: at least one encounter per pupil, per year, from Year 7 upwards.
6 · Experiences of workplaces
First-hand experience of a real workplace by the age of 16, and again in the sixth form - visits, shadowing, placements. A virtual tour is a useful warm-up. It does not replace standing in the building and smelling the place.
Benchmarks 7 and 8
7 · Encounters with FE and HE
Sixth forms, colleges, universities and apprenticeship providers - all routes, not only the ones the school knows best. The law also requires six encounters with technical education and apprenticeship providers between Year 8 and Year 13.
8 · Personal guidance
A one-to-one with a careers adviser qualified to Level 6 or above. Every pupil should have one by the end of Year 11, and another in the sixth form if they stay on. Guidance is a conversation, not a leaflet.
So whose job is this?
Careers leader - owns the programme, the plan and the evidence. Senior leader link - protects the time and the budget. Link governor - asks the awkward questions once a year. Subject teachers - Benchmark 4 lives or dies with you. Form tutors - the ones pupils actually talk to. Careers adviser - Benchmark 8, and the referrals nobody else spots. Parents and carers - still the single biggest influence on a 15-year-old's decision.
ActivitySpot the benchmark
In groups8 min
In threes, match each scenario to the benchmark it evidences. Some fit two - argue it out. (A) A paramedic runs a Q&A in the hall. (B) A geography teacher spends five minutes on flood-risk surveying careers. (C) A Year 10 spends a day at a logistics depot. (D) A pupil has a 30-minute one-to-one with the careers adviser. (E) A tutor group looks up regional pay data for three jobs. (F) The careers plan is published, dated and reviewed. (G) A college runs a taster session in school for Year 11. (H) A SEND pupil's careers plan is written into their review. Then: which benchmark is your group least confident this school does well?
Discussion
Talk it through
1Which benchmark do you think this school is strongest on, and what is your evidence?
2Which one would a pupil in Year 9 notice was missing?
3Benchmark 4 needs every subject. What would it take in yours?
4If we could only fix one benchmark this year, which one buys us the most?
How we know it is working
1
Complete Compass, the Careers & Enterprise Company self-evaluation tool, once a term
2
Record every encounter against the individual pupil, not the year group
3
Ask pupils what they remember six weeks later - not on the day
4
Track leaver destinations for three years
5
Report the whole picture to governors once a year
6
Publish the programme, with a review date, where parents can find it
Before you leave this room
Pick one. Just one. 1. Name the benchmark you are personally responsible for this term. 2. Name one thing you will change in the next four weeks - a lesson, a record, a conversation, an email to a parent who works somewhere interesting. 3. Tell the careers leader what it is, so it ends up in the evidence. Eight benchmarks. One term. One change each.