A guide toGatsby Benchmark 8
Personal guidance
Summary:
Every pupil should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, who could be internal (a member of school staff) or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level. These should be available whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all pupils but should be timed to meet their individual needs.
Benchmark 8 criteria for schools
- Every pupil should have at least one such interview by the age of 16, and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.
Summary:
Every learner should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a careers adviser, who could be internal (a member of college staff) or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level.* These should be available for all learners whenever significant study or career choices are being made. They should be expected for all learners, but should be timed to meet individual needs.
Benchmark 8 criteria for colleges
- Every learner should have at least one such interview by the end of their study programme.
*The college should ensure that access to a level 6 adviser is available when needed.
Independent, impartial advice
There are many different models of one-to-one guidance, so start by researching the right one for your school or college. Whether you are using internal or external provision, make sure a robust quality assurance system is in place to monitor the guidance given to students and ensure those providing guidance are trained to the appropriate level.
If you’re considering using someone from within the school or college team, think about how you can ensure the interview is independent and impartial. To solve this problem, some schools and colleges have temporarily swapped staff to carry out the interviews.
Conducting guidance interviews was much improved when we could contextualise them with the information about students’ academic performance and career education.
Careers Advisers at Bishop Auckland College
Greenfield Community College worked with an external organisation to provide 30-minute interviews with each Year 11 student. During these interviews the careers adviser discussed the student’s ambitions and helped them explore the progress they had made, or would have to make, in order to achieve these goals. The adviser also fed back to staff if there were any students with unrealistic expectations or no plan. This allowed staff to intervene and provide these students with more focussed guidance. For the students of Greenfield Community College having a 1:1 guidance interview with an external provider was positive as it reassured them about a lack of bias. This helped the majority to have an intended destination, with the remainder efficiently identified and given extra support.
When bringing in external providers, think about the sort of information you can give them in advance – providing a record of pupils academic and career learning in one place allows them to provide more tailored advice and enables them to judge when a student’s plans are misaligned or need further development. To make sure you are investing in something that is high-quality ask external providers how they quality assure their service and request to see evidence of this. The Career Development Institute (CDI) also holds a register of career development professionals who have recognised qualifications, abide by a code of ethics and undertake regular professional development.
Jump to Benchmark
Benchmark 1
A stable careers programme
Benchmark 2
Learning from career and labour market information
Benchmark 3
Addressing the needs of each pupil
Benchmark 4
Linking curriculum learning to careers
Benchmark 5
Encounters with employers and employees
Benchmark 6
Experiences of workplaces
Benchmark 7
Encounters with further and higher education
Benchmark 8
Personal guidance
Advice for SEND
Good career guidance ensures that all young people, whatever their needs, background or ambitions, know the options open to them and can make the informed choices needed to fulfil their potential. This is particularly important for the more than one million young people in England recognised as having SEND. Far too often, these young people can be held back by negative stereotypes and assumptions about their limitations.
Publications
Good Career Guidance: Reaching the Gatsby Benchmarks handbook (2017)
Good Career Guidance: Appendices (2014)
Good Career Guidance: Benchmarks for Schools (2014)
Good Career Guidance: Benchmarks for Young People in Colleges (2014)
Good Career Guidance: Perspectives from the SEND sector (2019)
Good Career Guidance report (2014)