A new tool has been launched that will measure the effectiveness of secondary schools’ careers education and guidance.
The online tool, called Compass, will evaluate and monitor every school’s careers provision against eight nationally recognised benchmarks.
The initiative has been launched by the Careers and Enterprise Company in partnership with the Gatsby Foundation and will give each school an immediate readout of how well they perform against best practice.
The tool has won the backing of Teach First, the NAHT headteachers’ union, the Association of School and College Leaders and the Careers Development Institute, and will give schools feedback on where they need to improve.
Claudia Harris, chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company, said good careers guidance played a “critical role in improving social mobility”.
“But we know that the standard of careers education varies across the country and that is why we have partnered with the Gatsby Foundation to create the Compass tool and help address this problem,” she added.
“Compass will help drive up standards of careers programmes to inspire young people and help them make informed choices.”
The benchmarks have been developed by emeritus professor at the University of York and former headteacher Sir John Holman.
He said: “The Compass tool will enable schools to see the areas of their career provision that most need improvement when compared to the eight benchmarks, helping place good career guidance within reach of all young people.”
The eight benchmarks are as follows:
- A stable careers programme
- Learning from career and labour market information
- Addressing the needs of each pupil
- Linking curriculum learning to careers
- Encounters with employers and employees
- Experiences of workplaces
- Encounters with further and higher education
- Personal guidance
