How we measure and assess the impact of the careers programme on students 

At Stephenson (MK) Trust, we work closely with the Careers and Enterprise Company. They are an external organisation, which supports schools to ensure they are following the Department for Education’s newly devised Careers Strategy. 

The following statement is an extract taken from this guidance: 

“The careers strategy sets out that every school and academy providing secondary education should use the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Benchmarks to develop and improve their careers provision. This statutory guidance has been restructured around the Benchmarks with information on what schools need to do to meet each one. The Gatsby Benchmarks are not statutory framework but who by adopting them, schools can be confident that they are fulfilling their legal duties; the existing duties to secure independent careers guidance and provide opportunities to a range of providers to inform pupils about technical education qualifications or apprenticeships and the new duty to publish information about the careers programme on the school website” 

As an education establishment, we ensure we use the eight Gatsby Benchmarks as a building block when planning our Careers Strategy. We are able to measure our performance using the Compass Careers Benchmark Tool; this tool is used by schools and colleges in England, to support the analysis and evaluation of careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice (known as the Gatsby Benchmarks).  The Careers and Enterprise Company coordinate the Audit deadlines; this ensures the development of our careers strategy is ongoing to ensure best practice.