The Gatsby Benchmarks

GATSBY BENCHMARK 8

Personal guidance

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE

  • Every student should have opportunities for guidance interviews with a career adviser.
  • Every student should have at least one of these interviews by the age of 16, and the opportunity for a further interview by the age of 18.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Providing structured personal guidance time within the school enables students to focus on their future dreams and to set goals to achieve them.

  • Research shows that students benefit from conversations with familiar and trusted adults who can challenge and support them.
  • Access to independent and impartial professional career guidance is strongly valued by students and parents and is a recurring feature of good provision.
  • Personal guidance helps students to consolidate and reflect upon their vocational identity, career decision making and self-efficacy. It is a focal point for making sense of the vital ingredients in the careers programme including encounters with employers and higher education, experiences of workplaces and career learning in subjects.
  • Research evidence confirms that personal guidance has an observable impact on a student’s career and progression.

TOP TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS

  1. Find out what arrangements the school has put in in place for a student’s personal guidance.
  2. Assist the school in building coherence between the employer encounters and personal guidance.
  3. Draw on the expertise of the careers adviser in getting to grips with the complex educational choices facing students and the destinations they choose. Help the careers adviser to work effectively with students by sharing information about employment trends in the organisation or sector you work in.
  4. Ask the adviser for case studies and examples of students’ aspirations to illustrate your talks or activities.
  5. Work with the school to ensure students are prepared to benefit from employer encounters and experiences of work. Also ensure they have opportunities to reflect on what they have learned and how it relates to their career planning.
  6. Encourage students to make best use of the personal guidance on offer.
  7. If you receive feedback from students about access to or delivery of personal guidance, share it with the careers lead at the school.