Paul Chubb, Chair of the Quality in Careers Consortium Board, said today,
“Following the publication in May 2025 by the Department for Education of revised Statutory Guidance to schools and colleges on their overall careers education and guidance duties, taking account of the updated Gatsby Benchmarks, we updated our national assessment and accreditation criteria for the Standard to comply with the Department’s revisions.
We decided to produce two versions of the Guide to the Standard: one for schools and Sixth Form Colleges, and one for FE Colleges and Independent Training Providers.
We updated our Assessment Guide too, again making it a public document so that schools, colleges and ITPs can see what we require of our Awarding Bodies and their assessors.
The revised national criteria took effect at the same time as the revised Statutory Guidance – 1st September 2025. Therefore, all Quality in Careers assessments of schools, colleges and ITPs from 1st September are being made against the updated revised national criteria.
We’ve further updated the Guides today to take account of the latest CEC analysis of Quality in Careers Award Holders‘ benchmark performance so that schools, colleges and ITPs becoming engaged with the Standard – and making the commitment to work towards accreditation in the coming months – can see how the national Standard fully incorporates the revised DfE Statutory Guidance as they prepare for future assessments, and how it impacts positively upon benchmark achievements.”
Guide to the Standard-Schools and SFC. February 2026