Our advice for secondary and special schools, colleges and other learning providers
Getting started:
We recommend that you begin by looking carefully at the national accreditation criteria set out in the Guide to the national Quality in Careers Standard. The criteria describe precisely what is required of learning providers, and therefore what our Licensed Awarding Bodies will assess in terms of overall careers provision in secondary schools, colleges and other learning providers. You may also want to look in more detail at what our Assessors require you to evidence in assessments – this is set out in our Assessment Guide.
You may also find it helpful to contact some holders of the Standard in your area to hear their experiences of the value of the process as well as the benefits for students and the impact of the Standard. We publish details of schools, colleges and other learning providers who have achieved the Standard and are publicly listed on the National Register of Award Holders.
Next, just as you’re used to choosing between different awarding bodies for examinations, we recommend that you review the Awarding Bodies we’ve licensed. Our strong advice is that you get in touch with one or more directly. Here are the contact details for our Awarding Bodies and where they operate.
We recommend that you ask the Awarding Bodies you contact directly to outline their distinctive approach to the delivery of the Standard (their ‘offer’) as well as the prices they charge.
In respect of prices, it’s important to say that whilst the fees each Awarding Body charges are broadly similar – although there may also be a few Local Authority/LEP areas where fees are subsidised – so, please, check with the Awarding Body – each Awarding Body is authorised to set its fee structure in the context of the ‘offer’ it makes, so it’s essential to talk this through with them.
We cannot stress too strongly that it’s important that you approach Awarding Bodies operating in your area. That way, you’ll find the approach which you feel best suits your school or college to start the ‘Quality in Careers journey’ towards national accreditation. After reviewing your options, you’re free to choose the Awarding Body you wish to work with for the Standard.
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January 2025 headline figures of schools and colleges engaged with the Standard:
Almost five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began and seriously disrupted many facets of education, including time to work towards the Standard – the level of active engagement of schools and colleges with the national Standard has regained momentum and, at the start of 2025, the figures were:
- 665 schools and colleges held the award, 538 of which the Careers and Enterprise Company was able to match with its “Compass” data to compare Gatsby Benchmark performance.
- A further 256 schools and colleges were actively “working towards” assessment in 2025.
So, at the start of January 2025, there were 921 schools and colleges actively engaged with the national Standard.
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Evidence of the added value and impact of achieving the Standard: This analysis by the Careers & Enterprise Company in January 2025 of the “Compass” scores for the schools and colleges holding the Standard showed:
- The average number of Gatsby Benchmarks fully achieved by Quality in Careers Award Holders in 2023/24 has increased to 6.5 compared with 6.1 in 2023 and 5.6 in the analysis of 2022 Award Holders.
- The average for all schools and colleges completing Compass was 5.8 in 2023/24, 5.5 in 2023 compared with 4.9 in 2022.