Meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks

Our Inspiring the Future platform supports you in meeting the updated Gatsby Benchmarks 3-7  

• Create multiple meaningful employer encounters by connecting your students with our volunteers using our online matching tool 
• Source opportunities for work-place visits that count towards Gatsby Benchmark 6 
• Have your students join our online career sessions and hear from our employer partners  
• Come to one of our Gatsby Benchmark Webinars and learn how to take your careers programme to the next level 

Quick link to Gatsby Benchmarks Summary table
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What are the Gatsby Benchmarks and how can we help you evidence them?    

The Department for Education adopted the Gatsby Benchmarks in 2014 as the best practice model for delivering effective careers provision. These Benchmarks were updated in 2024 and are to be implemented from September 2025. We’re here to help Careers Leaders do just that! 

With a network of thousands of employee volunteers from the world of work, Inspiring the Future can help evidence meeting Benchmarks 3 to 7. 

Get started:

Sign up to Inspiring the Future or  Log in to your account

Benchmark 3: Addressing the needs of each pupil

Whether you’re looking to raise aspirations, inspire disengaged students or challenge misconceptions you can connect your students with relatable and inspiring role models with us.  

On our platform you can find role models for students with specific aspirations by filtering volunteers by industry sector. Or find volunteers that can talk about gender, inclusion and diversity, or working with a disability. 

By inviting volunteers to speak to students, you can challenge misconceptions and stereotypical thinking, as well as providing role models with a range of experiences. 

This is a story from one of our Inspiring Aviation volunteers, Steph, about tackling gender stereotypes: 

‘Tailoring careers provision to meet the needs of all learners, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities.’ 

Gatsby benchmark 3

For students with special education needs, we have adapted resources to be more accessible and these can complement our SEND friendly worksheets.

Teachers can also identify volunteers who are working with a disability by using the filter options in their search. Many of our volunteers’ profiles show how honest and personable they are, including their experiences of living or working with SEND or neurodiversity.

‘I also have ADHD which is now being recognised as a disability in some areas. This certainly brought some challenges to practising law that may be relevant to some students in their studies.’
Tom, Solicitor

Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

The new benchmarks widen the responsibility of linking the curriculum to careers out to ALL subject teachers.

“Careers should form part of the school’s ongoing staff development programme for teachers and all staff who support pupils.”

gatsby benchmark 4

All teachers can use Inspiring the Future in subject lessons by planning introductions to volunteers in particular sectors. You can also find volunteers by the classroom subjects they use in their jobs. For example, you could find volunteers working in the creative industry who use maths, English or business studies in their day-to-day work.

This is an example of one of our volunteers, and the range of subjects their job links to:

Hear how Careers Leaders, Teresa and Jake use our volunteers to support Gatsby Benchmark 4.

Benchmark 5: Encounters with employers and employees

“…every year, from the age of 11, pupils should participate in at least one meaningful encounter with an employer.”

gatsby benchmark 5

This is where we excel!

Research by Education and Employers shows that the more young people encounter employers whilst in school (4 or more being cited), the more they earn and the lower their chances of becoming NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) as young adults (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)

Help your students from Year 7 upwards connect with professionals from a wide range of sectors and backgrounds. Use our interactive mapping tool to find people working nearby or across the UK and plan in-person or virtual encounters as part of their 50 hours of work experience-related activity.

Choose activities with a size, scale and focus to suit your needs. Plan a virtual career talk with a single volunteer and a small student group or invite multiple volunteers to whole-year in-person events, such as careers fairs and speed networking.

The new update to Gatsby Benchmark 5 emphasises that encounters need to focus on skills valued in the workplace and recruitment processes to be meaningful. The encounters should also include employers of different sizes and specialisms. With over 15,000 volunteers that are happy to participate in both virtual and in-person events, from across the UK on our platform, teachers have access to roles such as Lieutenant Commanders, Wedding Photographers, Google Project Managers and Paramedics. Whatever the sector, whatever the role, you can find volunteers to inspire your students, raise their aspirations and broaden their horizons.

“This tool has been excellent; we now have a wide selection of volunteers from all sectors and backgrounds.”

Jo Carroll, Southborough High School

Benchmark 6: Experiences of workplaces  

“..by age 16, every pupil ‘should have had meaningful experiences of workplaces’. By 18, every pupil should have had ‘at least one further meaningful experience’.”

gatsby benchmark 6

When creating an employer encounter, using our platform you can indicate whether you’re looking for students to have work experience, a workplace visit or job shadowing as the type of activity. You will then only see volunteers happy to take part in those sorts of activities.

With the new updates to GB6, you can use virtual encounters to complement (but not replace) in-person experiences.

Through Inspiring the Future, you can connect and plan with volunteers to:

• establish a clear purpose of the experience
• create learning outcomes
• facilitate two-way interactions
• organise workplace tasks for the young person
• encourage feedback and reflection

Through our sector campaigns and employer partnerships, Teachers can access free opportunities for students to visit different workplaces or to join one of our showcase events. Therefore, meeting the criteria of a meaningful experience of a workplace.

In line with the Government’s new ambition, modern work experience is no longer a one-week block. Instead, young people should have 10 days or 50 hours-worth of work experience across their secondary education. So meaningful encounters can and should begin in Year 7. These can be days, or shorter sessions plotted throughout their education career.

We know the importance of starting early with career insights from our extensive work with primary schools, so our volunteers are briefed and prepped to talk to all ages, and our team can help with planning impactful KS3 sessions if you are just getting started with this age group.

Benchmark 7: Encounters with further and higher education

We have a purposely diverse mix of volunteers, so we have 10,000s who went to university, took an apprenticeship or other vocational routes, as well as lecturers and staff from further and higher education centres.

Connect with any of these volunteers to show students the vast array of pathways available to them.

These are a couple of our volunteers happy to talk about different pathways:

‘HR professional with knowledge of apprenticeships, I’m an Apprenticeship Lead, also involved in apprenticeship policy. Happy to talk to those just choosing GCSE’s, or those going into A Levels or leaving school.’

Angelique, Senior HR Business Partner

‘I have completed a PhD which focuses on the predictors of educational attainment. My research interests lie in the school environment and how this can influence academic achievement of pupils. As well as achievement outcomes, I am also interested in ‘non-cognitive’ character skills and how schools can foster these. In addition to my academic profile, I have also given talks in schools with teachers and pupils on science (specifically behavioural genetics) and organise for schools to visit my research centre.’
Marina, King’s College London

Summary – how we can help with Gatsby Benchmarks 3-7

Benchmark	What Inspiring the Future can help with	How Inspiring the Future contributes / examples
Benchmark 3: Addressing the needs of each young person	Diverse and relatable role models Using alumni Challenging stereotypes and misconceptions Tailoring support to individual needs.	Our search filters enable you to find volunteers based on ‘specialist topics’ such as Inclusion and Diversity, Working with a Disability, or Gender. Use these to find diverse and relatable role models or use the ‘Former Students’ filter to find alumni. Tailor experiences to your students by using our format guides or our SEND resources which adapt a number of our support materials to be more SEND-friendly.
Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers	Subject departments and all teachers expected to link classroom learning with careers Show relevance of subjects to workplace & employability.	Use the ‘Subjects’ search filter to discover volunteers by the subjects they use in their job. This is especially useful to find less obvious links between subjects and jobs. For example, a theatre producer who uses maths.
Benchmark 5: Encounters with employers and employees	Encounters need to be multiple, regular, meaningful, not just one-off Employers from diverse sectors Include self-employed etc. Scale and variety	Inspiring the Future volunteers range from large organisations like the NHS, to self-employed professionals. Use the ‘Sector’ filter to find volunteers from specific industries. Or use the ‘Job Description Key Word Search’ to find a really specific job. Also explore our suite of plug and play video resources. These feature volunteers talking about everything from what their job is, to pathways into their sectors, and themes such as gender in the workplace.
Benchmark 6: Experiences of workplaces	More expectations around real workplace experiences: work visits, job shadowing, placements; also virtual or hybrid experiences where appropriate Deeper insight into how workplaces work, what skills are valued etc. New definition of ‘meaningful’	When creating an activity, you can select Work Experience, Job Shadowing or Workplace Visits. The platform will then only show volunteers willing to take part in the those activities. You will be in direct contact with the volunteer, so you can organise and plan the experience to make it meaningful for your students. There are also opportunities for workplace visits with our partners such as Bank of America and Vesty.
Benchmark 7: Encounters with further and higher education	More focus on exposing students to all post-16/FE/HE routes: apprenticeships, training providers, university Help students understand what options exist, what the next steps are.	Inspiring the Future has volunteers who took different academic and apprenticeship routes; schools can filter for volunteers who can speak about apprenticeships or university pathways. They can organise talks or panels with volunteers who work for HE or FE providers.

Join our webinars

We understand that teachers and careers leaders are under pressure to take on so much information, but we are here to help and lighten the load. Our Gatsby Benchmark Webinars focus on each benchmark and how we can help.

NB: Teachers might like to share our Gatsby Benchmark webinars link with Governors as a handy way to support them in their ‘understanding’ of the school’s career education programme and guidance as part of the new framework.

Free support and staff training

This year we are offering free staff training to support your colleagues in using Inspiring the Future to bring subjects, topics and learning to life through the voices of volunteers from the world of work.

To request free staff training, contact Ben Southgate at enquiries@inspiringthefuture.org 

Our platform and all of our resources and support are fully funded and so there is no cost at all to careers leaders or schools.  

More ways to meet Gatsby Benchmarks

Benchmark 2: icould videos are a useful way to open discussions about careers, pathways and skills. The real-life career videos feature individuals talking about their jobs and career paths.

Benchmark 3: Many icould videos challenge career stereotypes and showcase a diverse range of role models, across a range of sectors and levels. You can explore videos by theme and find videos which may be of particular interest. For example: challenging gender stereotypes and living with a disability.

Benchmark 4: On icould, you can explore videos by subject, opening up specific subjects and the careers they can lead to.

Find out more about icould and the Gatsby Benchmarks here:

Get started with Inspiring the Future:

Email us at enquiries@inspiringthefuture.org if you’d like to know more about using Inspiring the Future to meet the Gatsby Benchmarks.