Quality in Careers Standard

Supporting schools to achieve their Quality in Careers Standard

Being champions of all things Careers Education, Information, Advice, and Guidance (CEIAG), it will come as no surprise that we are huge advocates for the Quality in Careers Standard, and are delighted to support school leaders in working towards achieving this. But it isn’t just us who endorse this, it is “strongly recommended” by the Department for Education in their updated Statutory Guidance for schools to work towards, achieve, and maintain this national Standard as part of your ‘careers strategy’.

We have teamed up with Ixion Holdings, an awarding organisation that offers the quality award (the Quality in Careers Standard). Our team of Assessors and support consultants fully assess your CEIAG programme, before sending this off for external verification by the awarding body, who will determine if you are meeting the Quality in Careers Standards.

Why work towards the Quality in Careers Standard?

There are lots of reasons why we encourage schools to work towards achieving this quality award. It’s great for your students and your school, here’s why:

It demonstrates to your students, their parents/carers and your stakeholders just how committed you are to your students’ future career planning. It drives motivation, aspiration, and achievement in your students, by giving them the building blocks they need for their future

It’s fully aligned with the Gatsby Benchmarks for ‘Good Career Guidance’ and analysis by the Careers & Enterprise Company of the ‘Compass’ scores showed that of those schools and colleges who held the Standard, they achieved higher than average Gatsby Benchmarks (in 20/21) of 4.6 (compared to the national average of 4.0)

It helps to demonstrate to Ofsted that you are delivering a high-quality careers education service to your students, as it complies with the DfE’s Statutory Guidance. It also provides a benchmark for you to develop and enhance your careers guidance from

Common questions related to the Quality in Careers Standard

A: On average it takes organisations around 2 years to achieve this Standard, as you need this amount of time to compile your portfolio of evidence and go through a series of initial and final assessments.

A: Your Progress Careers Support Consultant and assessor are on hand to help you guide you through the process but in short, once you have registered through us, you will receive the assessment guidelines and requirements directly from the awarding body. With the support of our Support Consultants, school leaders/Careers Leads should collate evidence for their portfolio which demonstrates how you are meeting the standards and working towards the framework for the award. Once you have completed your portfolio of evidence, a Progress Careers Assessor will visit your school to meet with key colleagues and assess if you are fully meeting all the requirements of the Standard, before sending this to the awarding organisation for external verification.

A: The Quality in Careers Standard is aligned to all 8 Gatsby Benchmarks.