
How universities can support you to achieve the Gatsby Benchmarks
Looking at my own transition from a History Teacher, to Careers Adviser, to University Student Recruitment Officer, I have seen how careers and higher education outreach can enrich and enhance learning from a variety of perspectives. Due to our growing familiarity and confidence with technology, it is an exciting time to explore new practise and re- embed Gatsby in a ‘blended’ world.
Be creative when providing experiences of a workplace (Gatsby Benchmark 6)
I am sure at some point we’ve all been guilty
of simply repeating, what has worked before.
However, having worked with so many Careers
Advisers, we are involved in many projects that
have helped to push the boundaries of what is
possible.
In one example, using a combination of
employers, apprenticeships and higher
education providers, the school facilitated
work experience with a range of career paths.
This consisted of a formal application based
on student preference, a blended delivery
of physical and remote working, then finally
feedback from the employer on the application
and performance of each student.
Other examples have included a staff CPD
session to share their top tips on how they
engage with higher education and careers in
their subject area. Utilising their creativity and
problem solving, as well as some examples
I shared from workshops, this session gave school staff a number of ‘takeaways’ they could
replicate in their own curriculum area.
A personalised approach (Gatsby Benchmarks 3 and Gatsby Benchmark 8)
Benchmarks 3 and 8 focus in on the needs of
the individual. This is something we all as a
sector could do better by empowering student
choice. Rather than just booking a university
in for a talk or one workshop for the whole
year group, why not book in several providers
and give students a choice on the session
that they attend? For example, Pathways into
Policing, Financial Trading and Design Problems.
This greater breadth of subject and university
providers gives students a much broader
exposure to their next step.
Whilst it may be impossible in the immediate
term, it is worth considering whether mixing
age groups and allowing the student to select
a sector led/taster session? Certainly, Key
Stage 3 or Key Stage 4 could be mixed, and this
would provide a more industry led environment
as often we work with a variety of different
ages, experience and expertise.
Another outcome of the pandemic has been
the amount of one-to-one support we’ve
been able to offer Schools and Colleges
with sessions on Personal Statements and
Impressing at Interviews. The improved
flexibility and ability to view and edit the
document live ensures valuable feedback is
available after the conclusion of the session.

Improving the use of labour market information
One area that has improved over the past 18 months is that many School Liaison teams understand requirements on schools through the Gatsby Benchmarks. As a result of this, many universities have developed more faculty sessions. For example, Careers in Sport which not only helps link elements of the curriculum to future careers for students by raising awareness of the breadth of the subject area, but also provides examples of sector specific labour market Information.
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