Employer Standards: Shaping your future workforce
The Employer Standards provide a clear framework to businesses of all shapes and sizes to maximise the impact of employer engagement with young people, ensuring mutual value and long-term business success.
Businesses today are facing challenges when it comes to recruiting people with the skills they need:
- How do I build a strong talent pipeline?
- How do I increase diversity in my workforce?
- How do I best deliver against our ESG or social value commitments?
Effective engagement with the education sector through our Employer Standards will help you open new pathways and opportunities in your sector for young people.
Join over 1,000 employers who have already used our framework to identify and plan your work with schools, special schools, and colleges, and align this with your business objectives.
View the Employer Standards Framework
Take a closer look at the ways you can inspire, develop and collaborate with young people.
DownloadAttend our next Employer Standards event
Already engaging with schools and colleges but looking to improve your careers education outreach?
Join our webinar on 29 April 2025 at 12.00pm, for an introduction to the Employer Standards framework and tool.
RegisterFind out how Employer Standards can benefit your business
Inspire young people for their best next step
Provide meaningful opportunities
- Give young people a taste and feel of the working world.
- Make experiences of work meaningful - ensuring young people meet a range of people, interact and receive feedback on a piece of work.
- Be clear and transparent - setting clear aims and learning outcomes.
- Prepare in advance - tailoring experiences to individual needs.
- Involve a wide range of young people.
Be inclusive
- Identify young people that need the most support.
- Break down barriers - by engaging under-represented groups.
- Be relatable to build trust: involving employees who young people can easily identify with.
- Actively challenge stereotypes and preconceptions.
- Be adaptive and accommodating - shape your approach so all feel welcome and involved.
Evaluate and improve
- Measure impact and adapt - to ensure your activities are having the intended impact and adapt where needed.
- Ensure person-centred evaluation - ensure the feedback and perspectives of young people, teachers and schools are part of your evaluation.
- Listen to others - welcome and action feedback from your employees involved in the programmes.
Prepare young people to be career ready
Build essential skills and explain their relevance
- Improve the skills of young people - Supporting them to develop essential skills.
- Embed essential skills in your career outreach - showing they're how they’re applied in every day working life.
- Explain the relevance and importance of essential skills - Support young people, teachers and Careers Leaders in understanding why essential skills are invaluable in the workplace.
Prepare young people for application processes
- Improve understanding & provide practice opportunities - so young people are more confident in application and selection processes like assessment centres, psychometric testing, online interviews, in person interviews.
- Support with written communications - so they become better at describing their skills and experience in CVs, application forms, LinkedIn and cover letters.
- Explain how social media presence could impact applications.
Raise awareness of pathways into work
- Showcase existing opportunities - with information about opportunities in your organisation or sector and links to the local labour market.
- Share knowledge of pathways - highlighting the subject and skills requirements to enter your organisation and sector.
- Shape opportunities – share what you know about pathways and key transition points for young people to your sector.
Collaborate for success
Engage over the long term
- Extend your engagement - work with the same school for more than one year to strengthen partnerships and promote continuous learning.
- Repeat exposure - have multiple engagements with the same individuals and groups of young people over the course of their time in education.
- Commit long-term - invest time with the same school over the long-term.
Partner with others
- Identify areas of priority - learn what a school needs most in terms of careers education support.
- Share your knowledge of job opportunities, local labour market, pathways and the future of work with teachers, Careers Leaders, parents, carers, Careers Hubs and activity providers.
- Relate classroom learning to the world of work - linking careers to the curriculum, developing teachers’ workplace knowledge, co-designing lesson content and supporting student projects.
- Collaborate and share best practice - Connect and cooperate with other employers.
Value the engagement
- Embed careers education within your business planning.
- Recognise and relay the impact on young people - becoming a community ambassador for the value of education outreach.
- Track the impact of your careers education support for young people against your business objectives.
"By going into schools, you can help shape your future workforce, so why wouldn't you do it?"Rita Patel-Miller, Mace Group
