Ready for work: Careers Education in England 2023/24

Our annual report provides a comprehensive summary of the careers education landscape in the academic year 2023/24, drawing on insights from over 230,000 young people, 4,751 schools and colleges, and more than 800 employers.

It explores how careers education: 

• Addresses disadvantage
• Contributes to economic growth
• Drives work readiness  

With an unprecedented volume of data available to us, we are in the position of being able to track the wider impact of careers education - identifying what works, highlighting gaps, and shaping a system that delivers better outcomes for young people, schools and colleges, and employers. 

How to drive more progress?  

1. Employers: Of all sizes, across all sectors provide more meaningful opportunities and workplace experiences to help remove barriers for disadvantaged young people, supporting them to gain confidence and skills to become ready for work.

2. Careers Leaders: Work with Careers Hubs to build relationships with employers and develop data-driven practice, helping young people to make informed choices, strengthening talent pipelines and supporting key industries’ growth.

3. Teachers & parents: Engage with Careers Leaders and employers to give all young people early exposure to the world of work, equipping them with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to thrive in their future careers.

How The CEC drives impact

Explore references in this report 

 

Our most recent technical note, Career readiness through time, presents the first longitudinal analysis linking high-quality careers provision in English schools—measured by the Gatsby Benchmarks—with improvements in students' career readiness and essential skills.

Drawing on year-on-year data from the Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) for 2022/23 and 2023/24, the analysis finds that students in schools achieving all eight benchmarks showed, on average, a 2.1%pts faster gain in career readiness and a 1.9%pt faster gain in essential skills compared to those in schools with only one benchmark. The findings provide stronger evidence of a likely causal relationship than previous cross-sectional studies, highlighting the long-term value of robust careers guidance. Moreover, career readiness and essential skills are shown to be strongly correlated, reinforcing the importance of integrated skills development.

Read Career readiness through time