A Future Built on Opportunity: My Vision for The Careers & Enterprise Company

Becoming Chief Executive of the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is a privilege and a responsibility I take deeply. We have a big ambition - to equip every young person, regardless of their background, with the confidence, connections and capabilities to thrive in life. There’s a lot to do to make that reality.  

Careers education sits firmly at the intersection of education, skills and economic growth. The recent Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper highlights the crucial role of high-quality careers guidance and work experience to harness the talents of young people. And so, it should - early and omnipresent careers education enables young people to acquire understanding and develop plans for progression. This has been reinforced through the Curriculum and Assessment Review – emphasising the importance of a broad range of opportunities for children and young people to acquire not only knowledge, but skills too.  
 
Grasping the opportunities that these headwinds will bring feels more important than ever. The number of young people disengaged from education and the labour market is expected to reach one million by the end of November 2025. Nearly one in five pupils in England are receiving support for special educational needs in the classroom. The need for timely, meaningful careers education is urgent. 

Building a More Inclusive System 

Talent and opportunity are not equally spread. Our upcoming report on student career readiness captures the voices of a third of a million young people. Young people in schools and colleges with the best careers education are consistently more confident about their futures. But providing equity means that those in most need require more. Nearly six in ten students with special educational needs and disabilities in Year 11, in a mainstream setting, are yet to have spoken to anyone working in a job that interests them. White British girls in receipt of Free School Meals are significantly less confident about their next steps after Year 11 than their more affluent peers.  

The focus of our early work to provide students with rich and varied experiences with employers has also focused heavily on those without the benefit of family connections. Traditional models of work experience have, for too long, exacerbated rather than challenged, the inequity of social capital.  

That’s why we are deepening focus on young people who need more support. Shortly, we’ll launch and roll out a data-driven Risk of NEET Indicator (RONI), equipping Careers Leaders with the means to identify students with risk factors early in secondary school and target extra support.   

Raising Aspirations and Developing Essential Skills 

A combination of factors enable young people to take their best next step – understanding of options, skills development and opportunity. Our 25-business-strong Employer Advisory Group reinforced the importance of those essential skills to me at my first meeting with them as CEO, a fortnight ago. Meeting our Cornerstone Employer chairs from across the country during October, representing businesses with a combined workforce of 170,000 people, also provided clarity about the way forward in connecting employers and education. They stressed the importance of an integrated skills system, nationally led and locally tailored to ensure consistency and efficiency in meeting local and sectoral skills needs. Working closely with Skills England to achieve that cohesive approach will be an important step for us to achieve this.   

This academic year, we are focused on supporting educators and employers in responding to the updated careers statutory guidance, in line with the revised Gatsby Benchmarks for the next 10 years. The updated Benchmarks expand the definition of what meaningful engagement should mean between employers and young people to offer a real understanding of the world of work.  

We are also collaborating with partners to advance the implementation of the government’s ambition for a work experience guarantee for all young people. On the 21st November 2025, we will convene 100 business and education leaders, accompanied by over 2,500 practitioners online, to rally support and build momentum.  

We’re already seeing how collaboration can seize opportunity. Lloyds Banking Group, for example, has mapped our modern work experience approach, equalex, directly to its schools’ prospectus for 2025/26, aligning outreach with curriculum content and local priorities, a model of joined-up, employer-led engagement.  

Local Leadership Through Devolution 

The future of careers education will increasingly be shaped at the regional and local level. Working closely with combined and mayoral authorities gives us a powerful opportunity to tailor support to local economies and the young people they serve. 

Our Careers Hubs are at the heart of this approach. They serve as fulcrums in every part of the country to connect schools, employers, and local authorities in a shared purpose. They help align careers provision with local skills priorities, ensuring that young people gain access to the skills and opportunities most relevant to their area. 

There’s still much more we can do  

Following our recent report on the powerful impact of Start Small; Dream Big  in primary schools, we’ll continue to advocate for starting early. We’ll widen access to professional development and resources through The Careers & Enterprise Academy and Primary Platform and convene a new National Primary Community of Improvement to connect and scale effective practices across the country. 

We’ll also maintain our focus on business engagement, strengthening the bridge between employers and education. In the new year, we’ll publish the latest data on Employer Standards to help businesses deliver meaningful engagement with young people. And we’ll continue to prioritise sectors that are vital to the UK’s growth and workforce needs, starting with health, construction, digital and green industries. 

A lot to do. Working in partnership, we can achieve so much more to support young people to take their best next steps.