Employer engagement

This interactive checklist will support you to think about the Careers provision you have within your SEND setting.

Barclays virtual work experience gives students the opportunity to find out what it is like to work in financial services and the range of job roles and core transferable skills which are used within a bank. LifeSkills also has a range of virtual work experience resources for students to use within a classroom environment to help upskill them for jobs across any industry.

The Skills Builder Partnership brings together educators, employers and organisations around a common approach and mission: to support everyone to build the essential skills to succeed. The Impact Directory celebrates and shares the fantastic work of Skills Builder’s partners.

Compass is a free digital product that helps you quickly and easily evaluate your careers provision against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks. 

Compass is available to secondary schools, special schools, sixth forms, colleges, PRU’s and ITPs in England.

With our free Compass+ tool you can benchmark, manage, track and report on your school's careers provision at individual student level.

Feel confident that your interpretation of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks aligns with that of other schools across the country by using this handy set of prompt questions.

This programme has been collated from resources across our partners and network to support young people with SEND under the 2 groups identified in the SEND toolkit. It contains lessons around employability skill development , employer projects and engagement videos all to support young people in their next steps.

Talentino programmes have been helping to improve career outcomes for young people with a range of learning difficulties in a mixture of settings – special schools, mainstream schools, AP, PRU, SEMH, etc.

They also provide great opportunities for learning more, through their regular newsletters, annual SEND Careers Conference, and by publishing free resources.

Developed by Somerset Careers Hub.

This resource details the ways in which Enterpriser Advisers could support schools to develop their careers programme. Ideas have been categorised under each specific benchmark.

AutonoMe uses the power of personalised human support combined with technology to enable neurodiverse people and those with learning disabilities to gain employment and develop skills for independent living. 

This is a costed resource with possible funding streams identified.

Developed by Inspiring Worcestershire. Passport to Retail has been designed with the student’s progression at the forefront. This brilliant project will take students on a tour around the Retail industry, learning about key areas from customer services to stock rotation to build their knowledge and skill in preparation for the workplace.

This resource supports Careers Leaders to embed encounters with providers of all routes available to students at key transitions within a progressive careers programme.

The following guiding principles will support an approach to Benchmark 7 and to Provider Access Legislation, whilst being aligned to Benchmarks 1 and 3 including setting aims, planning meaningful delivery and impact evaluation of activity.

To accompany this resource, watch the film to hear from educators, providers and young people about the impact these principles can have in a range of settings.