The Gatsby Foundation’s benchmarks are helping transform school careers guidance. Good news for STEM employers, says Rachel Bibby, who explains how it has shaped IChemE’s educational outreach work.
Careers education in the UK has often relied on individual effort and regional initiatives coupled with inconsistent delivery. Provision varied widely between schools, with little shared understanding of what ‘good’ looked like.
In 2014 the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, established by Lord Sainsbury, commissioned a landmark study defining eight clear benchmarks for excellence in careers guidance.
Based on international research and practical evidence, the Gatsby Benchmarks created a measurable way for schools to help young people make informed choices about their future. Having been updated in 2025, they remain the backbone of the national Careers Strategy and have raised expectations of what effective guidance should achieve.
A strong foundation
The strength of the Gatsby model lies in its clarity. Each benchmark sets a foundation for schools to build consistent and equitable careers provision. While schools are not required to achieve all eight benchmarks, they are strongly encouraged to work towards them as a measure of high-quality careers education. Indeed the premise of the benchmarks underpins the new Ofsted framework for careers guidance. The DiscoverChemEng campaign, launched by IChemE in 2023, supports this framework by helping students explore chemical engineering as a discipline that combines analytical thinking with creativity.
IChemE uses this framework to shape its education outreach, ensuring its activities directly support schools’ careers objectives. Through the DiscoverChemEng campaign and its network of member volunteers, IChemE helps teachers connect classroom learning with real engineering careers. This work is particularly aligned with Gatsby Benchmark five, known as ‘encounters with employers and employees’ which encourages students to meet professionals and understand the pathways and opportunities available in the workplace.
By bringing practising chemical engineers face to face with young people, either in the classroom or via their DiscoverChemEngLIVE roadshows, IChemE helps young people see how STEM subjects translate into real-world impact across clean energy, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
IChemE’s contribution
However, the broad nature of the benchmarks leaves some gaps. Opportunities for students to meet engineers or visit live facilities depend on regional access to employers, and this varies across the country. Emerging fields such as hydrogen technology, sustainable materials and bioprocessing are reshaping what engineers need to learn and do, yet these topics are not always visible in careers guidance. Schools need better access to contemporary STEM examples that reflect the national Industrial Strategy and the pace of technological change.
Here, IChemE plays a critical role in bringing substance to the framework. Its labour market intelligence, drawn from salary surveys and sector analysis, helps careers leaders present accurate and current information about professional pathways. Its case studies show how curriculum subjects lead directly into roles that tackle global challenges.
Via its new virtual work experience platform, IChemE gives young people the opportunity to converse directly with early career engineers, gaining an insight into current labour market trends, new technology and innovation. Through its accredited degree programmes and worldwide professional recognition, it offers a clear map for students considering higher education in engineering. The Institution’s outreach programme is supported by a vast array of volunteer members that give students direct insight into how engineers think and work.
Future-proofing skills
Furthermore, achieving the UK’s long-term ambitions for STEM capability and industrial renewal depends on frameworks such as the Gatsby Benchmarks being reinforced by active industry collaboration. Without the sustained involvement of professional bodies, schools risk reducing Gatsby to a procedural exercise rather than a catalyst for ambition.
Chemical engineers occupy a central position in addressing national priorities including in clean energy, sustainable manufacturing and healthcare innovation.
Yet their contribution will remain abstract to students unless it is visible within the structures that shape careers education.
Embedding these disciplines within Gatsby delivery ensures that guidance is not only compliant but transformative, linking future talent with the industries that will define the country’s economic resilience.
While schools are not required to achieve all eight benchmarks, they are strongly encouraged to work towards them as a measure of high-quality careers education
As schools strengthen careers provision and policymakers refine future skills strategies, contributions from bodies such as IChemE can ensure that technical education remains both aspirational and grounded.
When students encounter the discipline that turns science into clean energy, safe medicines and resilient infrastructure, they see how their learning connects to the future they want to build.
To find out how your school or organisation can collaborate with IChemE to strengthen careers education through the Gatsby Benchmarks, visit IChemE’s website.
For more information, click here.
Rachel Bibby is director of member experience and knowledge at IChemE
