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KS3 Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) — canonical curriculum

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NEO’s KS3 Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) offer.

CEIAG is not a National Curriculum subject but is a statutory provision in maintained schools and academies (Education Act 2011 §29; Careers Guidance and Access for Education and Training Providers statutory guidance, DfE, latest edition). The framework is the Gatsby Benchmarks — eight benchmarks defining what good career guidance looks like, used by the DfE, the Careers and Enterprise Company, and Ofsted as the de facto national standard. NEO is not a maintained school and is not under the same statutory duty, but adopts the Gatsby framework because it is the recognised framework and because LA commissioners expect to see it.

Per the Curriculum Rationale v2.0: a young person who has been out of education for an extended period often loses the ability to imagine a future. Careers work at NEO is therefore not — or not only — about labour-market information. It is about the slow rebuilding of an imagined future self. Strong overlap with the Life and Work — Employability canonical strand and with the Independent Living strand.

The Gatsby Benchmarks

The eight benchmarks (Gatsby Foundation, 2014; refreshed by The Careers and Enterprise Company, 2024):

  1. A stable careers programme — every learner has access to an embedded programme of careers education and guidance
  2. Learning from career and labour-market information — every learner uses up-to-date career and LMI to inform decisions
  3. Addressing the needs of each learner (Gatsby’s published wording uses “pupil”) — careers programme is differentiated to reflect each learner’s needs
  4. Linking curriculum learning to careers — every subject linked to its careers context
  5. Encounters with employers and employees — at least one meaningful encounter per year of secondary education
  6. Experiences of workplaces — at least one meaningful experience of a workplace by age 16
  7. Encounters with further and higher education — exposure to all post-16 routes
  8. Personal guidance — each learner has at least one personal guidance interview by age 16, with a level-6-qualified careers adviser

NEO’s KS3 CEIAG model

The eight benchmarks adapt to NEO’s online provision as follows:

  • Programme — careers content sits across the Life and Work — Employability canonical strand; the named practitioner holds the careers thread for each learner
  • LMI — sourced via the National Careers Service, LMI for All, and Office for National Statistics; updated termly
  • Differentiation — each learner’s careers plan is built into their learning plan and reviewed each term with the family
  • Curriculum linking — each canonical subject page surfaces career destinations and sector links; “what does this lead to?” is a recurring frame in lessons rather than a one-off careers conversation
  • Employer encounters — delivered via remote employer talks, professional networks (LinkedIn-mediated), and recorded sector videos. The ambition is at least one employer encounter per year, sized to what the learner can tolerate
  • Workplace experience — for KS3, workplace experience is virtual or visit-based (a half-day at a parent’s, relative’s, or family-friend’s workplace, with reflection coursework). Full work experience week is a KS4 conversation
  • FE / HE encounters — virtual open days, post-16 provision visits, and careers fair recordings; sixth-form colleges, FE colleges, and universities all run these
  • Personal guidance — NEO contracts an independent level-6-qualified careers adviser (statutory requirement at KS4; NEO will offer it by exception at KS3 for learners where it is needed)

Themes at KS3 specifically

  • Self-understanding — interests, strengths, working style, sensory and cognitive preferences. Knowing yourself first — the foundation of career choice
  • The world of work — what work is; what work looks like; what work feels like; how income works; how taxation and benefits work; the difference between employment, self-employment, and unpaid work
  • Education routes — KS4 options conversation (qualifications NEO offers, qualifications NEO doesn’t offer, what each leads to); the post-16 landscape (sixth form, FE, apprenticeships, T-levels, supported internships, alternative routes)
  • Sector exposure — broad-strokes look at major sectors: care and education, healthcare, hospitality, creative industries, trades and construction, technology, public services, charity sector, the green economy, agriculture and food
  • First-step skills — CV basics, application forms, interview etiquette, professional written communication

Cornerstone framing

KS3 CEIAG connects most directly to Reflection (self-understanding, future-thinking, weighing options) and Connection (encounters with employers, sector visits, the relational practice of professional life). Creativity features for learners exploring career routes the conventional model didn’t show them.

Forward to KS4

KS4 CEIAG intensifies. The Year 11 personal guidance interview becomes a statutory expectation for any learner heading toward post-16 transition. Workplace experience becomes more substantial. Careers work folds into the Employability canonical strand and into ASDAN Workright for learners working towards portfolio-based recognition.

Sources

  • The Gatsby Foundation (2014, refreshed by The Careers and Enterprise Company, 2024), Good Career Guidance: Reaching the Gatsby Benchmarks
  • Department for Education, Careers Guidance and Access for Education and Training Providers (statutory guidance for schools, latest edition)
  • Education Act 2011, §29
  • The Careers and Enterprise Company, sector guidance and tools
  • National Careers Service · LMI for All · Office for National Statistics (LMI sources)

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