The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) aims to support young people in transitioning from education to the workforce by linking schools and colleges with employers through a network of more than 4,100 Enterprise Advisers.

Set up by the Government in 2015, almost all schools and colleges are now voluntarily working with CEC through accessing training for Careers Leaders, being members of Careers Hubs, partnering with business volunteers and using their Compass/Compass+ digital tools. Their expanded Career Hubs now cover over 95% of schools and colleges in England giving young people and businesses the skills they need. Each hub is built on a dynamic partnership between schools, colleges, local authorities and other stakeholders working with local employers; giving young people the opportunity to connect closely to local skills and economic needs while helping businesses grow their talent pipeline. 

CEC’s network of 400 cornerstone employers, including scaleups, plays a crucial role in strengthening the talent pipeline, by encouraging the use of employer insights in education. From September 2025, schools and colleges began working towards the updated Gatsby Benchmarks. The refreshed framework, which has a stronger focus on inclusion, leadership, use of data and parental engagement, has been revised to ensure careers education continues to evolve and deliver impact for every young person.

More than 330,000 young people report to Careers and Enterprise on their sector interests, awareness of pathways and essential skills. By Year 11, the most popular industries among these students include healthcare (14%), construction and trades (12%), and computing, technology, and digital (11%). There is increasing alignment with national growth sectors and regional labour market needs identified in Local Skills Improvement Plans. Young people can be further supported to develop the skills and knowledge employers need through modern work experience, as part of the CEC delivered government commitment. 

CEC’s programmes that focus on enhancing support to schools and colleges, extended further in 2025. These include:

• A new £3.3 million investment from JPMorganChase to help transform work experience for young people across England.
• A new Boosting Skills Pathway programme, funding regions to address structural barriers to take up opportunities within their local priority sectors.
• An SME campaign, Let Make It Work,  to highlight how SMEs can provide meaningful opportunities for young people in their region that see a return investment.

More than 1,300 employers have used CEC’s Employer Standards tool to identify gaps, better target intervention and add efficiency and ensure employer engagement leads to a return investment. SMEs and their employees are well represented as Enterprise Advisers (EAs), a network of more than 4,100 business volunteers who establish and develop strategic relationships with local schools and colleges to help them drive their careers improvement plans. As of 2023, 48% of EAs nationally were from SMEs.

Pilot work in primary schools is also helping to reduce gender stereotypes, with girls showing greater interest in typically male-dominated sectors. Girls’ aspirations in business and finance increased by 31%, with similar growth in digital, law, and construction. Three-quarters of teachers observed fewer pupils limiting themselves due to gender stereotypes. Also, young people show the strongest growth in Creativity (12%) and Problem-Solving (6%) skills between Year 7 and Year 11. Young people’s essential skills typically dip on starting secondary and then improve by the transition to post-16. If they are not supported early in their journey to develop these skills throughout secondary education, they will be less ready to take key decisions (such as subject option choices) and transition to their next steps. However, learners eligible for FSM consistently report lower career readiness and essential skill development, underlining the importance of sustained, targeted interventions to build essential skills equity across all groups and prevent early gaps from crystallising into long-term inequalities in opportunity.

“Last year we recruited 7 young people from the Midlands area, and every young person who was awarded a place had engagement with us over the last three years” – Marie Wilkes, Head of Social Value, Willmott Dixon

“We announced a new £3.3 million investment in The Careers & Enterprise Company to support national career readiness programming, complementing the UK government’s focus on skills. This work is crucial in addressing barriers to social mobility in the UK.” – Jamie Dimon, Global CEO and Chairman of JPMorgan Chase

Careers & Enterprise Company website