As the landscape of education and employment continues to evolve, ensuring that every student receives tailored, inclusive, and meaningful careers guidance is more important than ever.
The updated statutory guidance for careers makes one thing clear: addressing the needs of each pupil (GB 3) is no longer a ‘nice to have’.
Careers programmes must:
- be designed to meet the diverse needs of all pupils
- target support effectively to groups including SEND and disadvantaged pupils
- track student engagement with careers activities to identify and close gaps, ensuring no one is left behind
- provide personalised interventions and guidance that help pupils make progress relevant to their circumstances
This means you need to actively personalise your careers offer, monitor participation closely, and demonstrate real impact for every student.
Use the UCAS Hub to deliver personalisation at scale
The UCAS Hub is a powerful tool to help you meet Benchmark 3 requirements. It gives every student a personalised dashboard with tailored content and advice to support their unique journey.
Students can:
- create and track individual action plans
- set goals and monitor their own progress
- access dedicated resources for care leavers, estranged students, and disabled students
Embedding the UCAS Hub across your curriculum helps students take control of their futures and helps you evidence personalised support at scale.
The new Supporters' toolkits for advising students with individual needs is a great place to start.
Other tips for meeting Benchmark 3 include:
1. Know your students
Track who is engaging with careers activities, including feedback and data from pastoral teams or data leads. Use this data to spot students or groups who aren’t participating or progressing.
2. Targeted interventions for students at risk
If a student is at risk of not progressing, due to lack of engagement or other challenges, you can:
arrange personalised 1:1 conversations to understand barriers
involve SENDCOs, mentors, HODs or pastoral staff to address specific challenges
offer alternative activities such as small group sessions, virtual events, or career workshops tailored to their interests or needs
use the UCAS Hub to provide accessible, student-led resources and encourage independent exploration
3. Personalise guidance
It’s important to deliver personalised guidance to all students, whatever their circumstances. They should leave with a documented plan; it doesn’t need to be word for word the whole conversation, but document actions and next steps clearly to track progress over time.
4. Regular check-ins
Set up routine reviews with students to revisit their goals and action plans. This keeps support personalised and ongoing. Not only does it support individual student's progress, it’s also a great way to get feedback which informs your programme overall. One size doesn’t fit all.
5. Collaborate across your school
Coordinate with SENDCOs, pastoral leads, and teaching staff to ensure careers provision fits individual needs and school-wide strategies. Get the support you need from them to make the careers programme work for all.
Benchmark 3 means every student’s needs must shape your careers programme. With tools like the UCAS Hub and targeted interventions based on real data you can deliver, and prove, personalised support that makes a difference.
Next month we’ll look closer at how to link this all to the curriculum (GB 4).
