Opinion14th July 2026

How to get the new careers education guidance right

As the number of young people who are Neet continues to cause concern, Sarah Taunton explains how Ark has redesigned its careers provision in line with the updated guidance.

This article was originally published by Tes on Monday 13 July 2026.

In line with government ambitions to stop so many young people becoming Neet (not in education, employment or training), recently updated statutory guidance on careers education has sharpened both expectations and urgency for schools.

All students must now receive a one to one meeting with a level 6 qualified careers adviser by the end of key stage 4 – and again by the end of KS5. For students with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), this becomes an annual entitlement from Year 9.

From September 2026, all schools will also be expected to be reforming their work experience to make sure students get at least a week before the end of KS3, and another week in KS4.

The ambition is right. Personal guidance is one of the most effective ways to support informed, sustained post 16 choices. But for school leaders, the question is practical: how do you deliver this consistently, at scale, and to a high standard?

Last year across Ark Schools, 85 percent of our Year 13 cohort progressed directly to university – more than double the national average – and our free school meals students are significantly more likely to attend top third institutions than their peers nationally.

But we also saw that the quality of careers guidance underpinning those decisions was not yet consistent across our schools, so we set out to rethink the model.

As a first step, we identified three barriers to implementing the updated guidance and improving practice in this area.

• Capacity: meeting the entitlement nationally requires a substantial increase in workforce capacity at pace, including recruiting approximately 1,000 new careers advisers in England.
• Quality: careers conversations only make a difference when they are trusted, well informed and rooted in the student’s context. Yet provision has been uneven, with schools relying on external providers without a consistent framework.
• Cost: buying in expertise often means rationing provision to budget, not need. Advisers may only be on site for limited days, reducing continuity and visibility.

Taken together, this creates a real risk: that careers guidance becomes a compliance exercise rather than a meaningful intervention.

So how did we rethink our model to make careers guidance consistent?
Rethinking careers education in schools

1. Growing our own advisers

Our most significant shift has been to invest in workforce development. Instead of relying solely on external provision, we are training our own level 6 careers advisers through the apprenticeship levy.

This year Ark launched its first career development practitioner apprenticeships, partnering with the Priory Federation of Academies Trust as the training provider – a multi academy trust with a strong track record in delivering high quality, school led apprenticeship pathways. In just 12 months, we have gone from zero apprentices to a projected eight by September 2026.

This matters for two reasons. First, it helps to address the workforce challenge. If the system needs more advisers, trusts must help to grow that capacity, not simply compete for it. Second, it changes the nature of guidance in schools. These advisers are not visitors; they are existing staff embedded in the life of the school – in corridors, classrooms and day to day conversations. That visibility builds trust and makes guidance continuous rather than episodic.

Early impact is encouraging. Achievement on number eight of the Gatsby Benchmarks (which says every student should have opportunities for meeting with a careers adviser) has risen across participating schools, and demand is growing. The apprenticeship also creates a progression pathway, supporting staff retention and development.

2. Securing quality through partnership

The apprenticeship pathway is not right for all schools. Therefore we are piloting a second strand: a single, network wide external partnership with The Careers People, a company providing careers support for schools.

Working at scale across all of our secondaries allows us to ensure consistency in quality, training and expectations. Regular check-ins between Ark’s central team and advisers mean conversations are better tailored to school context and student need – something difficult to achieve through fragmented commissioning.

This approach has improved access and confidence. Schools that previously struggled to secure provision now have reliable coverage, and leaders report that conversations feel meaningful, not just a tick box exercise.

From compliance to opportunity

The new requirements are an opportunity to rethink how schools equip young people to make decisions about their futures – they are not just an accountability measure.

For leaders, the challenge is how to deliver it sustainably. Our experience suggests the answer lies in workforce development, strategic partnership and whole school ownership.

Careers guidance is shaped through everyday interactions with teachers, support staff and families – all of whom influence what a young person believes is possible.

When schools get this right, it can be transformational, especially given that now nearly one in eight young people in the UK are Neet.

But as new research from The Careers and Enterprise Company suggests, good careers advice prevents around 6,000 young people each year from this path, making it one of the most powerful – and underused – levers that schools have.