Employer Standards for Careers Education - Get Involved!

The BPF is pleased to share with you the Careers and Enterprise Company’s new framework and tool to evaluate and improve your approach to careers education outreach.

The Career and Enterprise Company (CEC) are the national body for careers education in England, supporting schools and colleges to deliver modern, 21st century careers education. Their mission is to help every young person find their best next step. To do this, they work with both primary and secondary schools, colleges and employers to improve careers education and secure better outcomes for young people.

Their work is at national scale and delivered through our network of Careers Hubs that bring together schools, colleges, employers, and apprenticeship providers in local areas across England, working in partnership with Mayoral and local authorities to connect with local skills needs.

Businessses today are facing similar challenges when it comes to recruiting people with the right skills:
• How do I build a strong talent pipeline?
• How do I increase diversity in my workforce?
• How do I best deliver against our ESG or social value commitments?

Employers who work with the education sector say it is helping them develop talent pipelines, close skills gaps, increase diversity and attract job and apprenticeship applicants.

You too can be part of the solution, make a difference and develop the skills of your future workforce. CEC’s Employer Standards is a simple framework to
help you ask the right questions up front, cut through complexity, evaluate impact, improve performance and create the impact you are looking for.

How it works
The Employer Standards are a free on-line selfassessment that enables you to:
• Assess current activities, receiving a ranking of ‘aspiring, achieving or exceeding’ for each Standard
• Benchmark against sector, national averages and business size
• Track progress over time, with historic submissions saved in our secure portal
• Improve by learning from best practice

By completing the employer standards questionnaire, you will receive:
• A real-time results and recommendations report
• An evidence pack underpinning each Standard to support your business case
• Inspirational case studies from other businesses already ‘achieving or exceeding’ in each Standard
• Curated resources* to improve the quality of your careers education outreach.

By following the recommendations, participants will contribute to a world class careers education system whilst meeting key business objectives, including talent
attraction, highlighting career opportunities within your sector and business and giving back to the local community.

The BPF are encouraging members to complete the self-assessment. It does not matter where you are in your engagement with schools journey. You can be part of inspiring the next generation to consider a career in plastics!

Visit the Employer Standards for Careers Education page to learn more and use the tool. It only takes 25 minutes and you receive your results and recommendations instantly.