The migration from Compass to Compass+ marks the first stage in our journey to enhance your experience using our digital products.
At its best, careers education is a critical part of a young person’s secondary and further education, beginning early and continuing until a learner leaves compulsory education or training. Real world learning, knowledge, inspiration, and advice is gained through multiple employer and workplace engagements, exposure to further and higher education, as well as through the curriculum and in one-to-one personal guidance.
Compass helps you understand how your provision’s career education and guidance compares to best practice. By completing a Compass evaluation, you can identify strengths and discover areas for improvement. Compass evaluations can support training providers to self-assess their provisions offer, and support them to track their progress to ensure they are offering a high-quality careers provision.
The language within Compass evaluations meet the Gatsby Benchmarks and follows statutory guidance updated in May 2025 to incorporate best practice for Independent Training Providers as well as schools and colleges. The questions in the Compass evaluation reflect the details of the benchmarks and have been written with all Post 16 providers in mind.
Please note: Where the term Careers Leader is used, this is a statutory role for schools and colleges and refers to any senior person who has strategic responsibility for careers within the institution.
When completing a Compass evaluation, Independent Training Providers should give consideration to all types of learners, including apprentices. Further information about how to approach high quality careers education for apprentices can be found in the CEC guide 1849 - Apprentice Guide v10.pdf