The migration from Compass to Compass+ marks the first stage in our journey to enhance your experience using our digital products.
A Compass evaluation enables institutions to quickly and easily evaluate their careers activity against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks.
The Compass evaluation feature was built in partnership with the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to help practitioners easily discover their institution’s strengths and find areas for improvement.
Completing a Compass evaluation is simple: just answer the questions in the evaluation and Compass+/Compass will calculate the evaluation results for you.
- Systematically monitor your institution's progress towards achieving the eight Gatsby Benchmarks
- Quickly and easily identify gaps in your careers provision
- Identify areas of strength in your careers provision
- Use results to support Internal leadership reviews
- Compare your progress against previous Compass evaluations
A Compass evaluation takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.
If you start an evaluation but need to stop half way through, you can save your progress anytime and come back to it later to finish answering the questions.
Compass evaluation data can be used in a variety of different ways to support the delivery of an effective careers programme.
- Incorporate Compass evaluation results in reporting processes for key careers stakeholders i,e SLT/Governors, Directors
Easily view your results in the Data visualisation to see a summary overview of achievement towards the Gatsby Benchmarks. Quickly see how your results compare against a previous evaluation. Include actions and activities you intend to deliver to improve or maintain results. Share Compass evaluation results with key stakeholders involved in the delivery of careers within your institution.
- Use Compass evaluation results to support Internal leadership reviews
Complete a Compass evaluation every term, or regularly in line with your planning and quality cycle for ITPs, then use this data to inform your annual Internal leadership review (further guidance on this can be found here > Careers Impact System.)
- Compass evaluations contribute towards effective Impact Evaluation
Effective impact evaluation identifies what difference the careers programme makes to young people. Understanding the link between careers activities and outcomes for young people helps to ensure that careers programmes are high quality, effective and responsive. Often what makes a difference is not just what the activity is, but how it is delivered. Find out more about impact evaluation on the Resource Directory.
- Communicate results and progress to key stakeholders
Help to increase engagement in, and awareness of, careers to make improvements that ensure every young person is able to find their best next step.
You could publish Compass evaluation results on the careers page of your institution's website or share and celebrate success with key stakeholders, share progress towards achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks with staff at CPD events/staff training, if applicable send information home to parents/carers about what you plan to do as a result of your Compass evaluation and how it links to the support provided to their children.
- Use Compass evaluation data to inform your careers strategy and inform future planning
Compass evaluation results help to quickly identify key areas for future activity and enable staff to have a clear and up-to-date picture of performance.