Career aspirations form as young as age 7 — and by age 10 they're heavily shaped by stereotype. Our Plan Their Future workshop broadens pupils' sense of what's possible while there's still time. Hands-on, age-appropriate across EYFS to Year 6. Aligned to the Gatsby Benchmarks (primary-adapted).
For years, careers education was seen as a secondary-school issue. Then the landmark 2018 Education & Employers "Drawing the Future" report changed the conversation. It found that children as young as 7 have already formed career aspirations — and those aspirations are shaped far more by whom they know, what they see on TV, and gender/class/race stereotypes than by their actual talents or interests.
By age 10, over 70% of pupils could name only a handful of jobs — and those jobs mapped so predictably to their gender that researchers could guess a child's gender from the drawing 80% of the time. The best way to broaden aspiration is early exposure to real people in real jobs, before those stereotypes harden.
The DfE Careers Strategy and the Careers & Enterprise Company both now explicitly recommend structured careers education from Year 5 upwards. Ofsted's personal-development judgement asks about aspiration, careers awareness and next-steps preparation. Schools that start careers work at primary put their pupils ahead — and get inspection-ready evidence into the bargain.
EYFS and KS1 explore the different ways adults spend their time — paid work, unpaid caring, volunteering, hobbies. Removes the assumption that "work = office job".
Every pupil identifies 3 things they're good at and 3 things they enjoy — using a strengths inventory adapted from the Careers & Enterprise Company primary framework. Not "what do you want to be" but "what are you already".
Pupils meet (via video + activity) real people in jobs they wouldn't guess — the female heavy-lift crane operator, the male early-years nurse, the disabled pilot. Age-appropriate stereotype-breaking, no lecturing.
Pupils explore 10-15 real jobs most children have never heard of — from ethical hacker to public health epidemiologist to sensory theatre director. Widens the horizon before Year 6 transition.
KS2 pupils create an "imagined-adult-me" storyboard focused on values (what matters to me) rather than job titles. Reduces the "must-choose-now" pressure while building intentional aspiration.
Multiplies the impact. Parents get a pre-written letter with 3 age-appropriate conversation-starters about work, family jobs, and what pupils saw at the workshop.
National Careers Week (first full week of March each year). The biggest careers-education anchor date in the UK calendar. Book by early January to secure the week itself.
World of Work Week (typically November). Runs across primary and secondary. Great for combining with a school-visit programme where local employers come in.
Schools running our Whole-School Programme often place Plan Their Future in the summer term of Year 5 as part of transition-to-Y6 preparation, then again in Year 6 spring term for actual transition. That's two touchpoints of aspiration-building across the last two primary years — the highest-value cadence.
Ofsted's personal-development judgement explicitly asks whether pupils "have an understanding of their next stage of education" and whether the school "prepares pupils for future success". For primary, that means age-appropriate careers awareness — not job-picking pressure, but broadening horizons and building aspiration.
Our workshop gives you an observable pupil outcome (a completed strengths inventory + "imagined-me" storyboard per pupil) plus a subject-leader evidence sheet mapped to Gatsby Benchmarks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — ready to point at during a deep-dive inspection.
Research from the Education & Employers charity shows children form career aspirations as young as age 7 — and those aspirations are heavily shaped by gender, class and race stereotypes. Interventions at primary broaden pupils' sense of what's possible before those stereotypes harden. The DfE Careers Strategy and the Gatsby Good Career Guidance benchmarks (adapted for primary) both recommend structured careers education from Year 5 upwards.
Our Plan Their Future workshop is a hands-on session covering: what work is and why people do it; identifying personal strengths and interests; breaking down job stereotypes; exploring jobs pupils have never heard of; and imagining their own future in an age-appropriate way. Differentiated across EYFS through Year 6.
Yes. The Gatsby Benchmarks were originally designed for secondary but a primary-adapted version is now widely used. Our workshop addresses Benchmarks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — with a mapping sheet supplied for your subject leader file.
£499 half day (up to 128 pupils, 4 sessions) or £599 full day (up to 224 pupils, 7 sessions) plus VAT. Future Skills mission-led pricing. All resources, teacher pack and parent letter included.
National Careers Week (typically first week of March each year) is the biggest anchor date. World of Work Week (usually November) is another common one. Many schools also book to coincide with Year 6 transition preparation in the summer term.
Yes. Our workshop is explicitly about broadening horizons and identifying strengths, not narrowing down. Pupils do NOT "choose a career" during the workshop — that would be developmentally inappropriate. They explore, imagine and reflect. The pressure-free framing is what makes the workshop safe to run with any pupil regardless of home background.
Book by early January to secure National Careers Week itself (first week of March 2027). Also available across the year for transition-focused summer terms.