Gatsby Benchmark 2: making labour-market information useful to students
Good labour-market information is not a spreadsheet shown once a year. It helps learners and families connect subjects, pathways and career ideas with an evolving world of work.
What Benchmark 2 expects
The updated Gatsby framework expects learners, parents and carers, teachers and staff to have access to good-quality, current information about future pathways, study options and labour-market opportunities. Learners also need support from an informed adviser to interpret that information.
A practical whole-school approach
Create a dependable source base
Agree which national and local sources staff will use, who checks them and how often information is reviewed.
Build LMI into curriculum conversations
Give subject teachers concise examples connecting curriculum learning with roles, sectors and transferable skills.
Make comparisons visible
Help learners compare daily tasks, routes, advertised demand, salary ranges, location and progression — not simply a headline number.
Include parents and carers
Provide understandable information and conversation prompts so families can explore current options without relying only on their own experience of work.
Respond to different needs
Consider year group, SEND, disadvantage, prior knowledge and career readiness when deciding the format and support each learner needs.
Evaluate whether it changes understanding
Track participation, confidence, clarity and follow-up activity. Treat student feedback as evidence for improving provision, not as proof that one activity caused an outcome.
How Certyz supports the work
Certyz brings student interests, confidence and route preferences together with labelled vacancy, salary, regional and graduate signals. Students receive a personal report; school teams see anonymised cohort patterns that can inform where support is needed.
Use data with appropriate caution
Vacancy adverts are not the entire labour market, salary data can be incomplete and national graduate supply does not equal local competition. Always show source dates and geographic coverage, distinguish live from indicative data and combine quantitative evidence with professional guidance.
Official guidance and support
Read the Department for Education statutory careers guidance and the Careers & Enterprise Company resource directory. Requirements and inspection arrangements vary across the UK; this guide is not legal advice.