At a Glance
We believe myVIP directly delivers against six of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks, and provides meaningful supporting value for the other two. Where we cannot claim to replace real-world employer encounters or face-to-face personal guidance, we say so — and we actively encourage schools to pursue those experiences wherever possible. What myVIP does is make the provision schools already have work harder, and fills the very real gaps that exist in most timetables, teacher expertise and local employer networks.
The Case in Detail
The 2024 Gatsby framework describes a stable careers programme as one that is structured, sequenced, underpinned by learning outcomes, and embedded across the school. It should be known and understood by pupils, parents, staff and employers alike.
myVIP is precisely this. From the moment a school subscribes, it gains access to a fully structured careers resource that works across all year groups from Year 7 to Year 13. Our lesson plans are sequenced to support progression through Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. Learning outcomes are built into every activity. The platform provides a consistent, school-wide framework that any careers leader can place at the heart of their programme — giving it the stability, structure and breadth the benchmark demands. For a school using myVIP across all year groups, Benchmark 1 is addressed comprehensively and immediately.
Benchmark 2 calls for good-quality, up-to-date information about future pathways, study options and labour market opportunities. The 2024 update emphasises that young people engage most with qualitative LMI — what a job is actually like, the skills it demands, and the realities of day-to-day working life. It also notes the importance of sequencing LMI throughout the careers programme, rather than presenting it as a single event.
This is exactly what myVIP provides. Each occupation on the platform features a 12-month diary written by a real worker, describing their working year in authentic, unscripted detail. Students learn not just what a job is called, but what it feels like, what problems it involves, what skills it demands, and what a career trajectory can look like. With hundreds of roles across a wide range of sectors — from engineering and medicine to the arts, finance, law and skilled trades — myVIP provides the breadth and depth of labour market information that careers libraries, posters and one-off talks simply cannot match. And because our content spans multiple Key Stages, it supports the sequenced, ongoing engagement with LMI that the updated benchmark now specifies.
This benchmark recognises that every young person has different careers guidance needs. Provision should be tailored, should challenge misconceptions and stereotypical thinking, and should showcase a diverse range of role models. The 2024 update particularly emphasises the need to consider the needs of vulnerable, disadvantaged and SEND students.
myVIP’s model is inherently student-led. Rather than presenting a single career path or a curated shortlist, the platform allows each student to explore the roles that interest them — at their own pace, in their own direction. The breadth of occupations represented means that students are naturally exposed to role models from sectors they may not have previously considered, challenging the stereotyped assumptions about what “people like me” can aspire to. Our lesson plans actively build in self-reflection activities that help students relate what they discover to their own developing identity and ambitions. For teachers supporting students with additional needs, myVIP’s accessible format and self-directed structure can be particularly valuable, allowing students to engage meaningfully without requiring specialist prior knowledge from the teacher.
Benchmark 4 requires that every teacher, in every subject, every year, helps students understand how their curriculum connects to real-world careers. The 2024 update is unambiguous: this is a whole-institution responsibility, not just something for the careers leader or PSHE team.
This is where myVIP’s breadth becomes a genuine strategic asset for schools. Our lesson plans are specifically designed to be integrated across the curriculum — not just in PSHE or form time, but in English, science, geography, business studies, design technology and beyond. A biology teacher can use myVIP to explore careers in medicine, veterinary science or environmental research. An English teacher can use it to examine communication skills across professional contexts. By providing ready-made, classroom-tested lesson plans that subject teachers can pick up and use, myVIP removes one of the biggest barriers to Benchmark 4 achievement: the time and expertise required for non-specialist teachers to make credible, meaningful careers links in their own subjects.
Benchmark 5 requires every student to have meaningful encounters with employers and employees each year. The updated 2024 criteria expand the definition of “meaningful” to include virtual encounters, explicitly acknowledging that technology can expand the range of industries and individuals young people can access — provided the encounter involves genuine two-way learning, clear purpose and time for reflection.
myVIP provides exactly this kind of virtual encounter. Reading the diary of a neurosurgeon, a film director, a structural engineer or a marine biologist — written in their own voice, describing their real working life across a full year — gives students something richer and more nuanced than a 20-minute school visit from a local employer. The updated benchmarks recognise that for many specialist or geographically remote careers, virtual access is not a compromise but the most honest and practical option available. We are transparent that myVIP is a virtual resource, and we actively encourage schools to complement it with in-person encounters wherever possible. But for the significant proportion of career paths where a physical workplace visit is simply not feasible, myVIP provides the most meaningful access many students will ever have before they begin their own career journey.
Benchmark 6 asks that every student has first-hand experience of workplaces before the age of 16, and at least one further experience by 18. The 2024 criteria define a meaningful workplace experience as one that gives the young person an insight into what it is really like to work there — including the skills valued, the recruitment process, and the realities of the environment.
We are honest here: real-world work experience, where students are physically present in a workplace, cannot be bettered. We support and celebrate it. However, the reality in most schools is that traditional work placements rarely align with a student’s genuine career interests. A student interested in becoming a vet, a pilot, an architect or a broadcast journalist is very unlikely to secure relevant work experience in Years 10 or 11. myVIP bridges that gap by bringing the authentic workplace experience into the classroom. Combined with in-person placements that may cover a different sector, myVIP ensures every student has had meaningful exposure to the reality of their chosen or hoped-for career path, even where direct access to that workplace is not possible. The 2024 benchmarks explicitly note that virtual experiences may be used as a complement to in-person activity, and that is precisely how we position myVIP in relation to Benchmark 6.
Benchmark 7 requires that students encounter the full range of post-16 pathways — sixth forms, colleges, universities and independent training providers — and understand the options available to them. This sits outside myVIP’s primary focus, and we do not claim to deliver it directly.
However, myVIP plays a meaningful supporting role. By helping students develop a clearer sense of which careers genuinely interest them, and what those careers actually require in terms of qualifications, skills and pathways, we help students arrive at encounters with further and higher education providers with greater purpose and better questions. A student who has already explored what a career in architecture, nursing or data science actually involves is far better placed to make the most of an open day, a university talk or a college taster session. myVIP helps ensure that encounters with further and higher education are informed and purposeful rather than generic.
Benchmark 8 requires every student to have at least one personal guidance meeting with a careers adviser by age 16, and a further meeting by 18. This is a one-to-one, human relationship — and myVIP does not replace it. A qualified, trained careers adviser remains essential, and we fully endorse the Gatsby framework’s insistence on this.
Where myVIP adds genuine value is in preparing both the student and the teacher for that conversation. A student who has spent time on myVIP exploring two or three career areas in depth — understanding the daily reality of those roles, the skills they demand, and the challenges they present — arrives at a guidance meeting as a far more informed participant. They have questions rather than blank looks. They have preferences rather than vague uncertainty. For the teacher or careers adviser leading the conversation, myVIP’s content provides a reliable and comprehensive resource to draw on, particularly for the many career paths that fall outside a teacher’s own professional experience. In this way, myVIP helps make personal guidance more personal, more focused, and more productive.
Summary: What Schools Can Say
Schools using myVIP across all year groups can credibly cite it as a core component of their Gatsby Benchmark delivery for Benchmarks 1, 2, 3 and 4, and as a significant and recognised contributor to their evidence for Benchmarks 5 and 6. For Benchmarks 7 and 8, myVIP strengthens the quality of students’ engagement with other provision — making it a genuine whole-programme asset rather than a standalone tool.
In an environment where careers leaders are expected to evidence benchmark achievement across eight demanding criteria, often with limited time and resources, myVIP provides breadth, depth and practicality that no other single resource can match. We are proud to support schools in delivering careers guidance that meets the highest national standards — and in helping every young person explore a world of work that, without myVIP, many of them would never encounter.