Selecting an education employability platform requires understanding your institution's needs, learner requirements, and compliance obligations. A practical guide for UK providers.
From September 2025, independent training providers in England are expected to use the updated Gatsby Benchmarks to shape their careers programmes. For the first time, Department for Education guidance explicitly includes ITPs alongside schools and colleges.
This represents both an opportunity and a challenge. Many training providers have delivered effective employability support for years, but without the structured framework that benchmarks provide. Others have focused primarily on technical training, leaving career development as an afterthought.
Training provider employability now requires deliberate attention. Providers must demonstrate that they prepare learners not just for qualification achievement but for career success beyond their programme.
This guide examines how training providers can build and evidence effective employability provision, drawing on what works elsewhere while addressing the specific context of vocational and apprenticeship training. For broader context on platform options, see our guide on employability platforms for education.
Training provider employability is not separate from technical training. Effective provision integrates career development with vocational learning, making both stronger.
Training providers operate differently from schools and colleges. These differences shape how employability support must be designed.
Most training providers maintain direct relationships with employers. Apprenticeship providers, by definition, work with employers who have committed to training investment. This creates advantages for employability that other settings lack.
Employer relationships enable:
Effective employability programmes leverage these relationships systematically rather than leaving them informal.
Training provider learners arrive with diverse backgrounds. Some are school leavers entering apprenticeships. Others are career changers seeking new qualifications. Some have been referred through employment programmes or are returning to learning after workforce displacement.
This diversity means standardised approaches often fail. Employability support must flex to meet learners where they are.
Much training provider funding links directly to outcomes. Apprenticeship achievement rates, Skills Bootcamp employment outcomes, and programme completion rates all affect revenue.
This creates practical incentive for effective employability provision. When learners succeed in finding and keeping work, providers succeed financially.
The updated Gatsby Benchmarks now explicitly include independent training providers. Understanding how each benchmark applies helps shape provision.
Benchmark
For many providers, benchmark compliance does not require building from scratch. It requires documenting and systematising what already happens informally.
The key shift is from ad hoc support to deliberate programme design. Instead of helping learners with CVs when they ask, provision becomes structured: all learners create CVs at defined points, progress is tracked, and intervention happens when learners fall behind.
The Careers & Enterprise Company provides specific guidance for ITPs implementing the Gatsby Benchmarks. Their toolkits include templates and examples designed for vocational training contexts.
Effective training provider employability combines several interconnected elements.
Employability support should not begin at programme end when learners are job searching. It should start at induction, establishing career goals that shape the entire learning journey.
Initial career planning conversations cover:
This information enables tailored provision throughout the programme.
Most training provider learners will need CVs at some point. Some need them immediately for apprenticeship applications. Others need them upon completion.
CV Support Best Practices
Do
Avoid
CV development works best when integrated with technical training. As learners acquire new skills, their CVs should evolve to reflect them. A career platform for education can automate much of this tracking and updating.
Technical competence alone does not guarantee employment success. Learners also need:
Training providers often develop these skills implicitly through work-based learning. Making them explicit and deliberate strengthens outcomes.
Mock interviews with employer partners provide authentic practice while strengthening employer relationships. Many employers appreciate the opportunity to give back while gaining early visibility of potential future hires.
Effective employability provision requires knowing how each learner is progressing and intervening when support is needed.
Tracking should cover:
When tracking identifies learners who are disengaged or struggling, proactive outreach addresses problems before they become insurmountable. For providers seeking systematic tracking approaches, our guide on choosing an education employability platform covers the options.
The most effective training provider employability is not a separate programme but an integrated component of technical training.
Review existing curricula for natural integration points:
Add career-focused elements at these integration points rather than creating separate sessions that feel disconnected.
Training providers with strong employer relationships can involve employers in employability delivery:
This involvement benefits learners while deepening employer engagement with the provider.
Where possible, integrate employability assessment with technical assessment:
This approach develops employability without adding separate assessment burden.
The updated Gatsby Benchmarks emphasise tailoring provision to individual needs. Training providers serve diverse learners requiring different support.
Often need:
Often need:
Often need:
May need:
Learner needs are not always visible at programme start. Build in regular check-ins that create opportunities for learners to disclose changing circumstances or emerging barriers.
The Gatsby Benchmarks require evidence of effective provision, not just claims of activity. Training providers must document their employability work systematically.
For each benchmark, document:
This mapping enables clear reporting when required for Ofsted, Compass+ self-evaluation, or funder reporting.
Individual learner records should show:
These records evidence that provision reaches all learners, not just those who self-select.
Track and report:
Outcome data demonstrates that employability provision actually works, not just that it exists. For detailed guidance on outcome measurement, see our article on measuring career outcomes in education.
Manual approaches to employability tracking become unmanageable as learner numbers grow. Technology platforms can help, but selection requires care.
Platforms used by training providers should support delivery, oversight, and compliance.
CV and profile tools
Progress tracking
Cohort management
Funder reporting
Integration
Yotru's platform for workforce development addresses these needs with AI-powered employability tools designed for UK vocational training contexts. The platform combines learner-facing resume building and skills development with the tracking and reporting that ITPs require.
For providers wanting to connect employability support directly to outcome measurement, an education outcomes platform integrates tracking throughout the learner journey.
For training providers new to structured employability provision, or those seeking to strengthen existing approaches:
Team Yotru
Employability Systems & Applied Research
Team Yotru
Employability Systems & Applied Research
We build career tools informed by years working in workforce development, employability programs, and education technology. We work with training providers and workforce organizations to create practical tools for employment and retraining programs—combining labor market insights with real-world application to support effective career development. Follow us on LinkedIn.
From September 2025, Department for Education guidance expects all independent training providers with learners aged up to 18 (or up to 25 for those with education, health and care plans) to use the updated Gatsby Benchmarks.
This article is written for managers, quality leads, and careers staff at UK independent training providers implementing or strengthening employability provision under the updated Gatsby Benchmark framework.
Analysis draws on published Department for Education guidance, Ofsted inspection frameworks, Gatsby Charitable Foundation research, and Careers & Enterprise Company resources. Practice recommendations reflect common approaches in the training provider sector.
Yotru maintains Editorial Policy standards requiring accuracy, neutrality, and regular review. Content is updated as guidance and practice evolve.
This article provides general guidance on training provider employability. Implementation should consider individual provider circumstances, learner needs, and regulatory requirements. Outcomes vary based on provision quality and labour market conditions.
Related Yotru Articles
Platform and Product Resources
Additional Resources
If you are working on employability programs, hiring strategy, career education, or workforce outcomes and want practical guidance, you are in the right place.
Yotru supports individuals and organizations navigating real hiring systems. That includes resumes and ATS screening, career readiness, program design, evidence collection, and alignment with employer expectations. We work across education, training, public sector, and industry to turn guidance into outcomes that actually hold up in practice.
Part of Yotru's commitment to helping professionals succeed in real hiring systems through evidence-based guidance.
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