New 'Your Child's Future' questionnaire helps education settings strengthen engagement with parents and carers

Parents and carers are one of the biggest influences on the career decisions young people make. To help education settings better understand how they can support families, The Careers & Enterprise Company has launched Your Child’s Future, a new questionnaire for parents and carers, funded by Gatsby. 

The questionnaire builds on evidence from the evaluation of the Gatsby Benchmarks – the national framework for good career guidance in schools and colleges – and supports education settings to strengthen parent and carer engagement. By providing insight into parents’ and carers’ knowledge, confidence and awareness of careers, it helps schools and colleges develop more informed, responsive and effective careers programmes. 

Available through Compass+, the questionnaire asks parents and carers about their confidence in discussing careers with their child, their understanding of the range of education, training and career pathways available, and their awareness of the careers programme at their child’s school, specialist setting or post-16 provider. The insights generated can help education settings identify where additional communication, information and support may be needed. 

Funded by Gatsby, Your Child’s Future helps education settings put the Gatsby Benchmarks into practice by providing evidence to strengthen engagement with parents and carers. This complements Gatsby’s Talking Futures campaign, which helps parents and carers build confidence in having conversations about education, careers and future pathways with their children. Together, these initiatives support stronger partnerships between education settings and families, helping more young people make informed decisions about their future.