Watch the video or read our step-by-step guide below:
The Future Skills Questionnaire gives learners the opportunity to reflect on their career-related knowledge and skills.
The Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) is designed to capture the learning outcomes of careers guidance based on learner perceptions, so is not appropriate as a pre-/post-measure for individual career activities.
The FSQ covers careers knowledge and skills and skills for life and work, with versions tailored for key transition points throughout secondary education and students with SEND.
The questions are mapped against the Gatsby Benchmarks, learning outcomes from the CDI framework and the Skills Builder framework for essential skills.
The questionnaires were developed in consultation with Careers Leaders and sector experts and were piloted in 2020. You can find more detail on the background in this report.
The questionnaire takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Learners should complete the questionnaire on their own and will need access to a device with internet, for example a laptop or mobile phone. Learners should understand the purpose of the questionnaire ahead of completion and so it is important that staff also understand this too.
There are five versions of the questionnaire, allowing schools to assess the skills and knowledge of their learners at specific points of transition.
Note: each questionnaire type is only available to the year groups as specified below.
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- Starting Secondary (Year7)
- Transition from KS3 (Years 8 and 9)
- GCSE Years (Years 10 and 11)
- Post 16 Study (Years 12 and 13)
- SEND (all year groups)
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The aim is for Careers Leaders to use learners' responses to the questionnaire to:
- Identify gaps in a school’s provision
- Tailor careers activities to individual needs
- Measure progress of their careers programme over time.
The questionnaire is administered from the Compass+ platform, with learners’ questionnaire responses appended to their individual learner profiles.
The Future Skills Questionnaire supports Careers Leaders to evaluate their careers programme by gathering data on learners careers knowledge and skills. This should sit within a wider programme evaluation also looking at feedback, education engagement and destinations data. For support on how to evaluate your careers programme, see our Impact Evaluation Toolkit on the Resource Directory.
Below: Careers Leaders explain the value of the Future Skills Questionnaire.
See also:
Guidance on all aspects of implementing the Future Skills Questionnaire
Future Skills Questionnaire implementation resources (PDFs)