Evaluating Large-Scale Careers Learning in Primary Schools

ImpactEd Evaluation partnered with The Careers &Enterprise Company (CEC) to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the "Start Small; Dream Big" pilot programme, a ground breaking 2.5-yearinitiative funded by the Department for Education to introduce career-related learning (CRL) in primary schools across England. This large-scale evaluation demonstrated ImpactEd Evaluation's capability to design and implement rigorous research methodologies for complex educational interventions targeting disadvantaged communities.  

The programme recruited 1,394 schools across three waves from 2023 to 2025, deliberately targeting disadvantaged areas. Recruited schools had an average free school meal rate of 31% compared with 25%nationally. The pilot needed to demonstrate impact across multiple stakeholder groups (pupils, teachers, parents, employers, and Career Hub staff), whilst capturing both quantitative changes in knowledge and attitudes, and qualitative shifts in institutional capacity.

The CEC required a comprehensive evaluation to answer fundamental policy questions about the viability and impact of primary career education at scale. The evaluation needed to manage the complexity of multi-wave implementation, track outcomes across diverse stakeholder groups, and balance national strategic insights with local implementation contexts. Critically, the findings needed to provide actionable evidence for future policy development and programme continuation.

We designed and implemented a sophisticated mixed-methods evaluation framework:

- Co-created a Theory of Change with the CEC, mapping activities to short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes

- Deployed large-scale quantitative data collection: baseline and endline surveys capturing 48,730 pupil responses at baseline and 10,987 at endline, alongside1,974 teacher responses at baseline and surveys of parents, employers, and Career Hub staff

- Conducted extensive qualitative research: 22 focus groups across pupils, parents, and teachers, including creative and participatory, age-appropriate methods for 5-and 6-year-olds, plus semi-structured interviews with Career Hub staff

- Implemented innovative dual-track data collection: a non-research intensive approach enabling broad participation across 1,333 schools, alongside are search-intensive approach with 44 schools integrating their management information systems with our platform for matched longitudinal analysis

- Ran collaborative analysis workshops with the CEC's policy team to ensure findings were relevant and actionable for their context

The evaluation successfully captured outcomes across over 50,000 pupils and teachers whilst maintaining analytical rigour. Our findings provided robust evidence on key policy questions: career knowledge requires sustained commitment, employer encounters enhance meaningful learning, and existing Career Hub infrastructure effectively supports primary engagement.

The evaluation demonstrated clear programme impact and created momentum for continued primary career education work. Based on the strength of this evaluation, we have been commissioned to evaluate ongoing primary activity in some of CEC’s Careers Hubs, supporting evidence-based development of career learning in primary schools nationwide.

Isabel Hutton, Senior Strategic Development Manager at CEC said: “This long-term project and evaluation has delivered meaningful impact for all stakeholders. Validating it through a trusted, independent evaluator like ImpactEd - whose expert, creative and flexible approach proved invaluable - was essential. It’s been an exciting challenge, and we’re looking forward to continuing to track and learn about primary careers impact with IEE .”

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