Enterprise Adviser Survey - Insight Briefing 2024

Enterprise Advisers are playing a crucial role in enhancing the quality of careers education.

First introduced in 2015, Enterprise Advisers (EAs) are now well established in the careers system. As volunteers from the business community, they collaborate with schools and colleges, drawing on their expertise to help improve careers education for the benefit of young people, themselves and their employers.

Currently, there are around 4000 EAs from over 2,000 employers across various sectors, types and sizes of business. Our latest estimate values the time they spend working with the education sector at £6.7m per year.

This briefing offers insights from a national survey of just under 1000 EAs conducted between February and March 2024. It focused on the impact of the EA role on schools, colleges, employers and young people, also exploring areas for further training and support.

The feedback shows significant improvements and clear benefits for all stakeholders involved and further highlights opportunities to adopt a more flexible, agile model to drive greater impact.

As the need for engagement between businesses and education continues to grow, the role of the EA emerges as a key route for effective collaboration. With 94% of EAs agreeing that a closer relationship between business and education can improve UK economic growth.

Learn more about the Enterprise Adviser role