hello@futuresadvice.org
Futures
57 Maid Marian Way
Nottingham
NG1 6GE
22nd September, 2026
Reading time: Two minutes
Almost 70,000 people have been provided with learning opportunities and more than 58,000 people have found employment in the past eight years, thanks to support from Futures.
Since 2012, we have delivered the National Careers Service across the East Midlands and East of England – one of the most sustained commitments to careers guidance either region has seen.
And, between November 2018 and August 2026, Futures supported 37,431 people to learning outcomes and 30,000 people to employment opportunities across the East Midlands.
In the East of England over the same period, Futures supported a further 30,790 people to learning outcomes and 28,493 to employment outcomes.
As Futures marks this milestone, this is the story of what that work built and the people who made it possible.
It would be a mistake to read those numbers as the product of a single type of intervention.
The National Careers Service, as Futures delivered it, was a sustained, multi-stage programme of support: initial assessment, barrier identification, careers planning, labour market intelligence, course referrals, employer introductions and long-term follow-through.
Many of the people Futures worked with needed more than a job board or a skills portal. This included people managing health conditions or caring responsibilities, those who had been out of work for an extended period and had lost confidence in what they had to offer, as well as people changing careers mid-life, entering the labour market for the first time, or navigating significant personal change.
Futures’ advisers did not simply point people at information. They sat with them, assessed their barriers honestly and built a plan that worked within the constraints of real life.
The scale of what Futures delivered through the National Careers Service is, in the end, a reflection of its people.
This includes the careers advisers who built the employer relationships, who returned to a customer when a placement fell through and who knew which training provider had the right environment for a particular learner.
It also comprises the managers who maintained the standards and the support staff who kept the operation running.
Recently, the Futures team came together to mark more than a decade of that work – to hear customer stories and to recognise the advisers and staff whose commitment made the outcomes possible.
Delivering the National Careers Service across the East Midlands and East of England since 2012 has been one of the most significant things this organisation has done. More than 58,000 people found employment and more than 68,000 people accessed learning in the past eight years alone.These are not abstract figures – they are individuals, across two regions, whose options widened because a Futures adviser took the time to understand them. I am proud of every person in this team.
The networks, relationships and expertise that Futures developed through more than a decade of National Careers Service delivery do not belong only to that programme. They belong to the communities it served.
Futures knows the employers who will take a chance on someone with a gap in their CV and we know which training providers meet the needs of learners who have not thrived in traditional settings.
We also have the relationships with schools, colleges, local authorities and NHS partners that take years to build – and matter enormously when a customer needs a warm handover rather than a referral letter.
That is Futures’ legacy from this chapter. Not just the numbers – though the numbers are significant – but the infrastructure of trust and knowledge that sits behind them.
The East Midlands and East of England are better served for the careers guidance work Futures has delivered since 2012. That is what more than a decade looks like.
From October, the National Careers Service will become part of a new Jobs and Careers Service in England, bringing careers and employment support together within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Find out more here: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/service-is-changing
hello@futuresadvice.org
Futures
57 Maid Marian Way
Nottingham
NG1 6GE