How to Boost Social Mobility for Students from Disadvantaged Areas
Social capital is the key to social mobility for all pupils, says Future First CEO Matt Lent…
- by Matt Lent
The crucial difference between young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and ‘succeed’ and those who don’t is having access to relatable role models and meaningful social capital.
To enable every young person to succeed in a career and pathway of their choice regardless of their background, we must look beyond short-term, standalone programmes and create the systemic, structural change needed to ‘move the needle’ on the complex social mobility problem.
It is not just a regional issue. Some of England’s richest places, such as West Berkshire and the Cotswolds, deliver worse outcomes for their disadvantaged young people than many poorer areas.
Across the UK, only 4 per cent of doctors, 6 per cent of barristers and 11 per cent of journalists are from working-class backgrounds, and not a single young person on free school meals from the North of England went to Oxbridge last year.
Beyond school, many young people aren’t provided with guidance, yet many still gain qualifications and find their path to employment and independence, but, in almost every case they had access to meaningful social capital.
And here is the root of the social mobility problem: put simply, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.
Drawing on my own experience, at 18 I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, and had minimal qualifications, but I benefited from a supportive, caring network of trusted adults empowering me with choice and self-determinism, giving me the motivation and confidence to achieve.
The value of social capital
There is increasing evidence on the importance of such positive social capital.
OECD research in 2002 found community networks are important determinants of learning outcomes and can be used to overcome disadvantage (Fullarton, 2002).
And a 2011 Australian study by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, (Youth Transitions, Semo and Karmel) found that social capital is crucial in influencing educational participation, over and above the effects of parental education and occupation, geographic location, cultural background and academic achievement.
Social capital also has a positive impact on wellbeing, health and crime rates (Helliwell and Putnam, 2004, Sampson, 2012) and an Office for National Statistics paper, (‘Measuring Social Capital’, 2014), linked social capital with values including tolerance, solidarity and trust.
Even Bank of England governor Mark Carney in 2014, stated that “prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but investment in social capital”. The risks for young people without social capital is clear. A 2011 Princes Trust study, ‘Broke not Broken’, found that more than a quarter of young people from the poorest backgrounds believe ‘people like me’ don’t succeed in life, and Future First research of the same year, ‘Social Mobility, Careers Advice & Alumni Networks’, found half of students on free school meals don’t know anyone in a job that they would like to do.
Embedding and enabling social capital for young people
What we need therefore is for every young person to access relatable, positive role models and advice networks which can show them that they too can succeed.
In this way we can empower and enable young people to find their pathway towards their own definition of success.
By enabling teachers and students to harness the natural social capital of state school and college alumni, we can build a nationwide movement of sustainable networks between young people and professionals.
Future First has supported more than 1,000 state secondary schools and colleges to build networks of former students.
More than 226,000 state alumni volunteers are signed-up and a Future First/You Gov 2011 poll found 10 million British adults would be willing to follow suit.
In 2017, 11,500 Future First volunteers gave nearly 20,000 hours of time to meet and support 110,850 young people in their former school.
They represent 4,745 different employers, offering tens of thousands of young people access to worlds to which they would not normally be exposed.
The effects are remarkable. Eighty-four per cent of young people say meeting alumni made them realise that ‘people like me’ can be successful, 82 per cent commit to working harder after meeting former students and incredibly, 100 per cent of teachers tell Future First that hearing from relatable working role models raised students’ motivation to learn.
Independent schools have long known the value of these networks are only really fully realised when schools embed them into day-to-day life, engaging alumni in teaching, mentoring, pastoral support, work experience opportunities, becoming governors, fundraisers and much more.
Now state schools are catching up. Future First’s goal is for every young person in every school to benefit from these networks, offering access to relatable role models, trusted mentors and meaningful social capital.
And when this is integrated across the whole of the state education system, we will move towards a point where every young person throughout the UK is able to tap into and benefit from the social capital they need to ensure that their future is not limited by their background.
Matt Lent is the CEO of Future First. Browse Children in Need activities.
