How employers can boost social mobility by changing the way they recruit
Matt Dickson, University of Bath Social mobility has rarely been far from the top of the political agenda in Britain in recent years. Yet despite two decades of rhetorical commitment to the cause, Britain is still a deeply divided country. There remains a stubborn gap in higher education attendance between children from better- and worse-off families, and the top professions continue to recruit disproportionately from a narrow strata of society. Only 6% of doctors, 12% of journalists and 12% of chief executives come from working-class backgrounds. And there is a particular dominance of the privately educated in society’s upper echelons. Education policies at all ages – from provision of affordable quality pre-school, to initiatives to widen participation at university – can make a difference. But such policies alone will never solve all of the issues. The problems of social mobility extend far beyond the education system. Even people with the same ed...