FEATURE
THE FINAL FRONTIER >>
A tide of opinion is forming on the issue – initiatives such as the government’s Social Mobility Business Compact are making an impact and the AGR’s forthcoming “Social
Mobility in Recruitment Guide” promises to be a welcome contribution.
While only 7% of students attend independent schools, a whopping 43% of barristers, 54% of FTSE 100 CEOs and 70% of Finance Directors were privately educated. These disparities are evident in graduate recruitment and become more pronounced over time. Henry Morris, Founder of upReach, and Mark Harrison, a Programme and Partnerships Officer at upReach, explain how the organisation is working with employers and universities to improve access to the professions for undergraduates from less-privileged backgrounds – and how employers can positively impact social mobility.
ationally, the likelihood of an independently- educated graduate being in graduate employment six months after leaving higher education is up to 15% higher than it is for a state-educated graduate. What’s more, even after accessing professional employment, there’s a salary gap of up to £3,000. So what accounts for these differences? The immediate suspicion might be that independently-educated graduates have better degree classifications than their state-educated peers. Looking at Higher Education Statistics Agency data though, we see that academic attainment is broadly equal between state-educated and independently-educated undergraduates. Indeed, research by Bristol University actually shows that their state-educated undergraduates outperform their independently-educated peers when exam time at Bristol rolls around.
N Compiling the evidence, there’s a strong case that
there’s something more subtle at play. Despite equalling their more-privileged peers academically, undergraduates from less-privileged backgrounds are less likely to have the knowledge, networks, soft skills, and professional experience so essential to accessing graduate jobs: knowledge of how to realise their aspirations; networks of current professionals for guidance; soft skills such as teamwork and problem solving (that independently- educated undergraduates are more likely to have had instilled into them); and informal work experience that’s all the more easy to find if a friend or relative is already working in a sector of choice. The question then is how to address this more subtle issue. At upReach, we’re running a professional development programme in partnership with employers and universities, targeted at undergraduates from less-privileged backgrounds. To build these key non-academic capabilities and support them to succeed, our undergraduate Associates in London and Exeter benefit from one-to-one careers support and soft skills workshops, alongside their own mentor and experience placement from one of our Founding Partner employers – Clifford Chance, KPMG, Accenture, and Deloitte. For employer Partners, getting involved offers them early exposure to a high potential group of undergraduates who may not otherwise self-select. By working in a meaningful, long-term way the development programme empowers Associates to put
24 GRADUATE RECRUITER
themselves forward, achieve their potential through the application process and succeed in the workplace – addressing the access/earnings gap. We’ve had great feedback so far and are developing further partnerships to be able to work with more Associates at further universities.
Beyond looking to engage with undergraduates from less-privileged backgrounds, there are two further areas employers may wish to consider:
The first is to collect information on social background
from applicants. For example, when upReach recruits Associates, we ask for their school type and previous eligibility for Free School Meals and Educational Maintenance Allowance. We also ask if they are the first in their family to go to university and if they entered university through an access scheme. By collecting this data on social background, employers can get a measure of the social background diversity challenge they face. Secondly, employer’s use of UCAS points as a
threshold for applications can exclude talented undergraduates who managed to shine in difficult circumstances. A student achieving outstanding results at a struggling school for example may have A-levels equivalent to a fairly average achiever at a top independent school. If UCAS tariffs are set too high, there’s potential for this top talent to be overlooked or unwittingly excluded from the application process in the first place. Could university results be considered in addition to UCAS points? That way recruiters would have a better understanding of how applicants have performed away from what may have been challenging classroom circumstances. By working with undergraduates who have overcome the odds to reach university, collecting social background data and considering entry tariffs, we can take the first steps towards addressing this final frontier of diversity. A tide of opinion is forming on the issue – initiatives such as the government’s Social Mobility Business Compact are making an impact and the AGR’s forthcoming “Social Mobility in Recruitment Guide” promises to be a welcome contribution. By taking steps to improve diversity of social background in recruitment, employers can play a key role in improving social mobility – something that’s in both their, and society’s, long term interest.
www.upReach.org.uk
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