Awareness and engagement with social mobility in the UK continues to grow, and in 2022, more organisations than ever entered the UK Social Mobility Awards. In Widening the gate? Advancing social mobility in 2021-22, we analyse all entries submitted to the 2022 awards to examine what employers and educators did to advance social mobility over the past year, and how they did it – the challenges overcome, and the enabling factors that supported effective social mobility work.
Overall, we find that employers continued to focus on ‘widening the gate’ to improve socio-economic diversity in 2021-22, particularly in sectors where people from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds (SEBs) were underrepresented. There was growing engagement with work to improve socio-economic inclusion and increase retention of staff from less advantaged SEBs. Further action is needed to improve equitable outcomes such as fair access to progression opportunities, stable employment and financial security. Among educators, we find that schools, colleges and universities worked to advance social mobility by bridging the gap between education and employment, and by supporting young people’s transitions into work.
Author: Padmini Iyer, Making the Leap
Cover image: The William Hare Group, with thanks to Co-op.
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