Employers Newsletter – 26 March 2024
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Hello,
We’re delighted to announce a further event in our series of partner events with Think Tanks – this one will explore ‘Developing Skills and Talent: Social Mobility and Post-16 Education’. Our Commissioner, Parminder Kohli, will be discussing how we can close the gap between graduate and non-graduate outcomes for young people in entering the job market.
Missed our first two Think Tank panel sessions on ‘Growing Opportunities’ and ‘Better Data and Evaluation’? Don’t worry, below we share with you the event recap and recording for you to catch up.
Earlier in the month we celebrated National Careers Week – we shared advice and guidance from experts which inspires and informs young people to help them consider their future careers as well as highlighting the importance of quality careers guidance to support social mobility. Read our blog below.
We’re always interested to hear what you’ve been up to as well – if you have an employer social mobility story to share, you can always get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading,
The SMC Employers Team
Upcoming events:
Developing Skills and Talent: Social Mobility and Post-16 Education
21st May 2024
In partnership with Policy Connect, we are hosting a “Developing Skills and Talent: Social Mobility and Post-16 Education” panel discussion.
The discussion will explore, amongst other things, how we can close the gap between graduate and non-graduate outcomes for young people in entering the job market and how changes to employer recruitment policies and processes could help address the current skills shortage.
You can watch the session online. Hosted by Baroness Garden of Frognal and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Skills, Careers & Employment, the session will bring together key stakeholders, including parliamentarians, officials, academics, young people, universities and further education providers, employers, and expert groups.
Speakers and panellists include:
- Parminder Kohli, Commissioner, Social Mobility Commission
- Lucy McLeod, Deputy Chief Executive Officer East Kent Colleges Group
- Professor (emeritus) Ewart Keep, Chair in Education, Training and Skills at the Department of Education, Oxford University
- Joe Fitzsimons, Senior Manager Policy and Insights – EEMA & UK, ACCA
Find out more and register for your place here.
Hear more from the SMC:
Promoting potential: how to improve jobs, boost growth, and unlock social mobility in every corner of the UK
We partnered with Think Tank Social Market Foundation to host a dynamic panel discussion exploring how regional economic growth and better employment opportunities are key to supporting social mobility at the end of February.
Our panel of experts was made up of Rob Wilson (Deputy Chair, Social Mobility Commission), Alison McGovern MP (Shadow Minister for Employment and Social Security) and Jon Gibson (Head of Policy and Public Affairs, West Midlands Combined Authority) and the event touched on a variety of key issues, including:
- How far does the skills and education system improve or contribute to regional disparities in economic growth?
- What part do strong links between education and skills provision, local authorities, businesses and community groups play in stimulating regional areas for growth?
- Should a devolved policy approach to tackling social mobility be adopted?
Read our recap here, or watch the full recording.
How can better data drive social mobility?
The second in our Think Tank panel series, we partnered with DEMOS to host a dynamic panel discussion exploring how employers, policymakers, researchers and others can better use data to drive social mobility and the changes needed to make this happen.
As our December 2022 report ‘Data for social mobility: improving the collection and availability of data across government’ showed, there are still significant data gaps in the analysis of social mobility in the UK. This panel discussed how, without the correct data, expensive and lengthy policy interventions can end up being misdirected.
Speakers included:
- Resham Kotecha, Deputy Chair at the Social Mobility Commission
- Polly Curtis, Chief Executive, Demos
- Paul Gerrard, Public Affairs & Board Secretariat Director, Co-op
- Louis Hodge, Associate Director, Education Policy Institute
National Careers Week
Our most recent State of the Nation report highlighted that 21% of young people from the lowest working class group were not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2021, a higher proportion than all other categories.
Good career advice is of vital importance – not feeling well informed or advised on options open to young people entering the labour market can have a long term impact, including being more likely to be unemployed and in lower wage jobs.
Find out more as part of our National Careers Week blog here.
Social Mobility Talks
Episode 7: ‘AI – a tool for social mobility?’
Resham Kotecha, Deputy Chair of the Social Mobility Commission discusses artificial intelligence (AI) with Adrian Joseph OBE, including how it can be used to help address social mobility, representation in the tech sector, how organisations can make sure that AI is used ethically and much more.
Listen now on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
Episode 8: The importance of early years
Watch out for the release of our next episode about early years care and what’s best for a child’s development. Deputy Chair, Rob Wilson hosts the podcast with Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunderland.
Find it on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts in the coming week.
In case you missed it:
- The Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index is now open for entries. The Index is a benchmarking and assessment tool that analyses eight areas of workplace social mobility and a report is collated to detail how entrants are performing in key aspects of employer-led social mobility, featuring best practice and practical steps all employers can take to improve social mobility. Find out more here.
- Making the Leap have published a report examining the activity of those who won a UK Social Mobility Award in 2023. The report highlights enabling factors, challenges overcome, and how they define social mobility success. Read the SOMOs 2023 Winners’ Case Studies Report here.