Welcome to our final newsletter of 2023. We hope you all had a wonderful year, and thank you for all your support of the Social Mobility Commission, whether you attended one of our Employer Masterclasses, contributed or read an employer blog, shared our resources, listened to our podcast or just read this newsletter!
We’ll be back in January with a whole load of exciting new activities, including more information the launch of our Action Plan, and we look forward to seeing you then.
Thanks for reading,
The SMC Employers Team
Upcoming events:
Time for Change: Tackling Social Mobility through Apprenticeships
16th January 2024, 1pm
Our Head of Employer Engagement, Paula Kemp, will be discussing how apprenticeships can help tackle social mobility at this free event, organised by Amazing Apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships are one of the greatest tools for increasing social mobility; however, there has been a decline in those from lower-socio-economic backgrounds starting apprenticeships, particularly in younger age groups.
Join this webinar to discuss the latest thinking and data with experts. Find out more and register on our website.
Hear more from the SMC:
Social Mobility Talks
The SMC podcast, Social Mobility Talks, is back! Our recent episodes focus on early years, discussing the effectiveness of and lessons learned from programmes such as Sure Start and the Family Hubs Network.
We’ve got some exciting episodes coming up in the new year, looking at regional inequalities, the opportunities (and challenges!) of using AI in social mobility work, and apprenticeships.
Listen now on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
Social mobility shouldn’t just be for those in the middle
“Improving social mobility should be one of our country’s top priorities. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to do and takes a long-term commitment to make a substantial difference.”
Earlier this month, SMC Deputy Chair, Rob Wilson, published a piece laying out some of the key findings from our State of the Nation 2023 report and explaining more about the four key pillars we’ll be focusing on this year.
You can read Rob’s full article here.
In case you missed it:
- Have you heard about our ‘It’s Child’s Play’ campaign? ‘It’s Child’s Play’ provides practical resources and easy ways of engaging with children to help get them school ready, and make sure that children from all backgrounds can have the best start to school.
- Last month, the Careers and Enterprise Company announced an expansion of its national programme, Teacher Encounters, which gives teachers first-hand experience of how businesses work, including learning about employment pathways such as apprenticeships.
91% of teachers said the programme had improved their confidence in having careers-related conversations with their students, while 97% of businesses said it helped them explain their future skills needs to teachers and young people!