A social mobility charity working to reduce the impacts of socioeconomic inequality on young people in the UK.
Launching January 2022
Funded and managed by The Early Careers Company
Why do we exist?
In the UK,
Family wealth at birth
Is the most accurate indicator of future financial success.
Not IQ, race or gender.
A young person, from a working-class background, who graduates with a 1st class degree from a Russell Group University is less likely to successfully enter an
Elite Career Field
than a young person from a privileged background that graduates with a 2:2
By age 25, someone who went to a fee paying school is, on average
than their state-educated peers.
Only 6% of doctors, 12% of journalists and 12% of chief executives today are from working-class origins.
Children on Free School Meals are, at 27 years old:
23%
less likely to be in sustained employment
3x
more likely to be on out-of-work benefits
A low ability child from a high-income family is
35%
more likely to be a high earner
than a high ability child from a low income family.
What do we do?
We run a two year programme UK wide with 16-18 year olds from low-income families. Our programme aims to equip them with the knowledge, skills, confidence and exposure they need to make an informed decision about their future career and secure a fantastic first role in an industry they love.
Our programme consists of three initiatives:
Commercial Training Programme
Hosted on our custom-built app – My Future Hub
Mentoring Programme
The Early Careers Fund
Why is our programme important?
In the UK, socioeconomic inequality has worsened dramatically in the last decade
31% of children in the UK are growing up in poverty, 500,000 more than in 2015.
In London and the North East of England, this figure is 38%, a rise from 24% in 2015. Soaring rent costs coupled with stagnating wages has pushed many families to the brink.
Enabling young people to engage with opportunities that can increase their generational wealth is key to ending the cycle of poverty and entrapment.
Unskilled work is no longer a route out of poverty. The poverty rate amongst working households has hit a record high, with 75% of children in poverty living in a household where one person works.
Career guidance in education is often patchy and outdated
Many young people leave university with a poor understanding of the career opportunities available to them. Often, the career path they do embark on will be through a chance encounter, an introduction through their network or the first thing they encountered when job searching.
Young people from low-income communities are typically the most disadvantaged when it comes to understanding of the world of careers. They often only know of very traditional professions such as being a doctor, lawyer or accountant.
How can they pursue a career path if they don’t even know it exists?
The world of work is changing
A report by Dell Technologies estimated that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. Our modern globalised technological economy is giving rise to many exciting new emerging industries, whilst more and more traditional manual labour roles are becoming obsolete and automated.
It is said that the world is currently undergoing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. If the next generation is not enabled to engage with the opportunities of the future, the impact will be profoundly detrimental.
Higher education ≠ improved employment outcomes for many
More young people than ever from low-income families are now attending university.
For many, this has largely failed to translate into the career outcomes they had hoped for. Many remain stuck in non-graduate and low-paid roles.
Lack of connections in a culture of “who you know”, lack of industry knowledge, inability to move to London (where opportunity is concentrated) due to starting salaries that cannot cover living costs, not having internship experience many privileged candidates do and classist discrimination are all contributing factors.
How we operate:
The Early Careers Foundation is funded by The Early Careers Company. All expenditure is directly paid for by the business, and Foundation employees are employed by the Company and seconded, full-time, to the Foundation.