Talented poor ‘miss out on top jobs’

The I’s Richard Vaughn cites findings from the Class Ceiling report, the APPG on Social Mobility report.

Thousands of talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds face missing out on top careers unless employers start taking account of where they grew up, MPs and peers have warned.

A report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has also demanded that unpaid internships be banned in an effort to improve social mobility in the UK.

The study, called The Class Ceiling, follows a report last year by the Sutton Trust which found that top jobs in politics, law, business and the media were dominated by people educated in private schools and Oxbridge.

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The Sutton Trust’s Leading People 2016 report found that almost a third of MPs in the 2015 intake were independently educated, as was a similar proportion of FTSE 100 chief executives that were educated in the UK.

Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Chairman of the Sutton Trust, said getting more graduates from low and middle-income backgrounds was vital for social mobility.

“Employers, supported by government, have to do more to improve diversity through their recruitment practices, including through greater use of contextual admissions,” he added.

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Read the full article here.