Report warns of ‘two tier’ system as Russell Group graduates dominate corporate jobs
In a report released today, the Social Mobility Foundation has ranked British employers’ efforts to socioeconomically diversify their workforce.
It claims that, with Russell Group universities having triple the amount of privately educated students, this continued domination is having a detrimental impact on social mobility in the UK.
Additionally, it says that as in-person outreach from companies returns, there is worry of a two-tier system crystallising, where in-person visits to Russell Group universities are prioritised. Over the past year, 72% of all visits to non-Russell Group universities were online, compared to 52% of Russell Group universities.
Over the past year Oxbridge was visited more than 64 other universities combined.
On the back of this report, the Social Mobility Foundation is calling on government to put social mobility at the heart of its levelling-up agenda and work together with employers for better results.
A record 203 companies participated in the index, up from 119 in 2020, 125 in 2019 and 106 in 2018.
The participants employ a total of 1.35m people across the UK.
The most represented sectors were Law (25%), banking, financial services and insurance (18%) and public sector (16%).
Notably absent sectors included tech, gaming and pharmaceuticals.
The report concluded that Covid-19 heavily impacted social mobility efforts of participating companies, with 64% reporting having to change their hiring intake.
It also said that employers heavily focus their hiring practices on certain areas, leading to social mobility ‘cold spots’ up and down the country. Just 55% of employers were conducting outreach work in such areas – a 5% decrease from 2020.
The report also said that company outreach has been on the uptake again, more than 5.42 million students benefited from school outreach from 115 organisations. This is a significant increase from last year, almost returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Notable top 75 entrants were the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Cabinet Office, the BBC, MI6 and MI5.
