Do those educated in the top establishments get the best jobs? And if so, is this fair? Jack Harvey at nouse.co.uk investigates and discovers a larger social mobility issue. He feels the solution is not to criticise those who are doing well due to elite education, but instead to provide education to children from less-well-off backgrounds based on merit.

Charlotte von Bulow, Chief Executive of Crossfields Institute, says:

“In my professional life so far, I wasn’t judged on the nature or brand of my education but on my ability to talk about it. At the end of the day, a good education will enable an individual to articulate who they are striving to become and why they are right for the job. Speaking as an employer, the ability to articulate who you are is what I am looking for first and foremost. Your education is important, but the name of your school, college or university is not going to tell me anything about you that I really need to know.

No ‘equal opportunities’ or ‘widening participation’ agenda has so far managed to really change or even challenge the class system we have in the UK, as pictured in Harvey’s article. So what do we do?

Bringing our awareness to social mobility as Harvey does is important and another vital task we have on our hands is to ensure that the ‘poor education’ Harvey is talking about – which he states can be found equally in private and in state schools – is challenged and slowly eliminated through excellent teacher training opportunities.”

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