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Social Mobility Business Partnership Launches: Multi award winning social mobility project expands offering opportunities to even more young people

A unique and award-winning social mobility programme bringing together companies, professional service organisations and professional sports clubs is to be expanded widening its remit to promoting social mobility in business with particular focus on the legal and the accountancy professions, it was announced today.

The Legal Social Mobility Partnership (LSMP) began in 2014, with founding organisations including ITV, Microsoft, Arnold Porter Kaye Scholar, Slaughter and May, and Harlequins RUFC (providing sports psychology led resilience training) collaborating to offer a week long work insight opportunity for 20 London students. This was complemented by on-going coaching support for the participating students.

This programme expanded to Greater Manchester in 2015, Leeds and Birmingham in 2016, and in 2017 to Bristol, Brighton and Reading, bringing the total number of LSMP student places to over 300 and the number of participating organisations offering work insight opportunities to 70 (including adidas, Barclays, Fremantle, Viacom, Oath, Manchester United, Manchester City, Plusnet, Virgin Atlantic, American Express, N Brown Group, Yeo Valley and EE).

At a launch event today in the House of Commons hosted by Justin Madders MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility, it was announced that the scheme is to become The Social Mobility Business Partnership (SMBP), a registered charity, which will increase its remit to incorporate accountancy and wider business and its reach to further areas – this year launching in Norwich and Glasgow as well as increasing the catchment in Leeds and Manchester to incorporate nearby Department of Education Opportunity Areas.

The SMBP brings together professional bodies (including the ACCA, ICAEW, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx) social mobility experts and existing profession-led movements (including The Sutton Trust and PRIME) as well as commercial businesses, law and accountancy firms, and sports clubs, who come together in different regions to deliver week-long, work insight and skills programme for Year 12 students.

The programme is driven by ITV’s Barry Matthews, who has acted as volunteer CEO since inception. He and his volunteer team drawn from numerous organisations have grown the participating network offering opportunities to 80 businesses (each cluster consisting of four different organisations offering a day each of experience with the fifth day provided by a professional sports club (including Harlequins, Manchester United, Wasps, Leeds Rhinos, Bristol Sport and Norwich City delivering the SMBP Resilience day).

Barry Matthews said:

“Having grown up on a council estate, I know from personal experience that entering into a profession or business seems like a huge mountain to climb when you have no network or understanding of what is required.  I wanted to do something to provide bright students from my background with a fighting chance of success by providing them with confidence and social capital through exposure to our world as it is now and support through their career journey. Resilience has been a big part of my life and it has been strengthened when other people in positions of power have shared their stories with me about bouncing back. This is why we have included a professional sport resilience training day (authored by ex-rugby professional and Olympic and business performance coach Mark Soden) as part of the SMBP package.”

Andrew Garard, Chair of the SMBP Board of Trustees said:

“When Barry came to me in 2014 with the idea of helping young students from less advantaged backgrounds gain an insight into working in the legal profession, it resonated straight away. I have a similar background to Barry and was determined to support him to grow the scheme. Through his and the team’s fantastic dedication we can now launch the SMBP.”

The programme starts with an induction where students learn about the different pathways to the legal and accountancy professions, the future impact of AI on the delivery of professional services and the facts about university finance.

Next, students participate in a week-long programme of work insight and skills experience in which they are given the opportunity to spend a day at four different high profile businesses; in addition, they attend a day run by a professional sports club to learn about the psychology of resilience and goal achievement models.

Finally, students have access to online ‘virtual coaching’ from legal, accountancy and business professionals.  Coaches are on hand to help with creating Personal Statements/CVs, compiling application forms and preparing for interviews.

Pictured: Andrew Saul, Su Akgun, Barry Matthews (ITV) and Ray Berg pictured at the SMBP launch in the House of Commons, which was hosted by Justin Madders MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility.