Young people in England should have access to better jobs.

[Spursman]

Top professions such as medicine and law are increasingly being closed off to all but the most affluent families, a report into social mobility has said.

Former minister Alan Milburn has chaired a study for the prime minister on widening access to high-status jobs.

He says young people in England should have access to much better careers advice to boost their ambitions.

Mr Milburn told the BBC: "We have raised the glass ceiling but I don't think we have broken through it yet."

He said the professions had a "closed shop mentality" and "have become more and not less exclusive over time".


Professions and private education

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Milburn called for "a second great wave of social mobility" like that of the 1950s and 1960s to match a projected growth in the number of managerial jobs.

"It's not that Britain doesn't have talent, to coin a phrase - Britain has lots of talent," he added.

"What we have got to do is open up these opportunities so they are available for everybody."

But speaking to BBC News, Daily Mail journalist Quentin Letts said Mr Milburn was presenting an "Edwardian" view of the class system.

"If you only brought back selection into state schools and you had grammar schools again and you had a decent education system, people would be able to power though this," Mr Letts added.

"We have a country in which a former circus manager's son, John Major, became prime minister - don't talk about glass ceilings."

We have a country in which a former circus manager's son, John Major, became prime minister - don't talk about glass ceilings

Quentin Letts
Daily Mail


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But Mr Milburn rejected the suggestion that grammar schools should be re-introduced, saying that they might have worked when there were 250,000 university students but would not be relevant when there were 2.5 million.

The wide-ranging study by an independent panel of experts, Fair Access to the Professions, calls for more equal opportunities in education and employment.

It wants to raise the aspirations of more young people to have the expectations of professional families, giving them confidence when making decisions about university and jobs.

'Forgotten middle class'

The report warns that people entering careers such as medicine, law and journalism are increasingly likely to be from more affluent families.

Currently 75% of judges and 45% of senior civil servants are privately educated.

The report does not only focus on the poorest part of the population - but suggests that many middle-income families are also missing out in an increasingly polarised jobs market.

Mr Milburn warned of the "forgotten middle class" which could not compete with the advantages of the most privileged families, but which also did not benefit from the support targeted at the poorest.


SOCIAL MOBILITY REPORT
Final Report on Fair Access to the Professions
Summary and recommendations
Download the reader here


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The report also criticises informal recruitment systems, such as internships and work placement, as becoming a back-door for better-off, better-connected youngsters.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade, a member of the panel, said the current internship system, based on "who you know", was "grossly unfair".

Another member of the panel, Major General David McDowall, said there needed to be more support for other ways of helping young people to develop ambition, through voluntary activities such as scouting or the Duke of Edinburgh awards.

The report recommendations include:

University students should be recruited from a wider range of social backgrounds, with no-fee degrees for students living at home

Higher education to be more widely available in further education education colleges

Universities to become more involved in schools, such as by having representatives on boards of governors.

Professions and universities to publish more details on the social background of their intake

Better careers advice raising pupils' aspirations

More extra-curricular activity for state school pupils, such as cadet forces

Help for parents to move their children out of under-performing schools


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8160052.stm

[Ka darag]

THATS BS!!

IF U WORK HARD FOR SOMETHING, IT DOESNT MATTER WHETHER UR RICH OR POOR, U WILL GET IT....