Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals, groups or families between social classes, and a change in social status relative to one’s current position. In a socially mobile society, everyone has the opportunity to create a good life for themselves. Unfortunately, in Britain today, the area in which you were brought up can have a massive impact on your future and for young people, this link is getting stronger. 

The UK was referred to as a ‘stark postcode lottery’ in a recent government report highlighting the difference in social mobility across the country. Young people in disadvantaged areas face barriers to further education, training and employment in comparison to their counterparts in more affluent towns and cities. 

According to David Sproul, Senior Partner and Chief Executive of Deloitte North West Europe, it is up to businesses to improve social mobility for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In July 2018, we partnered with Career Ready to help make this happen. 

Career Ready is a UK-wide organisation which helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds prepare for successful and rewarding careers. By connecting young people with volunteers from the world of business, they develop the skills, confidence and experience to compete with their wealthier peers and reach their potential. They work with over 700 employers across the UK to provide young people aged 14 to 18 with mentoring, internships, work placements and masterclasses on the skills needed for career success.

By combining education in schools with a work placement, students can gain industry knowledge and develop softer skills, like problem solving and self-confidence. These job-relevant traits can be measured alongside personality and cognitive abilities via psychometric testing, such as our game-based method. 

When we initially joined forces with Career Ready, 97 students were taking part in internships with Citi Bank thanks to the amazing work of their charity – Citi Foundation – and the ‘Pathways to Progress’ initiative. These students completed our psychometric assessment which instantly provides feedback in the form of our Candidate Report highlighting their natural behavioural preferences and increasing their self-awareness. A RIASEC element was also included to make suggestions about potential career paths. Both their mentor and internship supervisor received a Manager Report which has use for development purposes during and after the internship.

Career Ready’s COO Mark Smith says “If we want to live and work in a genuinely diverse and inclusive world, we need to instill confidence in today’s young job seekers. We are proud to work with Arctic Shores to make this possible through their innovative assessments.”

To read about the science behind Gamified Psychometric Assessments, please click here.