According to this excellent article in the Independent, prejudice, blocking social mobility in the UK, is widespread. It’s a must-read. Check it out!
The article examines research by Alan Milburn’s Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
Of course, there has always been prejudice in the UK, in favor of the privileged, those with family wealth and social connections.
During my early career, I found that ambitious, hard-working and talented people from working-class backgrounds often had an edge – they’d grown up in the school of ‘hard-knocks’ and were quicker to seize opportunities, where privileged people felt socially uncomfortable and ill-prepared.
These days, increasingly, with downsizing, offshoring, robotics, and increasing deployment of technology, there are fewer jobs to go round, so there’s a different challenge. People with connections get the unpaid work experience in privileged organizations in their holidays and they are able to do exotic things in their gap year etc.
It’s commendable that the UK government and some leading firms are committed to social mobility. But the reality is that there is not a level playing field.
Let me turn this to an open open question:
Do you think that UK social mobility would be improved by re-introducing national service for all eighteen year olds, like in Israel for example?
Thoughts?
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