The Brokerage The Overlooked Advantage - Flipbook - Page 25
Conclusion
The ultimate motivation for The Brokerage to commission this research has been the 83,000
talented young people that we have worked with over the past 25 years. As we have supported
them by providing insight and knowledge about the corporate world and given them an
opportunity to access professional opportunities, it has always been clear to us that they are more
than capable of achieving great things in their careers. And indeed, many of our alumni of gone on
to successful careers in the City and beyond, including senior roles at some of the most high
profile corporates. However, a quick glimpse at employer diversity data highlights that there is
still a lot to be done if these opportunities are to be accessible for all young people from working
class backgrounds.
As a social mobility charity, we are keen to add a new perspective to the common narrative around
‘disadvantaged’ young people - yes, our young people are from working class and in many cases
also minoritized ethnic backgrounds, and have faced challenges, but through their lived
experiences they have also developed many skills and attributes. While we are certainly not
suggesting that the societal obstacles that have contributed to their challenging circumstances
shouldn’t also be addressed, it is important to recognise these strengths, and that employers in
particular pay attention to how they support candidates to share the depth of their skills and
experience.
The strengths this report has identified as being rooted in the experience of disadvantage:
readiness to learn, desire for excellence, emotional and cultural intelligence, creativity and
resilience, are all highly desired by employers, and yet often their recruitment practices and
processes are not allowing them to be seen. This means that not only are young people losing out,
but employers may be inadvertently overlooking the most talented candidates.
The report has also identified three steps and the corresponding recommendations that
employers can undertake to address this, to stop overlooking these advantages. While tweaks to
the recruitment and selection processes are an important part of this, there are also wider
changes to the culture and capacity of the organisation to empathise and support young people
from underrepresented groups that are crucial if long term change is to happen. A fundamental
part to all of this is ensuring that the perspective of young people is understood and considered at
every stage and as a charity, in response to this research, we are in the process of developing a
suite of programmes and services that will help corporates to do just this, via our ‘Changemaker’
offer. Ultimately, it is long term changes we need to see if we are to achieve workplaces that are
truly inclusive and young people's voices should be part of that process. Once that happens, then a
world where a young person’s ability and aspiration alone determine their career path becomes
possible.
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