Milton Keynes Council becomes a Social Mobility Pledge Champion and commits to sign up local businesses to the Social Mobility Pledge to deliver more opportunity for young people locall.
Conservative Councillor Allan Rankine has successfully convinced Milton Keynes Council to become a Social Mobility Champion after a motion was debated and passed last night.
The motion signs the Council up to becoming a Social Mobility Pledge accredited employer and importantly will see the Council try to sign up businesses across Milton Keynes.
Businesses and Milton Keynes Council will be asked to:
1) Partner directly with schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and/or mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances. Businesses can work through the many social mobility charities and organisations, such as Speakers for Schools, Inspiring the Future, the Princes Trust, and the Careers and Enterprise Company, that are already there to help businesses and employers do more on the ground.
2) Provide structured work experience and/or apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.
3) Adopt open employee recruitment practices which promote a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances, such as name blind recruitment or contextual recruitment.
Cllr Allan Rankine was elected onto the Council in May but his story is a story of social mobility. He was brought up in a low income community in Scotland that provided a good education but almost no direction on how to improve his prospects. Allan left school at 17 and was lucky to land a job as a Lab Assistant with a multi-national company that understood how to develop employees. He ended up giving advice to the CEO in London.
Cllr Rankine says, “I passionately believe employers are key to tackling social mobility in Milton Keynes and helping to connect local young people up with the opportunities already on their doorstep.
“The Social Mobility Pledge means that businesses and Milton Keynes Council will commit to work with local schools to help young people know about careers they can have, and that they give young people work experience or apprenticeships. It also means committing to having open recruitment approaches which help open doors to more disadvantaged young people - for example, name blind recruitment, to assess job candidates for what they can offer, irrespective of background.
Leader of the Conservative Group Cllr Alex Walker says, “I am delighted Allan brought this motion to Council and that it received cross-party support. We have long campaigned for Milton Keynes Council to be a good local employer especially offering a wide range of apprenticeships to give young people a way into a good career. The Social Mobility Pledge is a great way to celebrate that. If we can get some employers big and small signed up we believe this will help to drive opportunities for a new generation of young people in MK."
