Advocacy

Don’t underestimate the impact you can have when you share what you are doing on socio-economic diversity and inclusion with others in your field! Every context is different, though here are a few options to start with:

• Make a commitment that is linked to your organisational strategy and needs.
  Before you go wide, take your own people with you. Have conversations across your organisation, show people why social mobility matters and how it will make the whole organisation better. Use different channels – brown bag lunches, internal newsletters, informal conversations etc. to build up an understanding and vocabulary around socio-economic diversity and inclusion across your organisation.
• Make your commitment public.
  Show leadership in creating inclusive apprenticeships to make it easier for others to do the same.

  – Benchmark your organisation against others who have published their data and articulate achievable targets to improve your own.

  – Apply to join the Social Mobility Employer Index to assess and monitor your organisation’s progress on social mobility.

  – Make your Social Mobility Pledge.

• Share your story
  Hearing the stories of employers who have gone on a similar journey is more powerful than any toolkit. Be generous in sharing your lessons, including what didn’t go so well, so others can learn from you.
• Use your platform
  Consider speaking invitations or interview requests as opportunities to talk about your journey in addressing socio-economic diversity and inclusion in your organisation. Use your voice to challenge and support others to change.
• Share your levy
  If you are a large employer, you can transfer any unspent apprenticeship levy to smaller employers (for example, businesses in your supply chain and in social mobility ‘coldspots’) to enable them to offer high-quality apprenticeships.

“The D&I piece gives us the who, but social mobility runs through all of that and gives us the where, and some of the how.”
– Danny Matthews, Apprenticeship & Community Resourcing Lead, The Co-op