As a major employer, we believe we can play a positive role in increasing social mobility through our recruitment, development and progression, community and advocacy activities.
Our aim is to:
We look to achieve this by focusing on the following areas:
In 2017, we set out a five-year plan to help advance social mobility in the UK. See how we’re making progress below.
"We believe that someone’s talent and determination should decide how far they progress in their career. Unfortunately, we know that this isn’t always the case and too many people are held back because of where they grew up, where they went to school or what their parents did for a living. That is wrong. As one of the leading employers in the UK, we have a responsibility and an opportunity to try to put that right."
Goal: Help 25,000 young people develop workplace skills through programmes with schools and colleges across the UK, with a particular focus on social mobility coldspot areas.
Progress: We worked with 18,058 pupils in FY20 and, in FY21, reached a total of 16,902 young people - adapting our schools outreach programme to be fully virtual during the pandemic. Our programme helps students to develop skills and access careers in business, whether at PwC or beyond, irrespective of their background.
Goal: Provide paid work experience places for at least 200 young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds per year
Progress: 195 students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds took part in our New World New Skills paid work experience programme in summer 2021. Of those attending, 46% received free school meals, 58% were female, 77% were from enthic minority backgrounds. In addition to this over 1900 students from all backgrounds attended our Virtual Insight Week.
Goal: Provide technology degree and data science graduate apprenticeship positions to 100 young people a year across the UK, allowing these students to develop in-demand skills with no tuition fees.
Progress: Since 2018, we've welcomed over 340 students onto our Technology Degree Apprenticeships across the UK with the universities of Birmingham, Queen’s (Belfast) Edinburgh, St Andrews and Leeds. These students are now progressing through the degree programme, gaining work experience and professional skills with us, along with a salary and benefits. In Autumn 2021 we welcomed another 96 students onto the programme.
Goal: Be a cornerstone employer in Bradford and support the government’s social mobility agenda.
Progress: In 2019, we opened our new Bradford office where we now employ around 160 people, giving people in the city access to quality employment and meeting the skills needs of our business. A further 50 people will join our Bradford office late 2021. As a cornerstone employer, we also work with public and private sector partners to provide mentoring, skills development and workplace experiences for local school students.
Goal: Support the development and skills training of 250 social enterprises across the country and commit to spending at least ten million pounds through our supply chain with social enterprises
Progress: Our Social Entrepreneurs Club provides mentoring, training and developmental support to 250 social enterprises across the UK, including more than 40 in our supply chain. During FY21 we contributed £1.4 million to the social enterprise sector through direct purchases or by providing other valuable financial support, taking us to just over 80% of our 2022 target.
We also have our own social enterprise, Brigade, which supports those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness into a career in the catering industry. Brigade is now approaching it’s eighth year, having trained over 1,200 people into jobs and 135 apprentices.
