Impossible?

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Contents

Foreword by Patrick Flaherty, Chairman of The Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation

Introduction

Strong attainment

Making informed choices

Assistance to turn their aspirations into reality

Reatining students at university

Conclusion and recommendations

About Teach FirstSince 2002, Teach First has been challenging the deeply-rooted reality that a child’s socioeconomic background is the biggest determining factor in their chances of future life success.

By working with fantastic teachers, schools and communities, we’ve seen first-hand how it is possible for all young people to scale the hurdles to social mobility and achieve incredible things. Yet it is still the case that those from low-income backgrounds face a litany of barriers to achieving their full potential.

2017 is Teach First’s 15th anniversary and we are doing everything we can to focus our efforts on addressing these issues through a year of action, campaigning and mobilisation to help every young person achieve their seemingly impossible dreams. This report follows on from Impossible?, released in March, which looks at the social mobility hurdles young people from low-income

backgrounds face – the seemingly unbreakable class ceiling. In May our General Election Manifesto called on candidates of all parties to commit the policies needed to address these issues.

By the time they leave school we want every young person to be in the position to make an informed and ambitious decision about their future, to have secured a place on the route that is right for them and to possess the skills and mind-sets that will help them succeed throughout their lives.

No child’s future should be determined by their background.

Will it be a challenge? Yes. Impossible? No.

Report author: Alex Burr

With thanks to Credit Suisse for their expertise in bringing together this report, and the overall transformational support given to Teach First for the last 13 years.

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Foreword

Dear Reader, In May 2016 the Government released a White Paper titled Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice. This paper found that “despite record numbers entering university, students from the most advantaged backgrounds are still around six times more likely to go to the most selective universities than those from disadvantaged backgrounds.” At Credit Suisse, we regard education as one of the key drivers of growth and an effective means of empowering people to help themselves. Credit Suisse has a long standing relationship with Teach First, and is proud to partner with them throughout 2017. We are supporting their Challenge the Impossible campaign to help all pupils reach their full potential regardless of their background. The Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation is investing in the expansion of Teach First’s ‘Futures’ programme which is a case study featured in this report. ‘Futures’ is aimed at widening access to higher education for sixth form students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the next two years the programme will grow by 36% to support 3,000 disadvantaged young people into universities. Of these, 40% are likely to progress to Russell Group universities.

Teachers and schools continue to play a vital role in supporting the next generation to succeed and ‘Challenge the Impossible’. However, it’s only when businesses, the government, charities, local communities and schools come together that real change can be made – and we are honoured to be part of that change.

Patrick Flaherty Chairman of The Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation Managing Director, Global Markets, Credit Suisse

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IntroductionAt Teach First we believe that every child should have a fair chance to reach their full potential, whether that be through university, an apprenticeship or another career path. We don’t think any route should be easier to achieve simply because of your background or how much money your parents earn.

Yet today, young people from low income families repeatedly find doors closed and paths blocked to them at every stage of their lives. They are less likely to go to schools rated outstanding, less likely to get five good GCSEs and less likely to progress to higher education, employment or training.i When it comes to university, welcome progress has been made, and today there are more disadvantaged young people attending than ever before. The government have also set a laudable goal of doubling the percentage of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education, from 13.6% in 2009 to 27.2% by 2020.ii

However, despite some advances, Teach First has found that only one in five young people born in the country’s poorest postcodes progress to university, while half of those born in the wealthiest postcodes do so.iii This is despite the fact university gives a huge range of social, cultural and economic benefits and is still the gateway for most high-status professions for young people.

In addition, a survey of 2,000 18-25 year olds conducted by ComRes for Teach First found half (47%) of the most disadvantaged young people who did not go to university said they feel like they have missed out. Specifically, 37% said they felt they missed out on career opportunities, 27% on social opportunities and 17% on both. We also found that 38% of those who didn’t go to university said they would consider going in the future.iv Even when students from poorer backgrounds do make it to university, they continue to face barriers to success. Last year 8.8% of disadvantaged students dropped out within a year, compared to 5% of those from the richest backgrounds. Worryingly, there seems to be little progress in this area, as the dropout rate for disadvantaged students is at its highest level for five years.v

In this report, Teach First publishes original analysis of official statistics and the results of the latest research undertaken on our behalf. We look at the barriers that young people face and what more can be done to remove them.

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We make a series of recommendations based on our experience over the last 15 years of working with thousands of young people, teachers, schools and universities. Excellent teaching is the first step, and the report suggests that a system of student loan forgiveness - removing a proportion of debt from teachers who work in areas of greatest educational need - would help to attract and retain the best graduates into teaching. To ensure the most disadvantaged pupils make more informed decisions we put forward recommendations for improving career guidance and we suggest a new system of ‘widening participation’ funding that would focus resources on effective programmes targeting low-participation areas. More also needs to be done to support these students through their degrees, and we recommend a trial of joint mentoring programmes through which universities collaborate and share best practice. Ensuring that all students reach their full potential is no longer simply a matter of fairness. In a post-Brexit world it has become an even stronger economic imperative.

Over the years ahead the British economy is expected to experience a shortage of skilled workers, with three million too few skilled workers to fill 15 million high skilled jobs. By contrast, there are likely to be five million more low-skilled workers than jobs they are equipped for.vi

The country cannot afford to waste its talent if we are to achieve the ambitious targets set by the Government. We need to work together as a society to break down the barriers to social mobility that are preventing us from achieving a country that works for everyone; where equal opportunities for all is a reality, not an impossible dream. How do we get more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into university?

47%of disadvantaged young people who did not go to university feel like they have missed out on career or social opportunities

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Strong attainmentMany factors play a role in getting young people to university, but a great education is key. Essentially, no matter how much support is provided to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, they will not get into university unless they reach the required academic standards.

We know that disadvantaged children face barriers to getting a great education from an early age. Previous research shows that children from low-income areas are half as likely as their wealthier peers to attend an outstanding school and only one in three achieves five GCSEs at grades A*-C, half the rate of their wealthier peers. For many, the path to university is closed before they have even had the chance to consider it. While there are many factors involved in helping children and young people reach their full potential, we know that support from teachers and school leaders has a profound impact. Therefore, access to inspirational, excellent teaching is crucial. But with teacher recruitment and retention an increasing challenge nationally, schools serving poorer areas are facing an additional struggle to attract outstanding graduates, particularly in shortage subjects such as maths and science. The external marketplace is compounding this teacher recruitment shortage; today’s graduates are entering the strongest and most competitive graduate jobs market since before the 2008 financial crisis. This trend is set to

continue with top employers planning to increase their graduate recruitment by a further 4.3% in 2017, the fifth consecutive annual growth in graduate vacancies.vii

The latest school workforce census shows that last year there were still more qualified entrants joining the teaching profession than those leaving it. However this gap has been closing over recent years, and if the trend continues, we risk reaching a situation where more teachers leave the profession than join.viii

This will be further exacerbated by the demographic increase in student numbers, with the government estimating there will be an additional half a million more secondary age children by 2026.ix

To attract more talented people into our schools we need to improve the incentives for choosing teaching as a career. The Conservatives pledged to cover the repayments of new teachers’ student loans in the 2017 election. Teach First believe we need to go further, and we’re recommending that the UK Government forgive a proportion of the student loans of graduates who

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commit to teaching in areas of greatest educational need and in priority subjects.

We propose that this incentive should be open to all new trainees, via any route into teaching – including Teach First, School Direct, and higher education-led routes. For example, 20% of student debt could be cleared for those working for two years, increasing to 50% for those who remain in that geographic or subject area for five years. Many teachers will never pay off their full student debt (which for most includes an undergraduate degree in addition to PGCE fees). The debt is automatically written off after thirty years, and many teachers’ salaries won’t enable them to fully pay off their borrowing within this period. This reduces the real cost to the public purse of loan forgiveness (as much of this debt would never have been repaid anyway), whilst still providing a powerful incentive for graduates considering a career in teaching.

However, we need to go further than loan forgiveness to attract the best possible graduates into teaching. Today a newly qualified teacher is paid between £22,023 and £27,542. But the median starting salary for a graduate scheme with the top graduate employers is more than £30,000.x

Most teachers enter the profession because they want to change the lives of young people and make a real difference. But if the gap between teachers’ starting salaries and other professions continues to grow, recruiting teachers will become more and more of a challenge. This will be most acute in STEM, where graduates in these subjects are highly sought after, and they can command ever higher salaries.

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Making informed choicesThe recruitment and training of exceptional teachers is a priority, but there are other ways we need to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is not simply a question of getting the right grades – they also need to make informed choices about their futures.

Our poll of 18-25 year olds shows that, of the most disadvantaged young people who did not go to university, just 12% say this was because their grades weren’t good enough. When it comes to selecting which university to go to, and which subject to study, our research shows that the most advantaged and most disadvantaged students are making different choices. For the most advantaged students, 41% said they chose their university because it was the best for what they wanted to study, compared to only 31% of the least advantaged. Similarly, the reputation of a university was important to 53% of the most advantaged students, but it only was for 46% of the most disadvantaged. In addition, we found that the most disadvantaged students are more likely to base their decision on location; 42% said they chose a university because they liked the town, compared to 37% of the most advantaged. They are also more likely to choose an institution close to where they live, with 29% saying this, compared to 24% of the most advantaged.

The most disadvantaged pupils are four times more likely to select a university simply because their friends are also going there (11%) compared to the most advantaged (3%). Finally, they are also less likely to seek parental guidance on what to do after leaving school – 13% of the most disadvantaged students chose their university based on advice from parents, compared to 19% of the most advantaged. The results of this, alongside Teach First’s own experience, lead us to believe that pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to receive the same level of high quality advice and guidance than their more advantaged peers. This makes it harder for them to make informed decisions about their futures.

38%of disadvantaged young people who did not attend university would consider going in the future

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To give all young people a fair chance, regardless of their background, we must ensure every child has access to the advice and support wealthier young people take for granted. The lack of good quality advice for more disadvantaged students contributes to fewer of them getting to university, and means they make different choices about what to study and where. To address this issue, we propose the development of a coherent school improvement model for careers and employability education. This would help every school train staff and develop a high quality, whole-school careers strategy in order to grow and improve their practice.

This is why Teach First has called for a trained careers middle leader in every school to develop and lead this strategy. Schools could fund this through the money that local authorities and academy trusts are already required to set aside for the apprenticeship levy. They would then be able provide potential careers leaders with training and development as an apprenticeship qualification.

This training should support schools to deliver the eight Gatsby benchmarksxi - the sector approved standard for careers advice and guidance.

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Assistance to turn their aspirations into reality

Our research has shown that even when young people from poorer areas get the grades and want to go to university, too often they struggle to turn aspiration into reality. This is why we want to see more university access programmes rolled out into disadvantaged areas. Ten years ago, Teach First launched the Futures programme. With our principal partner the Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation, Futures supports and inspires sixth form pupils from low-income communities to make informed and ambitious choices about their options. The programme is for young people who come from groups that are traditionally under-represented at university. These include pupils who do not have parents or guardians who attended university, or those who have been on free school meals. These young people have the academic potential to go to university but may lack the confidence, knowledge or support to get there. Through the programme we give students access to opportunities that will help inform their decisions, such as university day trips and a four-day residential ‘Easter School’ at the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. We also match them with a mentor

who guides them through the whole university applications process. Futures has an impressive track record. Of the 432 pupils who participated during 2015-16, 87% successfully finished the programme. Of these, 85% progressed to university, significantly higher than the 60% average going on to university from non-selective state schools. This progression rate even matched the 85% average of pupils from independent schools who go to university.1 Of the Futures pupils that progressed to university:

• 39% attended a Russell Group university, a higher rate than the non-selective state school average of 19%

• Of the 211 Futures pupils who recorded the subject they were studying, 38% took up a STEM subject, with another 7% studying medicine, dentistry or optometry. These subjects are linked to higher earnings for graduates and can increase the potential for social mobility

• 72% of Futures students felt they were better informed about the university application process, 69% were more positive about

1. There is an academic threshold to joining Futures, so direct correlation between Future pupils progression to University compared to other pupils needs to factor in this consideration

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progressing to university and 64% had more confidence in their future

• 48% of respondents said the Easter School had the greatest impact on them

Following further statistical analysis of the impact of the Futures programme, we will in future focus the scheme more on schools that have low progression rates to university, ensuring support reaches the pupils who need it most.

Heather Barrass went to Grange Technology College in Bradford. After doing A Levels in English,

History and Graphic Design she has gone on to do a BA in Archaeology at the University of York. “Before sixth form I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after school, but I was certain that I didn’t want to go to university. I didn’t know many people who had gone to uni and the people I knew that hadn’t gone had all done quite well for themselves without a degree, so why should I bother? I also didn’t consider myself clever enough and thought that I had ages to figure something out. “I took part in the Teach First Futures programme, which opened my eyes to the different opportunities available at university and gave me a chance to meet and speak with past and present undergraduate students so I could make a more informed opinion and decision

about university. Just hearing from teachers at school saying “going to university to get a degree will enhance your job prospects in the future” wasn’t very helpful for me.

“Futures also helped me a lot in terms of thinking about university finance, giving me resources and information about the different types of aid I could get which I probably wouldn’t have found out about otherwise. In particular the idea that university is an investment for my future, not just a collection of massive amounts of debt, was really influential. “Being on Futures pushed me to do new things, which helped me have confidence in my academic achievements and potential. It really highlighted the fact that I could thrive at and fit in at a Russell Group university – I was just as clever as other people from more privileged backgrounds, I just had to leave my comfort zone. I’m now studying Archaeology at the University of York, and it’s great!”

Aniket Patel, Equity Derivatives Programme Manager, has been working for Credit Suisse

for 11 years. This year he has chosen to become a Teach First Futures Mentor, which will see him paired with a local sixth-form student, supporting them to make high-quality, well-informed choices about their future.

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“Getting a good education and going to university has opened many doors for me personally so when the opportunity arose at Credit Suisse to volunteer for the Futures Programme, I was immediately attracted to it. “One aspect of the programme that particularly appealed to me is the opportunity to work with mentees over the course of a year, which is far longer than a lot of other ad hoc volunteering placements that come up. This length of time provides a real opportunity to develop a relationship with the mentee and to have a bigger impact in the long-term. “By the end of the year I hope to have helped my mentee to explore the various options available to them and perhaps show them paths they may not have otherwise considered. There are many career routes available to young people nowadays so I hope to be able to support and inspire them in choosing to pursue something they feel passionate about.”

Organisations such as Teach First have a key role to play in supporting access to higher education, but so do universities themselves. In the academic year 2015-16, universities and colleges spent £725.2 million on measures to increase take up of higher education under their access agreements. This represents 27.4% of their income from fees above the basic level.xii

At present, however, too much of university access spend is focused late in young people’s education, or in areas where there are relatively better progression rates, such as big cities. This is likely to contribute to the fact that the area in which a young person is born has a direct relationship to how likely they are to go to university. The poorer the community you are born into, the less likely you are to get to university (see figure one). Through original analysis, we have found that in the country’s poorest postcodes, barely one in five young people progress to university, compared to half of young people born in the wealthiest postcodes. In some postcodes, such as parts of Derbyshire, it’s as few as one in twenty. In other areas of the country, such as parts of Buckinghamshire, over 80% of young people progress to higher education. So those born in some of the richest areas are up to 18 times more likely to attend university than those in some of the most deprived.xiii

Part of the problem is that universities aim a high proportion of their access work at pupils aged 16-18, by which point much of the effects of disadvantage have already played out.

To tackle this, access work needs to start at primary school, giving young people the best possible opportunity to make informed and supported decisions about their futures at an earlier age. There should also be an increase of

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support around age 14, when young people start to make decisions about which particular subjects they take at school, which will have a lasting impact on their future paths. We propose that the Government should create a ‘Widening Participation’ (WP) Outcomes Fund, possibly by top-slicing university access agreement funding, or through the allocation of additional funding to Widening Participation. A WP Outcomes Fund would help ensure equitable access to higher education across the country, focusing resources on demonstrably effective programmes that target specific geographic areas with low progression rates and ensuring the work is targeted at primary pupils and those up to the age of 14.

Third sector organisations should be able to bid for funding alongside universities, with a procurement process to evaluate the quality and impact of their proposed work. A key consideration would be on helping students to progress to university from an early age, rather than promoting already high achieving students to attend specific universities. Organisations awarded contracts would then deliver multi-year services to support disadvantaged children, with the WP Outcomes Fund drawn down only if and when the targeted outcomes are achieved. Ensuring accountability for spend would be built in to the system.

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Retaining students atuniversity

Even when poorer students get an exceptional education, get the grades they need, get support to make informed decisions and get assistance to turn their aspirations into reality, they still face barriers to getting a degree. Those who do manage to make it to a university have a significantly higher drop-out rate in their first year compared to their more advantaged peers. According to the Office of Fair Access, in 2014-15 8.8% of young, full-time undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds did not continue in higher education beyond their first year, up from 8.2% in the previous year. In the same year, by contrast, fewer than 5% of those from the wealthiest backgrounds failed to continue.xiv

Our poll shows that well over a third (40%) of disadvantaged students currently at university have considered dropping out. Of those, three percent said they had already dropped out of a previous university, 11% said they had taken some action towards leaving but eventually decided not to and 26% said they considered it, but did not do so. Disadvantaged students may be more likely to feel isolated and nervous in the unfamiliar surroundings of a university. They may also feel that when in need,

they have fewer people to turn to. Our poll found that 49% of the most disadvantaged students said they went to their family for help or support when they were feeling stressed, compared to 55% of the most advantaged. Looking at the factors causing students the most stress, concerns about not having enough money was the most mentioned, with 44% of all students saying they found this stressful in their first year. Nearly half (47%) of the most disadvantaged students said keeping up with academic work caused them stress, compared to 42% of advantaged students. Nearly a third (31%) of the most disadvantaged students said they found it hard to balance their academic and paid work. This dropped to 20% among the most advantaged. Nearly a third (30%) of the most disadvantaged said the feeling that they didn’t fit in was one of the most stressful things about university. We know that universities are taking the retention problem seriously. Between 2015-16, universities and colleges spent £117.1 million on increasing the retention rates of disadvantaged and other under-represented students at their

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institutions. They have also predicted they will spend £134.7 million through their access agreements in 2016-17, rising to £185.8 million by 2020-21.xv However, this investment is clearly not having sufficient impact, because the dropout rate for disadvantaged students is at its highest level for five years.xvi

A significant problem is the lack of reliable evidence about which measures to support and retain these students are the most successful and there is limited sharing of best practice. We know from the experience of our Futures programme, and from other sectors, that mentoring can have a profound impact on students.

While there are currently mentoring programmes for disadvantaged students running within universities, there is insufficient public evidence to truly understand their impact.

Therefore, Teach First would like to see universities working in collaboration to trial and evaluate a joint mentoring programme for disadvantaged students. Through this, they would share best practice and work in partnership using evidence-based measures to tackle dropout rates. The Education Endowment Foundation, or a similar organisation, could be commissioned to independently evaluate the programme before making evidence-based recommendations to support the roll-out of a national mentoring programme.

thirdof disadvantaged students currently at university have considered dropping out

Over a

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Conclusion and recommendations

Today there are more disadvantaged students than ever before attending university. Important steps have been taken by governments across the political spectrum, universities, schools, charities and education bodies to help widen choice and increase the life chances of young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

Despite this, access remains unequal, and it is vital that we do not become complacent. We must continue to work hard to widen access even further, in the knowledge that too many disadvantaged young people continue to miss out. In 2017, as Teach First turns 15, we have launched our Challenge the Impossible campaign. We are doing everything we can to focus our efforts on addressing these inequalities through a year of action, campaigning and mobilisation, to help every young person fulfil their potential when they leave school. University access is a huge part of smashing through this class-ceiling. Getting a good education is key to improving the life chances of young people from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds. But we need to pull together to achieve this, to help young people to get the grades, to make the transition to university and to successfully complete their degrees.

The recommendations found in this report conclude:

1. More needs to be done to attract the country’s best graduates to become teachers – especially to work in the disadvantaged communities that currently struggle to recruit. The UK Government should forgive a proportion of students’ loans for those who commit to teaching in areas of greatest educational need and in STEM subjects. They also need to address the gap between teachers’ starting salaries and other professions.

2. In order to help disadvantaged pupils make more informed decisions about their future, every school should have a whole-school strategy for careers and employability, and resources should be targeted at rolling this

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out to schools in disadvantaged areas. There should be a trained careers middle leader in every school to develop and lead the strategy. This could be funded through the money that local authorities and academy trusts are now required to set aside for the apprenticeship levy, by making the careers leader training an additional apprenticeship qualification. Such training should support schools to deliver the Eight Gatsby benchmarks - the sector approved standard in careers advice and guidance.

3. The Government should create a ‘Widening Participation’ (WP) Outcomes Fund, possibly by top slicing university access agreement funding, or through the allocation of additional funding to Widening Participation. A WP Outcomes Fund would ensure equitable access to higher education across the country, focusing resources on effective programmes that target specific geographic areas with low progression rates and ensuring work is targeted at primary pupils and those up to the age of 14.

Third sector organisations should be able to bid for funding alongside universities, with a procurement process to evaluate the quality of the proposed work. A key consideration would be on helping students to progress to university from an early age, rather than promoting already

high achieving students to attend specific universities.

4. More needs to be done by universities to make sure disadvantaged students successfully complete their degree and reach their full potential. We recommend that a collaboration of universities trial a joint mentoring programme for disadvantaged students. They would share best practice amongst themselves, working in partnership to share evidence on how to tackle dropout rates. The Education Endowment Foundation, or a similar organisation, could be commissioned to independently evaluate the programme before making evidence-based recommendations to support the roll-out of a national mentoring programme.

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i. Teach First, Impossible? Social Mobility and the seemingly unbreakable class-ceiling, March 2017ii. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Skills, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, 2015iii. This research is drawn from Youth Participation Rates based on HEFCE data, and IDACI. ‘Postcodes’ refer to Local Government wards. iv. ComRes interviewed 2,015 18-25 year olds in England online between 18th May and 12th June 2017, including 506 current university students and 807 university graduates. Data were weighted by gender, age and region to be representative of this audience. We have defined ‘advantaged’ young people as all who have at least one parent who attended a Russell Group university, and were never eligible for free school meals between the ages of 11 and 18. The ‘disadvantaged’ group was defined as those whose parent(s) did not attend university, and who were eligible for free school meals between the ages of 11 and 18.v. The Office of Fair Access, Outcomes of access agreement monitoring for 2015-16, 2017 vi. Centre for Social and Economic Inclusion, Realising Talent: employment and skills for the future, 2014vii. High Flyers, The Graduate Market in 2017: Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain’s leading employers, 2017viii. On a full-time equivalent basis, School Workforce Census, Department for Education, various yearsix. The Department for Education, School workforce census 2017: business and technical specification, 2017x. High Flyers, The Graduate Market in 2017: Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain’s leading employers, 2017xi. The eight Gatsby benchmarks of Good Career Guidance

1. A stable careers programme2. Learning from career and labour market information3. Addressing the needs of each pupil4. Linking curriculum learning to careers5. Encounters with employers and employees6. Experiences of workplaces7. Encounters with further and higher education8. Personal guidance

xii. The Office of Fair Access, https://www.offa.org.uk/press/quick-facts/, 2017xiii. This research is drawn from Youth Participation Rates based on HEFCE data, and IDACIxiv. The Office of Fair Access, Outcomes of access agreement monitoring for 2015-16, 2017 xv. The Office of Fair Access, https://www.offa.org.uk/press/quick-facts/, 2017xvi. The Office of Fair Access, Outcomes of access agreement monitoring for 2015-16, 2017

References

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www.teachfirst.org.uk/challengeTeach First is a registered charity, no. 1098294