Inside University of Warwick’s Social Mobility Journey: A Conversation with Claire Algar

I’ve worked at the University of Warwick for 16 years and come from a low socio-economic background myself — though I’d never have known to badge it like that. I just knew I’d faced barriers in my career that I couldn’t quite explain.

When the ED&I team at Warwick moved into Social Inclusion in 2021, my Director asked me, ‘Where does your passion lie?’. My work has always been very people‑focussed, and with our Registrar being part of the EY Foundation Board, working with the Foundation felt like the perfect opportunity to put this passion into practise and aligned directly with Warwick’s strategy around removing social, cultural and economic barriers into employment.

2.      What have you learnt from working with young people on EY Foundation programmes? And what have you done differently as a result?

Oh my gosh — their passion, their creativity. You always come away inspired. These are driven young people who know their next steps but, like me, faced barriers. It is obvious that background still determines opportunity.

But I quickly realised we were almost helicoptering in and out of young people’s lives. They’d spend two weeks with us, meeting employees, hearing inspirational stories — and then leave, probably unlikely to ever step foot on campus again.

I thought, ‘this is great, but there’s a gap’. There was no pathway into early career employment opportunities. And that’s when I set up University of Warwick’s staff Social Inclusion Internship programme, a 12-month skills-based programme that supports young people to be work-ready.

Over time, we’ve also reflected on how we continue to support EY Foundation’s programmes and realised that the Your Future programme was the best fit for us. It focusses specifically on helping young people move into employment rather than further education, which aligns far more closely with the pathway we’re building and our staff‑side strategy.

3.      Tell us some more about University of Warwick’s Social Inclusion Internship Programme and how it supports young people to prepare for the world of work

This 12-month, full-time, paid skills-based programme provides interns with the chance to engage in a mix of social inclusion work, professional development, and gain hands-on experience within their host departments, all whilst completing a Level 3 qualification.

We’re now in our third year, and by August we’ll have supported ten young people through our intern programme, all of whom have completed an EY Foundation programme.

In terms of how the programme is structured, we begin with an initial phase which supports our interns to build a strong understanding of what full‑time work actually means — becoming comfortable with an office environment and what professional conduct looks like, something they can often be unfamiliar with. For example, we had one young person share that they didn’t know how to be their authentic self while being professional at the same time. We unpick questions like this together and support young people to flex their working style in different situations.

The interns also work on their professional development, which includes exploring both personal and organisational values, communication, and teamwork, where trust and reliability play a huge part.

Then, as the programme progresses, our interns take on meaningful work within the organisation whilst starting to consider their next steps in their careers. At this point we also encourage the interns to take on stretch goals to support their development and confidence.

I’m currently planning to invite all ten of our interns back to the university to film a video about their next steps and future plans – so watch this space!

4.      Is there a moment where you felt you made a real difference to a young person’s life?

Yes — one of our interns from 18 months ago faced some very difficult personal challenges during the programme. We supported her through it, she completed the internship, and she recently emailed to say the EY Foundation programme followed by the internship had been life‑changing. She’s now working full‑time in banking in Manchester.

Moments like that… are the whole reason we do this.

5.      How has your approach to social mobility evolved, and what are your priorities for the next three years?

Our approach has changed massively. On the staff side, we see ourselves as taking a leading approach, and we’re developing a Social Mobility strategy for staff around opportunity, belonging and growth. We’re widening our focus beyond young people to include anyone facing socioeconomic barriers — prison leavers, carers, armed forces communities, people out of work and more. And we’ll be talking much more about belonging: can people talk openly about their background, accent or upbringing?

We’ve been collecting socioeconomic background data for a few years — using the Social Mobility Foundation’s recommended questions, along with the Census data — which is helping us recognise that, although we’re one of the biggest employers in a highly deprived part of Coventry, we need to focus efforts on ensuring current employees who are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds feel they belong at Warwick and have opportunities to develop. We’re also focussing on opening up more pathways into professional services roles, and thinking creatively on how to remove barriers to employment.

This has shaped our proposed three‑pillar Social Mobility Strategy, which is still subject to Executive approval. It focusses on widening access through our Social Inclusion early‑career programmes; strengthening and better understanding belonging for current employees, including raising awareness of what socioeconomic inclusion looks like; and rethinking growth so future leaders are valued for their life experience as much as their qualifications, with support to progress via talent pathways.

Looking ahead, the proposal sets out an ambition for us to explore reporting on the class ceiling within our pay gaps, building on the intersectional work we already do on gender, race, disability and LGBTQIA+ reporting. This is yet to be agreed by Executive, but the strategy outlines the steps that would help us get there.

6.      Has there been pushback on the business case for social mobility and how have you responded to this?

We have championed social mobility among our students for a number of years, and that work was recently recognised when we were named University of the Year at the Student Mobility Awards. While the business case for social mobility was therefore well understood, the missing piece of the jigsaw was how to extend this thinking to our staff.

There have been moments where we’ve needed to manage expectations — early‑career employees naturally need time and support before they can fully contribute, and that requires resource and planning. And because socioeconomic inclusion isn’t currently driven by legislation, we’ve also had to confidently articulate why this work matters and bring colleagues with us on the journey.

Recruitment practices aren’t always designed with young people, career‑returners or those without formal qualifications in mind. If we want to consider socioeconomic diversity properly, we need to think differently about how we define essential criteria and how we assess potential.

If you’re always recruiting the same type of people from the same backgrounds, you are not truly embedding diversity. Young people from underrepresented backgrounds bring fresh eyes, creativity and innovation. And if you want to be seen as an employer of choice, taking this approach is good practice.

7.      What would you say to employers looking to advance their social mobility journey?

Doing social mobility work is not lowering the bar, it's widening the gates. Your background shouldn’t determine your future.

The business case is clear. If you’re looking for diversity of thought, diversity of voice, I’d ask employers not ‘why should we do this?’ but ‘why shouldn’t we?’.

If you're an employer looking to start your social mobility journey or explore how your business can benefit from diverse talent, learn more and get in touch today.