Our mission
Increasing social mobility for young people
Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not.
Being able to realise your potential depends on who your parents are, your education, your skills, and also where you grew up.
Young people have big aspirations about their futures, yet schools do not always have the resources to bring these to life. Without the networks, employer connections and confidence, young talent is unnecessarily wasted.
And since the pandemic, the disadvantage gap continues to widen.
The attainment gap between underserved young people and their wealthier peers is growing, a decade of progress was lost during the pandemic
Our theory of change
Our impact goal is for social mobility to increase:
- young people from underserved backgrounds discover their amazing talents, develop valuable new employability skills, and take their first step into higher education or the world of work.
- employers value young people's talents, rather than their background, opening up new employment opportunities.
We do this by delivering inspiring, skills-based, facilitated workshops led by a The Talent Foundry facilitator and supported by industry volunteers across three themes:
- Lightbulb Moments
- Career Insights and Building Skills
- Intensive Connections
Our outcomes
We expect to see several short and medium term changes in young people, educators and employers following engagement in our programmes. This includes increased awareness, understanding, interest and confidence in skills, confidence and abilities.
Download our Theory of Change (PDF)
72% of young people from the most deprived neighbourhoods cite having a good job or career as one of their main priorities when they grow up
Why now?
- Numbers of students eligible for Free School Meals is increasing
- The disadvantage gap in educational attainment has worsened since the pandemic
- Young people of a lower working-class background are much more likely to be not in employment, education or training (NEET) than those of any other background
- Only 18% of people whose parents have no qualifications go on to gain a degree.
- Parental income and wealth continues to determine your own lifetime income position.
(References: Gov.uk, Social Mobility Commission, Institute of Fiscal Studies, 2023)
Who we work with
We work with UK schools that have a higher-than-average number of students eligible for Pupil Premium funding (PDG in Wales and PEF in Scotland). We also work directly with students who are, or have been, eligible for Free School Meals, will be the first in their family to go to university, are young carers, care-experienced, or have a disability.
Some programmes have a geographical focus where opportunities are limited by location such as coastal or rural towns. Over 1,900 schools are eligible for our support.
Socioeconomically disadvantaged students from social mobility coldspots have half the earning potential as those from geographic hotspots
2022-2025 strategy
In 2022-23 we supported 45,792 young people across England, Wales and Scotland discover what they are amazing at and inspire them to think big about their futures.
Improving social mobility is a team effort. Our impact is only possible through the funding and volunteer support from the business community and the public sector organisations that partner with us.
This allows all our opportunities to be offered to teachers or schools at no cost to them.
Our 2025 strategy is focused on expanding and diversifying our offer to combine curriculum and career-linked activities with essential skills development opportunities.
This included a new activity framework consisting of Lightbulb Moments, Building Skills and Career Insights, and Intensive Connections aimed at Key Stage 3-5 (P7-S6) and contributing to Gatsby Benchmarks.
We deliver our bespoke programmes with partners through nationwide opportunities or target place-based interventions.
Feedback from our programmes demonstrate that the engagement of role models from industry is fundamental to inspiring and connecting young people to the world of work. Industry volunteers bring their own unique, career story into the classroom. This reassures young people that they do not need their futures mapped out and helps them to recognise the skills and strengths that are valuable in the workplace.
Our priorities for 2023-24 are:
- Expand and enhance our programme offer to students and teachers, working with a wide range of businesses and public sector organisations across the UK
- Integrate place-based activities and mentoring programmes within our intensive connections work streams
- Analyse and respond to the results from the first year of our new outcomes framework ensuring quality of content and delivery across all programmes
- Continue to develop our infrastructure to be an efficient and effective organisation including data management, marcomms, financial systems, workforce development and income generation
If you are inspired to support our mission, please contact our Head of Programmes and Partnerships via our contact form.
Our story
The Talent Foundry was founded in 2009 by Amy Leonard MBE.
Initially set-up as a grant funder with the objective of providing fully funded extra-curricular activities for school students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, we wanted to give these students opportunities that were experienced and enjoyed by their peers from more affluent schools.
In 2011, we transitioned to a service delivery organisation and developed an operating model of Design, Deliver and Evaluate, which created bespoke programmes and delivered in partnership with corporate donors. That year we also established our amazing ‘Rock Assembly’ event a combination of a career's festival and pop concert, becoming a real highlight of the year for the students we work with.
Educational inequalities cannot be solved by the education system alone