TALKING HEADS
T
Changing mindsets about young people
I
Saeed Atcha MBE
Why business has
a huge role to play
in progressing
social mobility.
t’s not where you are that
needs to change, but the
opportunities need to be
there to allow you to change.
Later today, I’m taking my mum for
her Universal Credit appointment. This
could have been me — seeking work
and receiving state support.
My high-school corridors are where
my future could have forked. I was living
on a council estate on the peripheries
of criminal justice teams, brought up by
a single mum, in and out of care when
she became unwell.
I was a back-chatting brat, but
inquisitive and entrepreneurial. I
remember the slap downs to my
ambition, painfully. A teacher took a
school magazine project out of my
hands. “You need to focus on your
GCSEs instead,” she told me.
It wasn’t all about grades for me.
I wanted, and, in hindsight, needed,
something to focus on. After this, the
magazine became more than a project
that passed the time — I wanted to
prove that teacher wrong.
At the same time, the anti-youth
rhetoric was building because of the
fallout from the 2011 riots, vilifying young
people as animals, scum and yobs —
headlines reflected at me from the
newspapers in my local corner shop.
I knew the conversation needed
to change and I wanted to see young
people leading it. I set up Xplode
Magazine when I was 15. Today, the
“When I talk to
young people, most
are just striving for
a steady job”
magazine is part of a larger charity, Youth
Leads UK, that I serve as CEO.
Social mobility is all about giving
young people the best chance in life,
no matter their background, and it
has defined me. From a kid in care to
government commissioner for social
mobility. I admit that my journey is
somewhat extraordinary because when
I talk to young people I hear that most
are just striving for a steady job.
We consistently see that young
people lack experience and are getting
rejected for jobs because of it. It’s a
vicious circle that needs breaking, or we
risk stalling social mobility even further.
I don’t think it’s up to government
alone to solve the “lamentable”
social mobility track record. It was
private-sector engagement through
the Prince’s Trust’s Mosaic Enterprise
Challenge that made me think ‘outside
the box’ and see that there is more to life
than GCSE grades. It was the mentors
from businesses that came into school
to show me that there was a ‘different’
life for me, and it was the open days to
local employers that shone a light on
opportunities I didn’t know existed.
The state of social mobility is not
entirely without hope. I’m meeting
young people across the country who
are using social action as a route to
becoming more socially mobile, gaining
key skills and developing communities
around them. Young people care about
the world — especially those from
disadvantaged backgrounds. How can
we capitalise on this?
I’m proud to be a social mobility
commissioner because I want to
give back to a country that’s given so
much to me and bring young people’s
voices to the top table at the heart of
decision making.
My question to you is “how do
we ensure that my story isn’t just a
flash-in-the-pan case study but
a practical pathway for many other
young people? How do we change
mindsets around the type of talent that
we look for and hire?”
Saeed Atcha MBE, DL is the CEO for charity
Youth Leads UK and the government’s
social mobility commissioner.
February – May 2020 // 59