Where someone grows up, alongside their ethnicity and gender, continues to have a significant impact on their educational achievement and future career prospects, according to new research from the Sutton Trust.
The report, which builds on the charity’s Opportunity Index, suggests that while some disadvantaged groups outperform academically, these gains are not always reflected in the labour market, highlighting ongoing challenges for employers seeking to build fairer and more inclusive workplaces.
Among the findings, Bangladeshi girls eligible for free school meals (FSM) outperform the average pupil by 11% at school but go on to earn around 20% less than average as adults. More broadly, the report found that women from disadvantaged backgrounds consistently achieve stronger educational outcomes than men but often experience poorer employment and earnings outcomes later in life.
The research also challenges common assumptions about regional educational performance. While London’s schools continue to perform strongly overall, the report suggests this is largely influenced by the capital’s ethnic diversity. White working-class pupils in London actually perform slightly worse than their counterparts in the North East, despite attending schools in one of England’s highest-performing education systems.
The Sutton Trust also found that only 8% of White British and Black Caribbean adults who received free school meals become top earners by age 28, compared with around one in five disadvantaged Indian and Other Asian pupils.
For HR and people leaders, the findings reinforce the importance of considering social mobility alongside diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. As organisations compete for talent, relying solely on academic attainment or traditional recruitment pathways risks overlooking capable candidates whose backgrounds may have limited their opportunities.
The charity is calling for greater investment in disadvantaged communities, alongside more evidence-led approaches to tackling regional inequality and improving access to education and employment.
Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, said: “Talent exists in every community, but the routes to success are massively uneven. We also need to look long and hard at biases in the labour market which are still blocking success for many of those who beat the odds and do well at school.”
For employers, the research provides a timely reminder that creating diverse, high-performing workforces requires not only attracting talent from different backgrounds, but also ensuring recruitment, progression and development processes enable every employee to realise their potential regardless of where they started.
