Home

The Government commissioned Alan Milburn and the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions to recommend how they could open up the professions and ensure they are no longer the sole preserve of the well-off or those with the right social connections. A report was produced in July 2009 which made many mentoring recommendations amongst others.

Now the Government has responded to the recommendations in Unleashing Aspiration: The Government Response to the Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions and those accepted which aim to increase mentoring and work experience opportunities for young people include:

• Developing a network of inspirational mentors
• More opportunities for mentoring within the Gifted and Talented programme
• A national network of career mentors made up of young professionals and university students to mentor school pupils. Also establish a national work taster scheme for older school pupils linked with this
• Develop a national database of people willing to act as role models or mentors for young people in their former schools
• Information Advice and Guidance strategy 2009 sets out measures including increased opportunities for mentoring and work tasters for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Create a website to link young people to existing online information about professional careers and schemes such as internships and mentoring programmes

Seed-corn funding of between £2.5 million and £3 million will be brought forward to fund the proposals on mentoring, work tasters and the online portal.

Read the full report: Unleashing Aspiration: The Government Response to the Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions (January 2010)

Read the Alan Milburn report: Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions (July 2009)