This report examines how access to 'assumed knowledge' - certain unspoken, untaught information that helps them ‘get ahead’ - varies among young people based on socioeconomic background, and the way it hinders social mobility.
About ‘assumed knowledge’ – what is it and how did SMF go about quantifying it?
- Despite decades of effort to close education and employment gaps across socioeconomic backgrounds, these disparities persist. Research suggests the issue lies not only in academic abilities but also in access to “assumed knowledge” – unspoken, untaught knowledge crucial for successfully transitioning into adulthood.
- Assumed knowledge, categorized into six areas (education system, career planning, job applications, work culture, high culture, and confidence), was identified through interviews with 150 young people aged 20-29. In the next stage of the report, a survey of about 1,000 young people aged 15-21 the level of awareness was gauged and responses broken down by socio-economic factors to explore gaps.
Figure 1: SMF Simplified Assumed Knowledge Framework
Key findings:
- 25% of 15-21 year olds are unable to pick out the University of Cambridge as the most prestigious university from a list of institutions, a figure rising to 35% for those eligible for free school meals and 36% among those whose parents did not attend university.
- Nearly half (48%) of young people were unaware that graduates earned more than non-graduates. Those on free school meals are less likely to know the fact.
- 95% of 15-18 year olds who have a parent/guardian with a post-graduate degree ask their friends or family for advice, compared to 67% of those who were on free school meals
- Private school students were 11 percentage points more likely to have spoken to a careers advisor at school.
- Young people with connections in prestigious industries such as law, medicine and academia had higher levels of assumed knowledge. 31% of young people who attended a state school did not know anyone in those professions.
- 65% of those with university-educated parents felt confident speaking with senior professionals. compared to 49% of those with non-graduate parents.
- Private school pupils are more likely deploy alternative (and assertive) tactics: for example, 19% would email current employees at the company whilst 13% of state school students would
- High culture: Despite its prominence in the literature, politics and policy discussion, high cultural knowledge was not seen by young people as important for young people’s transition from education into employment.
Recommendations:
Our recommendations are aimed at increasing the level of assumed knowledge, especially among those from less affluent backgrounds, and making the system less disadvantageous for those who lack it.
They include: two weeks’ worth of work experience for all young people; embedding assumed knowledge into the curriculum, for example by using data on average salaries in maths classes; a more proactive role for the National Careers Service with ‘career check-ins’ starting once young people have left compulsory education, and then at four-year intervals; adding careers provision to key criteria on which schools are graded in Ofsted inspections; universities to structure degrees more flexibly, inspired by US-style ‘minor’ and ‘major’ system, to allow young people to make more informed educational choices at a later stage in their lives than in the current system.
