Find out about a charity that supports improving social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds and how STEM professionals can get involved in supporting as mentors or with opportunities to develop confidence and skills.

What we do

The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity that aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds.

With the help of professionals across 11 different sectors, including biology, chemistry, engineering and physics, we aim to support students who have the academic abilities to flourish in the top universities and professions, but who lack the encouragement, confidence and networks to help them get there.

We work with students from S5, throughout university until they find employment. More about our work can be found here.

SMF in Glasgow

We opened an office in Glasgow in 2016 to support more students across Scotland. Over 160 students have applied to our 2017 programme across Scotland, and over half of students are interested in a STEM career. We have a network of 80 professionals across Scotland who are supporting our work, from organisations including CH2M, Ashurst and University of Strathclyde.

Ways to get involved

Become an SMF mentor

Becoming an SMF mentor is a great way to see someone develop and help them to reach their potential by giving them useful insights into how to get a job like yours. Being a mentor is just a 15 – 30 minute commitment every fortnight via email.

Host a skills session

Being involved in a skills session would be a small, but valuable, use of time: by discussing your career history to a group of students and answering their questions you’ll be providing them a real-insight into the sector they want to work in.

Work Experience

You could provide a short 1-2 week work taster that takes place during the school holidays between. We are not prescriptive over the tasks students undertake, the most important thing is that the internship is structured in order to give a real insight into the profession. Sample itineraries can be provided by the SMF to give you ideas of what your week can involve.

Our Results

  • 63% of our students entered a Russell Group university.
  • 89% of our supporters felt that working with SMF allowed their organisation to reach students they wouldn’t usually reach.
  • 95% of our students feel more confident about entering a professional career.

Contact us

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Megan via Megan.Beattie@socailmobility.org.uk or 0141 353 5639. You can also visit the Social Mobility Foundation website to find out more and sign up online by completing a short form.