In this current generation what is the key to social mobility for working class & lower middle?

[Nurserymumm]

With brexit, not living in a gramme area & the huge cost of living crisis, social mobility seems impossible for most..

It's this kind of simplistic response that absolutely will not help regardless of the views we may hold.

There are all sorts of world issues that impact life and the advice requested is how to thrive in whatever environments the future may throw at us, not harp on what we might hope for personally. There are some people that do well in all sorts of circumstances, regardless of politics and economic circumstances, that is what the OP is asking about

Now a young couple expect a flat. They expect it furnished.
Wut .
Well yes. I was young in the 90s, so definitely not young now, but I expected a full time working couple to be able to rent a flat , and even save a bit, and not have to sleep in stables 😂
And we could. It's not exactly an overly entitled ask that two graduates working full time can rent a one bed flat and have an ok life.....In fact I remember my very hard working, working class and immigrant grandparents telling me about the house they rented as a young couple starting out. It should be normal to be able to expect basic housing!

I dont know. They say social mobility is going backwards. I'm not convinced its to do with education, but the way the workplace is structured. There isnt much opportunity to work up a career ladder. I dont know if its automation so jobs that used to be a start point dont exist, or off shoring aspects to graduates elsewhere, or just the ways jobs are broken down for efficiencies meaning there is no overview.

Delayed gratification is - and always has been - the single most important factor: recognising that doing stuff you don't especially enjoy now will mean you get much more of the things you enjoy in the future. So, avoiding all the "have this now" messages from advertising, social media, etc., is crucial. I get so annoyed with parents who expose their children to more advertising than is absolutely unavoidable.

But the other important things are curiosity, imagination and flexibility. Schools are never going to make you aware of all the possibilities life offers, especially if they are having to put lots of resources into supporting children who barely have enough to eat or clothes/shoes to wear. There are endless opportunities to develop creative, analytical and technical skills that have nothing to do with what schools can offer. In fact, for a genuiniely curious child, school is just a distraction from actual education; this was the case even when I was at school in the nineteen-seventies. Just knowing that you can find things out for yourself rather than waiting for someone else to teach you them is a massive step.

Wet Londoner, opportunities to make money without a classic education have always been there and the entrepreneurial spirit

Not him also

I agree to a certain extent. Re advertising I think it's important to explain advertising rather than ban it, because you can't.

Infact those children magazine with cheap tat on the front taught my DC about advertising when that tat broke easily!

Also delayed gratification works really well when studying or saving.
However sometimes something needs that "energy's" of right now. ..

People have no use of delayed gratification if they have no goal.
If someone has a goal it makes everything much easier.

I think that is a VERY good point. I recently started from the bottom as a mid life career changer, and it's very different than it was years ago. Roles are so incredibly rigid, there's little scope for initiative, and promotion only follows a very narrow path that only works for a certain type of person. Back in the day, you could be a bit of a square peg, a bit eccentric, and find a niche. Now , I don't know, it has a feel of total conformity. Extreme capitalism I guess?

I think kids that do and continue to an older age, activities like scouts / DoE etc get a lot of the confidence and skills that help with social mobility as they get older. Skills that private schools teach but often state schools don't have the time or funding to concentrate on, as it's not assessed by exam.
I was discussing this with a friend the other week as we both have associated roles in HE . Students often have issues when entering HE with lots of the soft skills around confidence and independence. Team building, independent study, confidence for presentation, research skills etc.
She also says it's not about money but having parents who can provide a curiosity for the world. Lots of 'new money' parents don't do this and despite having money to chuck at resources the kids don't prosper in the same way as those whose parents foster interest, curiosity and opportunities to look at wider things like art, literature, music, travel, adventure, sport etc in addition to the basics of education.

Velda "There are tons of working class kids who got good degrees but couldn’t get jobs. Because they live in deprived areas where jobs with training and progression aren’t available."

No there aren't tons of WC kids with good degrees. Define 'good degree'. I can, but it's not film studies where you can get in without so much as Maths or English GCSE. (Personal knowledge).

And then you talk of jobs with 'training and progression'- that tends to be 16+ kids, not 21+ with 'a good degree'. They'll get professional progression. To £100k+ pa.

velda @The lower classes didn’t have the opportunity to go to university, while the upper-middle classes always did, and the high paid jobs were academic while manual labour was paid a pittance."

I don't completely disagree with you except to say manual labour wasn't necessarily paid 'a pittance'. The pay gap between highest and lowest was waaaay smaller in the 60/70/80s. People in manual jobs could afford houses back then. Or lived securely in normal, affordable, everyday council houses, part of their communities.

All that has changed.

The Germans differentiate young, yes. But your fate isn't sealed at 11, as once it was. I had thus very convo with my cousin in Sept 22 who lives in Germany with her teenage DC.

Also, 'trade/technical' is highly valued in Germany, whereas, in Britain, anything that's not a degree is disregarded.

And, DC doing vocational courses do state mandated ones, proper courses (no Costa 'apprentice barista' shite, there)and continue to study maths and languages like English as they do their apprenticeships.

Whereas we allow Tory donor grifters to set up the 'academic' provision of these 'new/modern' apprenticeships. Cash for zilch. Who then go bust.

Education and an open mind. A lot of the issues around social mobility are because people perceive they cannot do things, do not fit and get imposters syndrome. Self belief gets you a long way.

It is the death of mid-level roles that bridge the gap between low skills and high skills - using those terms loosely. That middle gap is increasingly being filled by automation, apps and software. You still need office cleaners (whose jobs are too menial to be automated) but cleaners are not going to be promoted to mid or senior management in the office. The people who will become mid to senior management are already tertiary educated. What is a working class person with just GCSEs, Btec or A levels going to do in an office. Those roles like secretaries and receptionists still exist, but increasingly, those roles are being replaced by PAs and software. And the secretaries that remain will need to be tech savvy.

Education is the key to bridging the gap in a tech-driven world.