BRADFORD'S BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN HELPING BUILD AN ETHOS OF SOCIAL MOBILITY IN ITS PART OF YORKSHIRE, AS FIT FOR PURPOSE REPORTS.

Through engaging with local stakeholders, and responding to local needs, it can shape and deliver connections to provide opportunity. But, to make a lasting difference, this has to be a long-term and systematic strategy, grounded in the local community and supported by government. The university’s contribution complements Bradford’s Opportunity Area Programme set up in 2016, as a partnership between the Department for Education and Bradford Council with local schools, colleges, employers, research organisations and community organisations, for a series of targeted investments to improve social mobility. The original Opportunity Area, part of a national pilot scheme, reached more than 97% of the frontline and the government is now providing additional funding. While driven by local stakeholders, the Department for Education, with its nationwide experience of what works and its existing links with local education staff and institutions and other government departments, has been essential to its success. The Opportunity Area has helped to build links with key employers in the area and the University of Bradford’s collaborative approach has allowed it to work in partnership with other organisations in the area to mobilise the resources that already existed within the community. It provides skilled graduates who can then find quality careers, generating wealth and social mobility for the city. Employers across the city are now embedding graduate opportunities within their growth plans.

The university has targeted those sectors in which skills are in short supply, demand is great and the volume of opportunities for well paid, rewarding careers are high. STEM-related industries and healthcare are among the areas in which it is excelling. PwC was one employer who recognised that the city was able to offer a pool of talent when it decided to open new offices in Bradford in 2019. Often, the partnerships forged have reaped unlooked for results. For example, when the university worked with the local NHS to look at children’s eyesight, it found that many children attending school had undiagnosed poor vision. Once this was identified and treated, it had a marked effect on their literacy rates. Through outreach work and mentoring, the university engages with hard to reach and low participation groups, including refugees and care leavers, so that they are aware of the opportunities available on their doorstep. Meanwhile, within the university, support services – with in-depth knowledge about social mobility barriers and how to tackle them - are primed to accelerate the progression of graduates and keep individuals on track, whatever personal problems they encounter. The university has recruited three full-time equivalent personnel to work with schools with a high proportion of low attainment children aged nine to 13 and it has eight full-time staff whose primary focus is disability. The University of Bradford is an exemplar in the way it approaches cultural factors that can hinder social mobility. Whether through raising aspirations in white working class communities or challenging career preconceptions among BAME families, its aim is to ensure that background doesn’t dictate how far a person can go in life. The university is part of Graduate Workforce Bradford, which aims to place 60 BAME graduates in employment, placements or internships. However, COVID-19 has brought additional challenges for some of these families, with the disease more likely to prove serious in those with black and ethnic minority backgrounds. BAME households are also twice as likely to report that they have lost jobs or income because of the pandemic. The University of Bradford can proudly point out that the number of students it takes from those postcodes where participation in higher education has historically been lowest is now rising faster than in the rest of the UK, as acknowledged in its award as University of the Year for Social Inclusion in 2019. Its intervention is enabling these young people to transform their life chances and pursue their career ambitions. Furthermore, the majority of graduates are finding opportunities within the West Yorkshire region, proving that social mobility is possible without moving to opportunity-rich London and 85% of the university’s graduates are in a professional or managerial position within six months of graduation. The university enhances life opportunities for those people who attend, nurturing them as they go from school children to working adults. It benefits them as individuals but also provides talent and therefore wealth for the local community. The University of Bradford remains at the heart of life in Bradford, bringing together and supporting local partnerships to deliver opportunity for the city. The impact of COVID-19 will be significant on already disadvantaged communities, so it’s even more important that the vital role that Opportunity Areas - and the university as intrinsic to that in Yorkshire - can continue to develop and respond to local circumstances.