Paying for private tuition on top of a child's standard schooling is growing increasingly popular. But its use is creating a two-tier system, with wealthier families able to pay to secure their children advantages that poorer families simply cannot afford. For almost two decades, Sutton Trust research has highlighted the growth of private…

This report looks at the progress made during secondary school of young people from different backgrounds who were in the top third of attainers at the end of primary school. High attaining pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have the best chance of becoming socially mobile, and "Social Mobility: The Next Generation" will explore,…

In recent years, there has been a large push to increase the supply and quality of apprenticeships. The Apprenticeship Levy--a form of taxation designed to help businesses offer apprenticeships--was introduced in 2017, alongside other policy changes such as the move from Frameworks to Standards and new rules on the quality of training. But despite…

England has a 'pre-qualification' system of higher education admissions, where applications and offers are made to young people before exam results are received. While in most cases offers are conditional on achieving a grade target in A Level exams, recent years have seen an exponential growth in 'unconditional offers', where the offer of a place…

From acting in an award-winning film to producing a number one album, getting to the top of the creative industries is a dream for many young people. But access to such careers, both behind the scenes and in front of an audience, is currently far from equal. For young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in particular, there are major…

In the wake of last summer's disruption to the Higher Education entry process, this year's cohort of young people finishing school and college have faced their second consecutive year of disruption to their education, impacting their schooling, their exams and assessment, and the transition to their next steps in education. In 2021 pupils' grades…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

This year has seen exams take place again for the first time since 2019, a move back towards the pre-pandemic norm for schools and colleges across the country. But the cohort of young people taking exams this year have faced years of disruption to their educations, which has continued even when they've been back in the classroom. Mitigations for…

Earlier this year, the Sutton Trust released "Internships -- unpaid, unadvertised, unfair"; which examined current available evidence on internships in the UK. Following increased attention to the topic in the period since the Sutton Trust first looked at this issue in 2014, there appears to have been some progress on the lack of pay for…

Analysis from London Economics for the Sutton Trust shows that the reforms to student finance introduced in October will reduce student loan repayments for graduates by £8,000. However, the report raises concern that these changes do not go far enough to tackle the problems of high student debt and its consequences for both graduates and the…

University students have faced a challenging year, and the academic experience has been widely discussed. But higher education is much broader than just what happens in the lecture hall, with the benefits of the university experience coming from participation in extra-curricular activities, work placements and other enrichment activities, as well…

Secondary schools have managed significant changes in the Key Stage 4 curriculum they offer in response to changes in performance tables and accountability measures from 2010 onwards. In this piece, the authors assess how these changes are starting to affect the educational choices and successes of pupils at the ages of 16 and 18. This is…

Despite increasing numbers of young people going on to higher education, a university degree still confers a substantial advantage in the labour market. However, not all degrees are created equal. This report examines how graduate career outcomes differ depending on the subject they studied and the university they attended. Key findings include:…

This report supplements Jerrim (2012) where John Jerrim investigated the link between family background and children's reading tests across a series of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Previous studies for the Sutton Trust (Smithers 2012) have suggested that policy and provision for the highly able in…

This report looks at children's education careers by drawing on data from a sample of more than 3,000 young people who have been tracked through school since the age of three. In particular, this research identified a group of disadvantaged children, establishing what predicted their academic success at the age of 11 and following them up to age…