Prioritise transport to education and digital access in rural and coastal communities to transform opportunities for young people – experts urge peers

Prioritising transport links and digital access in rural and coastal communities would transform the lives of teenagers, University of Exeter experts have told members of the House of Lords.

Connections and opportunities would be more widely available if the UK followed the example of Iceland, where online access is a governmental priority, they have said.

The submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility also says local councils should have to provide key transport links from rural and coastal communities to education and training providers such as FE colleges at the right times of day to enable access to post-16 education and training.

The submission was put together by researchers at the University’s Centre for Social Mobility, staff working in widening participation, access, employability and regional engagement, and sociology and history academics.

They have also called for better data for each household to give clear information about those not in education or employment.

The submission highlights the University of Exeter’s work in the South West and beyond to boost social mobility and employability and give pupils experiences of higher education. It shows how universities support students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and invest in and deliver substantial programmes of activity to support learners traditionally under-represented in higher education to make informed decisions about their future, develop skills and confidence to apply to higher education.   

The submission says the Department for Work and Pensions should support local interventions designed to bring organisations together to help those at risk of becoming not in education or employment particularly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The submission outlines the successful work of Youth Engagement Project (Yep!) in Cornwall.

It says there should be support and an equally shared duty for effective collaboration between key regional organisations, including education, health, training and employment, to enhance access to qualifications, apprenticeships, and good employment.   

Shared targets and reporting around social mobility regarding access, progression, and transitions within education, training and employment would provide a glue for joined up thinking and activities. Data sharing agreements would enable joint fact finding, monitoring, interventions and evaluation.   

Counting success in a more collective – rather than individual – way, for example, within a geographic area – would put people’s needs more firmly in the centre of thinking and intervention. Funding models should include a social value or regional weighting factor to fairly bring funding into more sparsely populated areas   

Evaluations of investment in infrastructure should also include the measurement of social value, for example on young people living in rural and coastal areas accessing employment and education opportunities.  

Administrative barriers for employers to access apprenticeships should be removed to make them more appealing to small and medium sized employers.