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Milburn says government must rally mentors to open up professions to all young people

The government's adviser on social mobility has called for more mentors and role models to encourage children to take up the professions currently dominated by "the social elite".

Alan Milburn said professions such as politics, medicine, law and journalism remain a “closed shop” to many young people and argued that little progress is being made to open these careers up to children from all backgrounds.

In his report Fair Access to Professional Careers Milburn said to overcome these barriers the government must introduce a national scheme of career mentoring, whereby young professional and university students mentor students in years 9 to 13.

He also recommended that the government start a national campaign headed by “inspirational role models” to encourage more young people to aspire to a professional career.

In the forward to the report, Milburn said: “Overall, the government has shown good intentionality when it comes to trying to improve fair access to a professional career, even though it is making more progress in some areas than in others.

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