Nearly a third of British universities are underrepresenting students from lower income backgrounds, even when those students meet the grades to get in. That’s not a talent problem but an access problem. Businesses can’t change who gets into university, but they do have direct influence over what happens next: who gets hired, who gets trained, and who gets the confidence and connections to progress. Corporate volunteering is one of the most direct ways businesses can act on that influence, using the skills already sitting across their organisation to help people in the community build the confidence, skills and connections that make it more likely they land a good job, and go on to progress in it.
This is a practical look at what that means: what social mobility actually is, why it’s become central to how social value gets measured, and how skills-based volunteering delivers it in ways that hold up to scrutiny rather than just good intentions.
What is social mobility, in practical terms?
Social mobility is whether someone can move into better paid, more secure work than the circumstances they were born into. In the UK, that movement has stalled in many areas. The Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation report describes extreme regional disparities, with former industrial and mining areas across the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands facing entrenched, multi-generational disadvantage.
It’s also not simply a matter of getting through the door. The Sutton Trust’s Elitist Britain research found that around 7% of the UK population attends private school, yet private schools supply well over a third of FTSE 100 chief executives. Background continues to shape outcomes well beyond someone’s first job.
For anyone working in social value or social impact, that’s the practical definition worth noting: not a general fairness principle, but a specific, measurable gap between where someone starts and where they end up.
Why social value now puts more weight on jobs and skills
UK Social Value has required serious attention from public sector suppliers since the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. What’s changed recently is precision. PPN 026, the Cabinet Office’s revised Social Value Model published in August 2026, narrows scored social value on central government contracts down to two outcomes: good jobs and skills, delivered through six award criteria covering fair pay, fair working conditions, job creation, training, in-work progression and talent pipelines. On contracts of £5 million or more, the minimum weighting given to social value now doubles from 10% to 20%.
Two points to bear in mind if you’re working across functions. First, this specific model applies only to central government departments and their agencies, on contracts over £1 million, local authorities, the NHS and housing associations aren’t required to follow it. Second, environmental and wellbeing criteria haven’t disappeared from public procurement generally, they’ve moved to separate requirements, such as carbon reduction plans, rather than being scored within this particular model.
For businesses engaging in public sector delivery, the practical takeaway is that a strong answer on jobs and skills can now carry real weight in winning central government work. It’s a powerful reason to make sure the volunteering and community programmes you already run are actually built to demonstrate that outcome, not just described as if they do.
How skills-based volunteering delivers a jobs and skills outcome
Skills-based volunteering puts an employee’s professional expertise directly in front of someone who needs it: a confident interview, honest career advice, a digital skill taught in person. These are best delivered through people, as opposed to documentation, which is exactly why volunteering is such a direct route to the outcome social value frameworks are trying to measure.
It works best when it’s aimed at a specific group, care leavers, school pupils from lower income backgrounds, people rebuilding a career after time out of work, and when it’s built to continue rather than end after a single session. A business doesn’t need to invent new expertise to do this, you already employ people who interview candidates, manage teams and use digital tools every day. Putting that knowledge to work for someone who needs it is one of the most practical, high impact things a business can do for social mobility.
Three skills-based volunteering programmes: examples in action
At Employee Volunteering, we’ve built many programmes around this principle, aimed at specific barriers to social mobility. A few examples are below.
Our ‘What’s a job?’ workshop takes school pupils through the practical reality of entering work, how to look for a job, how to perform well in an interview, and what to expect on the first day, delivered by people doing those jobs day to day. For pupils with no professional network at home, it’s often the first honest picture of work they get.
The Employee Volunteering AI Enterprise Challenge is one of our skills-based volunteering programmes designed to run with any school and any corporate partner. We recently delivered it with the Southwark Schools Learning Partnership, where sixty pupils across ten schools spent a day designing AI solutions to real problems, from ocean pollution to ethical AI, supported by volunteers from our corporate partners. The programme continues with monthly mentoring, and pupils graduate by presenting fully developed business plans, with visible growth in confidence and skill as the programme unfolds.
Our Digital Inclusion volunteering days offer practical, hands-on support for people who’ve been out of the workforce for a while, or who never had the chance to build confidence with tools most workplaces now assume everyone already knows. It’s unglamorous, but it’s often the difference between someone applying for a role and someone deciding not to.
How to build an enduring social mobility volunteering programme
Our partners getting most value from this work aren’t building one-off relationships with schools, charities and communities, they’re sustaining them. At Employee Volunteering, we can design your programmes to run over months and years rather than end after a single session, so the schools and charities we work with can rely on that support continuing, and businesses can point to a genuine multi-year commitment rather than a single entry in a bid response.
If you’re working out how your organisation’s social value strategy connects to social mobility, whether you sit in procurement, HR, community relations or corporate comms, Employee Volunteering can help you design a skills-based volunteering programme built around a specific barrier and a specific group, and built to last.
FAQs
What is the difference between social value and social mobility?
Social value is the broader social, economic and environmental benefit a business creates through how it delivers work. Social mobility is one specific outcome within that: whether someone can move into better paid, more secure work than the circumstances they were born into.
What is skills-based volunteering?
Skills-based volunteering is corporate volunteering that puts an employee’s professional expertise, such as interview technique, digital skills or industry knowledge, directly in front of people who need it, rather than general hands-on support. Employee Volunteering designs skills-based programmes around specific groups, including school pupils, care leavers and people rebuilding a career.
Which UK businesses need to focus on jobs and skills outcomes?
Any business bidding for central government contracts over £1 million is now scored against jobs and skills outcomes under PPN 026. Many other public sector buyers, and an increasing number of private sector clients, are adopting similar expectations even where they aren’t formally required to.
How can a business start a skills-based volunteering programme for social mobility?
Employee Volunteering works with businesses across HR, community relations, corporate comms and procurement to design skills-based volunteering programmes built around a specific barrier and a specific group, from school pupils preparing for work to people rebuilding a career.
What is PPN 026 (The Social Value Model) and what does it change?
PPN 026 (The Social Value Model) is a Cabinet Office policy, published in August 2026, that narrows social value scoring for central government contracts down to two outcomes: good jobs and skills. On contracts of £5 million or more, the minimum weighting given to social value doubles from 10% to 20%. Employee Volunteering helps businesses build social value programmes that respond directly to this shift in focus.
What is social mobility, and why does it matter to businesses?
Social mobility is whether someone can move into better paid, more secure work than the circumstances they were born into. It matters to businesses because jobs and skills outcomes, the areas PPN 026 now scores directly, are the practical mechanism through which social mobility improves. Employee Volunteering designs corporate volunteering programmes specifically around this outcome.
How does skills-based volunteering support social mobility?
It works by giving people direct access to the skills and confidence that usually come from a professional network, something not everyone has. Delivered consistently to a specific group, it builds the kind of jobs and skills outcome that both social mobility and social value frameworks like PPN 026 are designed to measure. Employee Volunteering’s skills-based programmes are built around this principle.
What social mobility programmes does Employee Volunteering run?
Employee Volunteering runs several skills-based volunteering programmes aimed at social mobility, including ‘What’s a job?’ workshops preparing school pupils for the world of work, the AI Enterprise Challenge, and digital inclusion support for people returning to the workforce.
