Social Mobility Partnership

Born out of the multiple award winning Legal Social Mobility Partnership, SMBP is a volunteer led charity which brings together over 100 professional services firms, commercial organisations and professional sports teams committed to supporting students from low income backgrounds in their pursuit of a career, in particular, as a legal or finance professional.

SMBP currently runs programmes to include students from Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Norwich, Oldham and Reading, successfully unifying efforts to promote social mobility in the legal and accountancy professions through partnerships with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, ACCA, the ICEAW, CILEx, Law Society of Scotland, The Bar Standards Board, The Faculty of Advocates, ACCA, ICAS, IntoUniversity and the Sutton Trust.

SMBP works to:

• break down psychological ‘fitting in’ barriers students may experience when entering the world of business by providing them with an opportunity to experience different working environments and meet the professionals within them;
• develop students’ commercial awareness and skills in the following areas: interviewing, team working, relationship building, presenting, influencing, resilience, goal planning and negotiation;
• arm students with multiple corporate brand names to create stand out Personal Statements and CVs;
• provide engaging business game focussed work insight experiences to create anecdotes to enable students to confidently answer competency questions asked during university and job interviews; and
• assist students with each step of their career journey through online virtual coaching on Personal Statement/CV creation, completion of application forms and interview preparation.