Sparta Global – a provider of technology training and careers for emerging talent in the UK – has today been named in the biggest-ever Social Mobility Employer Index, positioned as the 32nd best employer.
2021 marks the UK charity, the Social Mobility Foundation’s (SMF), fifth annual Employer Index: a national study examining how companies and organisations are driving social mobility within their workplace. Submissions reached a record high this year with 203 participating employers (up from 119 in 2020).
“Sparta Global was founded because of industry demand for emerging technology talent and a strong societal need to support early careers,” says Sparta Global CEO, David Rai. “We have always had a strong commitment to helping individuals from diverse and under-represented backgrounds to progress in technology – introducing bespoke talent attraction techniques that ensure we champion attitude and aptitude over educational background or prior experience.
Our inclusion in the Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index is welcome recognition for the hard work of our teams to tap into the potential of people from all socio-economic backgrounds. I am incredibly proud of the diverse talent community we have built at Sparta Global and how we continue to lead, learn and share our knowledge of how to support social mobility with other organisations in technology.”
The businesses and organisations represented in the Index have been identified as leading the way on social mobility. However, alongside the launch of the Index, the SMF’s Chair, Rt Hon. Alan Milburn, urged the UK Government to prioritise social mobility within its levelling-up agenda, arguing that people and place are the two critical aspects where opportunities must improve.
Rt Hon. Alan Milburn, Chair of the Social Mobility Foundation, says; “Employer-led social mobility will be vital in bridging the divide and delivering the levelling up agenda. All of the employers represented in the Index are showing that it is possible to create a society where it is not background or birth but aptitude and ability that dictate progress in life. They are providing it is possible to build back better. If we are to rescue the fraying promise of a meritocratic society, then more employers must join them, and government must follow suit in taking targeted action to address social mobility”.
View the full Index Key Findings Report on the SMF website.
About Sparta Global:
Sparta Global is a technology services company specialising in the provision of highly skilled “Spartan” consultants – trained to add value in any workplace environment.
Predominantly an early-careers and graduate employer, Sparta Global gives individuals with a passion for technology access to free training in areas such as; Software Development, DevOps, Test, Data, CyberSecurity and Business Analysis. We equip our Spartans with the collaborative and analytic skills they need to power short and long-term digital projects, connecting organisations with a diverse pool of technology talent that has the knowledge to take advantage of emerging technology trends.
At the completion of their Academy courses, our Spartans are assigned to work on projects with Sparta Global clients across the UK. We now attract, train, deliver and support business and technology professionals for more than a hundred organisations across the UK and Ireland.
About the Social Mobility Foundation
The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity that aims to make practical improvements in social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds through its Aspiring Professional Programme, its Social Mobility Employer Index, and its advocacy and campaigning arm, the Department for Opportunities (DO).
Currently taking on a new cohort of over 2,000 young people every year, the SMF has offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle and runs programmes for young people from the Isle of Wight to the Western Isles of Scotland across 11 career sectors (Accountancy, Architecture, Banking & Finance, Biology & Chemistry, Business, Engineering & Physics, Law, Media & Communications, Medicine, Politics, and Digital).
About the Social Mobility Employer Index
The Social Mobility Employer Index was launched in 2017 and has grown to become the leading authority on employer-led social mobility. It assesses and ranks UK employers on the actions they take to ensure they are open to talent from all social backgrounds.
The Social Mobility Employer Index is comprised of two elements: questions directed at employers, and an employee survey which was introduced in 2018. Employers are evaluated across seven areas: their work with young people, routes into the employer, the attraction of staff, recruitment and selection, data collection, progression of staff and experienced hires and advocacy. The employee survey adds qualitative insights and contextualises the data provided in the employer submissions. Employers are then benchmarked against one another based on the results. The data and insights from this process are published in an annual Key Findings Report which features a ranking of the 75 top-performing employers on social mobility that year.
Today Sparta Global has been announced as one of 252 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise, and one of just eight companies to be awarded for its excellence in Promoting Opportunity (social mobility).
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