The Social Mobility Podcast

Lee Elliot Major OBE: “Imagine if we tapped into the talent of all people in this country, all people in the world.”

Making The Leap

Lee Elliot Major OBE is the UK’s first Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter. He has spent a lifetime researching how to uplift who he calls children from under-resourced backgrounds. Lee previously served as the Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust and played a key role as a founding trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation. His most recent book, "Equity in Education", introduces a pioneering equity-centred approach tailored for schools.

In this episode, Lee tells us about his working-class background, being the first in his family to go to higher education, and what it was like climbing that social ladder. He explains how both education and business have a role to play in social mobility. And how social economic background should be a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act.

 

Find out more about Lee and his work here.


Your host is Tunde Banjoko OBE, founder of Making The Leap.