Peerscroller, PSHE, and Social Mobility
Author: Matthew Dagnall
This week saw the announcement of Yipiyap’s newest service, the peer PSHE platform, Peerscroller. This Social Mobility Day, we’re asking, what is social mobility? And what role does PSHE education have to play?
What is social mobility?
Social mobility is the ability of individuals or families to improve their economic circumstances over time, whether that takes place in a single person’s lifetime or from generation to generation.
Most people agree that social mobility is one of the goals of a fair society. What is more hotly debated is whether social mobility is something we’ve achieved yet in any meaningful sense.
Progress is slow. Across countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it takes nearly five generations for children from low-income backgrounds to achieve the country’s average income.¹
Evidently, more can be done.
Why is social mobility important?
Firstly, equality of opportunities is a moral issue. A society where those born with advantage retain that over their peers is simply not fair.
Secondly, social mobility benefits us all. How many brilliant scientists or artists have been unable to change to world because of lack of opportunity? If we empower everybody to fulfil their potential, we all benefit from innovations that might have been missed.
Similarly, boosting the number of people in our society with access to rewarding work will inevitably grow the economy and give a boost to tax revenues.
In short: when society is fairer, we all win.
Why does social mobility require effort?
The tricky thing about social mobility is that inequality is self-perpetuating.
A truly meritocratic society would play out like a game of Scrabble: even somebody who falls behind can make a comeback with a bit of luck and skill.
But poverty in an unequal society plays out like a game of Monopoly where it’s already obvious who’ll win: those with money have more opportunities to advance, and to reinforce their advantage. Those without, don’t, and continue to fall further behind.
This creates a self-perpetuating cycle that reinforces itself rather than resolving over time. That means it’s on us to act if we want things to change.
How does education affect social mobility?
How can we do that? Inequality is a huge, complex challenge, without a single solution.
One tool that will help, though, is education – and crucially, equality of access to quality education for all.
Learners from disadvantaged backgrounds have been shown to underperform at school compared to their more privileged peers.² This effect is called the attainment gap.
Where educators are not mindful of social mobility, education can even serve to widen this gap, exacerbating the inequalities. But when learners from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to support that will allow them to catch up, the gap can be closed.³
And here, we see the flip side of the self-perpetuating cycle: if we can close the gap for one group of young people, it might stay closed for generations to come.
Yipiyap’s mission
Yipiyap’s mission began with the idea of improving maths competencies for all people – something we know makes a huge difference to future success, and something which is unequally and unfairly distributed in our society.⁴
We’ve made it our mission to “help every learner … whatever setbacks they face”.
We chose those words carefully.
Education will only make a difference if everybody gets a chance to benefit.
And we can’t shy away from the truth that some learners do face setbacks. It has become a norm to euphemistically describe those as “challenges to overcome” – but we believe that is doing a disservice to those young people.
In reality, not everybody begins life with the same advantages. Unless we acknowledge that, it won’t change.
Peerscroller and social mobility
We’re immensely proud of the difference our gap year tutors have made over Yipiyap’s past decade. Working almost exclusively in state schools across England, our targeted peer intervention has widened opportunities and changed lives for the better.
But schools face an increasingly challenging climate. The cost-of-living crisis, staff retention challenges, and dwindling funding pots make have made accessible, affordable, and effective support more vital than ever.
Here’s why we think it can make a difference.
Education as a leveller
September 2024 will see the launch of Peerscroller, bringing engaging PSHE education to classrooms and smartphones across the country.
Much of Yipiyap’s work in the past twelve years has rightly targeted numeracy and literacy – key skills for all young people.
But PSHE is another brick in the foundations of a fair and equitable society. The Skills Builder Partnership has demonstrated the importance of non-academic, “soft” skills to social mobility, such as creativity, communication, and resilience.⁵
Similarly, skills like financial education⁶ and knowledge of physical and mental health⁷ are unequally distributed in society, creating traps for those already at a disadvantage.
It is our hope that Peerscroller can change that.
Cost accessibility
PSHE is an area of education with little dedicated funding, within the context of an education system that is broadly underfunded to begin with. 2024 may be a more challenging year for schools than many in living memory.
Peerscroller represents some of Yipiyap’s cost-effective support to date.
On top of that, we’re already working with corporate social responsibility leads in the world of business to sponsor Peerscroller access in disadvantaged communities.
Addressing poverty of time
Time is a hidden cost of poverty.
A privileged young person might benefit from the luxuries of a home close to high-achieving schools, and a parent who can drop them off and pick them up. Their disadvantaged peers often enjoy no such advantages.
While an affluent family might be able to afford childcare, disadvantaged young people may babysit younger siblings while their peers are studying.
These are just a couple of examples, but the trend adds up. Simply put, time is a precious luxury.
Peerscroller’s unique short-form structure makes learning possible anywhere learners can find 60 seconds – be that at the bus stop, in a queue, or in a waiting room.
Role models that speak your language
Finally, Peerscroller retains Yipiyap’s all-important secret ingredient: near-peer tutors.
The advantages are twofold.
Firstly, our peer tutors are uniquely positioned to reach learners from all backgrounds – simply by speaking naturally.
The added benefit of this is comprehensibility. The government’s 2011 Skills for Life survey found that 42% of 16-19 year olds had a literacy level of 1 or lower – equivalent to (contemporaneous) GCSE grades D-G.⁸
Education in language that’s hard to understand and difficult to engage with will necessarily fall short.
Call it accessible language, relatable language, or simply talking like a human – regardless, it makes education accessible to everybody.
Secondly, the benefits of strong role models are incalculable – especially when you can see yourself in them. Our Yipiyap tutors come from communities all over the country, virtually guaranteeing that learners will have an inspiring role model who represents them.
We’ve been working hard to champion equality of opportunity and change young lives for the better for years. Peerscroller is simply the latest implementation of that – and we couldn’t be more proud of it, or more excited to see what a difference it will make.
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