Our mission: Futures For All
As the UK’s leading social mobility charity, we are dedicated to levelling the playing field for all young people in state education by providing fully funded access to our Work Experience and Speakers for Schools programmes.
Through our partnerships and activities, we have supported almost 2 million students, helping to shift socioeconomic outlooks and move towards a fairer future with equality of opportunity and a more diverse workforce. Our commitment is clear – we want to ramp up our support for state schools and colleges to ensure that, by 2028, every young person has access to fully funded, high-quality work experience.
Talent is everywhere across this country, but opportunity is not. It’s time to put that right.
Our story (so far)
In 2010, we were founded as Speakers for Schools by ITV’s Political Editor, Robert Peston, starting a journey which has inspired thousands of young people in state education nationwide.
We have facilitated a wide range of exciting talks, from Bill Gates to Alex Scott, from CEOs to adventurers, from comedians to barristers, and everyone in between.
15 years on and fresh from celebrating our anniversary, we have become one of the most influential social mobility charities and the largest provider of work experience in the country. To better represent the breadth of what we do and our ambition to provide fair futures for all young people, in September 2025, we changed our name from Speakers for Schools to Futures For All.
Now, alongside our Speakers for Schools programme of powerful inspirational talks, we are ready
to use our Work Experience programme to get all young people flying on the career ladder.
Social mobility, explained
Social mobility refers to a shift in socioeconomic status, with greater equality of opportunity typically linked to improved outcomes in earnings, income, social class, health, and education.
Why is equality of opportunity so important?
Higher levels of social mobility are a good indicator of a country’s economic growth and signify a fairer distribution of power, wealth, and opportunity in society. Yet currently, the UK has one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the developed world. Research shared by The Sutton Trust revealed that, despite accounting for just 7% of the pupil population, privately educated people occupy 39%
of ‘top jobs’ in this country, even though their state-educated peers achieve the same grades.
“While talent is spread evenly across the country, opportunity isn’t. Where you are born and
who you are born to are strong predictors of performance at school and future life chances.”
Nick Brook, CEO, Futures For All
Our Futures For All network
Over 2,200 state schools/colleges
Our network includes 70,000 young people in state education, spread across the UK.
Over 350 active employers
Our Work Experience programme is home to a growing list of Social Mobility Partners.
Over 1,500 inspirational speakers
Our Speakers for Schools programme connects students with a vast speaker network.
Access our programmes
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At Futures For All, our name speaks clearly to our commitment to delivering on our social purpose.
That’s why everything we do is informed by the evidence of our research and underpinned by a relentless focus on impact, demonstrated by the measurable benefits reported from our programmes. Through benchmarking, quality assurance, external reviews and consulting our in-house Youth Council, we strive to inform policy, shape practices on work experience, and offer the very best support to students from all social backgrounds.
Our purpose and impact
“I would never have found work experience with Bentley Motors without Futures For All, and I really enjoyed learning about the business. The car design challenge was so exciting.”
Yen Li
Torquay
“Working with Spaceport Cornwall has further inspired me to pursue a career in aerospace engineering and allowed me to meet people who do jobs similar to those I want later in life.”
Beau
Birmingham
“In June 2021, I started the first day of my remote work experience with FinTrU… Fast forward to June 2023, and I took part in the same work experience programme, however, this time as an employee at FinTrU.”
Lara
Belfast
At Futures For All, our name speaks clearly to our commitment to delivering on our social purpose.
That’s why everything we do is informed by the evidence of our research and underpinned by a relentless focus on impact, demonstrated by the measurable benefits reported from our programmes. Through benchmarking, quality assurance, external reviews and consulting our in-house Youth Council, we strive to inform policy, shape practices on work experience, and offer the very best support to students from all social backgrounds.
“In June 2021, I started the first day of my remote work experience with FinTrU… Fast forward to June 2023, and I took part in the same work experience programme, however, this time as an employee at FinTrU.”
Lara
Belfast
“I would never have found work experience with Bentley Motors without Futures For All, and I really enjoyed learning about the business. The car design challenge was so exciting.”
Yen Li
Torquay
“Working with Spaceport Cornwall has further inspired me to pursue a career in aerospace engineering and allowed me to meet people who do jobs similar to those I want later in life.”
Beau
Birmingham