Impact

It’s a “win-grin” situation

When young people succeed, communities flourish. We believe that no-one’s background should ever hold them back. Read more about our impact below:

Details

Our 2023/2024 numbers

young people supported through our programmes

student work experience hours
(much of which was paid)

hours of volunteering across our programmes

of the students who attended our programmes said they felt more confident about their future

claimed they felt more motivated about education

claimed the sessions helped them become aware of more career pathways

What this means

Angel shown above enters Thomson Reuters on work experience. Within one year she is a full-fledged data engineer.
Zak's story, from Catford to Cambridge.
Four young black men who were 14 in 2009 and at risk of exclusion from school have graduated. Today, Gavin is SEO Manager at CMC Markets, Kofi is Vice President at HSBC Innovation Banking, Chad is a BAFTA-nominated Sound Fx Editor/Sound Designer, TJ is Relationship Manager at Transaction Network Services.
Jadon recently started his Management Consultant apprenticeship at PwC. Find out how he got there.

Mentee Testimonials

Read about the impact of our mentoring programme on young people below.

Apr. 29, 2025

UK Power Networks and my mentor changed everything

What are the challenges for social mobility?

Social Mobility in London is stagnant according to The Mayor's Fund for London & Oliver Wyman report One City Two Worlds report of 2020.

of London’s professional jobs are occupied by people from lower socio economic backgrounds.
One City, Two Worlds, 2021

Among 16 to 24 year olds – 58% of white people and 39% for people from ethnic minorities were employed (Gov.UK, 2023)

A quarter of young people from low income backgrounds believe that ‘people like me’ do not succeed in life
One City, Two Worlds, 2021

Our Data

An Urban Synergy survey of 600 pupils at 14 London schools with higher-than-average rates of free school meals found:

Some 49 per cent are interested in applying for financial jobs
Among those self-identifying as Black, this rises to 64 per cent
When they do work experience in a financial body, such as M&G, WTW, Legal & General, Dynamic Planner or the London Stock Exchange that figure jumps to over 90 per cent.

This means that young people in urban areas are keen to sidestep academic underachievement, long-term unemployment and the lure of crime, and go into the many advising, tech, marketing, HR, data analytic and other relatively well-paid roles

Our Research

Urban Synergy’s research has uncovered a dilemma for companies wishing to increase the number of people from ethnic minorities and disadvantaged backgrounds in their workforces and on their boards.

While many FTSE500 and large companies are making progress on this front, our white paper argues that they risk increasingly looking to graduates from elite schools to sit on their non-executive boards, rather than cultivating new executive Talent.

Read our white paper

Academically Speaking

Since 2007, we’ve helped thousands of young people from schools with higher than average rates of free school meals make it to university.

Hear how one young man, aged 9, asked for our help. He just graduated with a first class degree from Cambridge University - citing his work experience via Urban Synergy at his interview.

See who we help

Our focus is on children at schools in urban areas that have pupils with higher than average levels of free meals. Where a young person has some special needs, we might consider their request.

We are ethnicity agnostic. See Harry's mentoring journey