Aspiring Professionals Programme from the Social Mobility Foundation

Target Cities:

APP City  

The APP supports high achieving Year 12/S5 (Year 13 for Northern Ireland) students from low income backgrounds across the UK to access top universities and careers. We offer support through our four pillars: 

1. Mentoring by a professional 

2. Tailored skills sessions and career workshops 

3. University application support and guidance 

4. Internships with top employers 

How students receive our four pillars of support is dependent on where they live; we offer face to face activity where possible alongside a range of virtual sessions and online resources.  

Watch our video to hear from SMF students. 

APP Employer Insights Programmes

Students can apply for one of our sector or employer insight programmes as well as APP City. The internship element of these insight programmes will take place in summer 2022.  

The sector or employer insights available are: 

• J.P. Morgan Finance 
• J.P. Morgan Digital 
• KPMG Accountancy 
• BP Engineering 
• PA Consulting Springboard 
• Neil Stevens Fellowship Digital 
• Law Insight (employer partners are Freshfields, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Herbert Smith Freehills, White & Case and Akin Gump) 
• Medicine Insight  

We ran our employer insight programmes online over the past two summers, but are hoping to deliver them in-person in summer 2022 once government guidance allows. The majority of insight programmes take place in London, where students will live in university accommodation, complete an internship at a top firm during the day and take part in activities during the evening and weekends. This is all completely free of charge. 

Regardless of whether they take place in person or virtually, students will gain a rich insight into the sector and employer. They will be offered skills sessions on topics such as employability skills and networking, mentoring from an employee at the firm, and university application advice and guidance.  

The programme of support extends right through university until students are in graduate recruitment, and the support at university changes depending on what career they are aspiring to enter. 

Eligibility Criteria  

The criteria is: 

• Currently in Year 12 and have at least 4 or 5 GCSEs at Grade A/7 and be predicted ABB at A Level , OR meet the APP Reach criteria 
• Students must be personally eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) at any point in secondary school, but do not need to have claimed them  OR be the first generation in their family to go to university.

Students can find the exact criteria for their secondary school on our schools lists here. 

For students who do not meet our academic criteria but would benefit from our support, then please do encourage them to apply for our APP Reach programme. The academic criteria for this is 5 GCSEs at 9-5 (A*-C) and be predicted at least BBC at A Level, and they can also be first generation of their family to attend university if they are not on free school meals.