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Analysis

Adventures in Social Mobility

Analysis

BBC

News, Politics

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2017

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What are the unwritten rules you must learn to get a top job? Hashi Mohamed came to the UK aged nine, as an unaccompanied child refugee, with hardly any English. His academic achievements at school were far from stellar. Yet he now works as a barrister - and so is a member of one of the elite professions that have traditionally been very difficult for people from poor backgrounds to crack. So how did he do it? In a personal take on social mobility, we meet his mentors. These are the people who gave him a few lucky breaks and showed him how to fit in to a world he could barely imagine. But how many people can follow that path? And why should they have to?

Producer: Rosamund Jones

(Image: Hashi Mohamed. Credit: Shaista Chishty).

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.6

My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds.

0:08.4

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

0:14.3

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

0:20.4

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

This is the BBC.

0:41.0

Hello podcast fans. Now this download isn't strictly speaking an episode of

0:45.5

analysis but we thought you'd like to hear it anyway. Barista and journalist

0:50.0

Hashi Mohammed looks back at his own life story as he examines the barriers to accessing the top professions.

0:56.0

Welcome to Adventures and Social Mobility. I'm sitting on a bench in fountain court opposite Middle Temple Hall on this bright

1:08.1

winter's afternoon.

1:10.1

It is a place of quiet seclusion in the middle of Central London, surrounded by old Georgian

1:14.8

buildings and ancient trees, and it's a place that I spend a great deal of my time as a professional barrister.

1:22.0

It is a setting that would be instantly familiar to anybody who's attended. a the top

1:33.4

universities having had stellar educational performances

1:37.7

generally A's and A stars throughout.

1:40.6

If you haven't got the ability you don't get anywhere.

1:43.4

The second is that does your face fit, putting it crudely.

1:49.6

But what does it take for your face to fit?

1:52.4

How well you do academically matters hugely, but there's more to it than that.

...

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