Plans to help aid youngsters from poor backgrounds break into lucrative professions have been unveiled by the government.
A new body is to be set up in a bit to smash a "closed shop" mentality identified in a government commissioned report by former cabinet minister and chair of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, Alan Milburn.
Prime minister Gordon Brown said the "brightest" young people from poorer backgrounds will be provided with a "structured package of support" from 2012, to help break the "glass ceiling of social mobility".
The Social Mobility Commission will be launched to provide expert evidence on trends and policy on social mobility.
Business minister Pat McFadden will urge higher education institutions to view potential students in "context", by effectively being more lenient on candidates who have been taught in state schools.
The drive comes as part of a response to a report published six months ago by Milburn entitled 'Unleashing Aspiration' which found lucrative professions are dominated by those from affluent families.
The "vast majority" of his 88 suggestions are being accepted by the government.
Today's push highlights the prime minister's determination to be seen as the party of aspiration coinciding with the Conservatives launch of the education section of the 'Mending Our Broken Society' chapter of the draft manifesto.
In his response to Milburn's report, Brown said: "My mission is to ensure that all of Britain’s people, from every background, are given the opportunity to develop their talents and learn the skills which will transform their lives. And this social mobility must be rooted in our core value of fairness.
"In many ways society is already fairer. Six hundred thousand children have been lifted out of poverty, record numbers of our young people are going to university, one in three people of working age is a member of a profession, and the gender pay gap has narrowed.
"But we can't be a truly aspirational society if some people are still denied the chance to get on, and although we have raised the glass ceiling we have yet to break it. That is why our priority will be to remove all the barriers that are holding people back."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd