The role of non-cognitive and cognitive skills in accounting for the intergenerational transmission of 'top job' status

Enabling fair access to professional careers is an important strand of UK social mobility policy, however many high status employers demand a wide range of 'soft skills' in addition to strong cognitive skills to identify the best talent which can disadvantage individuals from less privileged backgrounds. This paper uses BCS data to estimate and decompose the intergenerational persistence in top job status to assess the contribution of four potential transmission mechanisms for this advantage: non-cognitive skills, cognitive skills, job aspirations and educational attainment. The results reveal that individuals with parents employed in a top job are 22.8 percentage points more likely to access a top job in adulthood than individuals with parents who are employed in a non top job. Childhood cognitive skills and later educational attainment are found to be particularly important contributors to this transmission of advantage, with childhood non cognitive skills also making a substantial contribution.