fair access to professional careers
TRANSCRIPT
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Fair Access toProfessional Careers
A progress report by the
Independent Reviewer onSocial Mobility and Child Poverty
May 2012
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i
Contents
Foreword and summary 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 9
Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 13
Chapter 3 Progress in the legal proession 31
Chapter 4 Progress in the medical proession 43
Chapter 5 Progress in journalism and the media proessions 51
Chapter 6 Progress in Westminster and Whitehall 57
Chapter 7 Progress made by government onaccess to the proessions 65
Annex A Contributors to the progress reporton Fair Access to Proessional Careers 83
Reerences 85
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1
Foreword and summaryRt. Hon Alan Milburn,Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty
Three years ago I
reported on what the
UKs proessions were
doing to aid and abet
social mobility in our
country. Unleashing
Aspiration, the
report o the Panel
on Fair Access which
I chaired, made 88
recommendations to
proessions, employers, universities, schools andgovernment. This report documents what has
changed since 2009.
In the intervening three years there has, o
course, been a change o government. But the
commitment to social mobility has remained
constant. The Coalition Government has
published a new strategy on the issue and asked
me, as Independent Reviewer, to report on its
progress. This is my rst report. Shortly I will
publish two others: one on higher education andthe contribution universities are making to social
mobility; and the other an assessment o what
government is doing to tackle child poverty and
enhance social mobility.
This report ocuses on the role o the proessions.
They make an enormous contribution to both the
British economy and our society. Proessions like
medicine and law are characterised by high levels o
integrity and excellence. They are world leaders in
their elds and a source o pride or our country.
Today there are almost 13 million proessionals
in our country. In total 42% o all employment in
the UK is in the proessions. That is set to rise to
46% by 2020. Data quoted in this report suggests
that the proessions have withstood the economic
downturn more robustly than other orms o
employment. I anything, a proessional career is
a surer guarantor o economic security and social
progress than it was even three years ago. And
that will continue into the uture. The proessions
will account or approximately 83% o all new jobs
in Britain in the next decade. They hold the key to
improving social mobility.
The question posed by this report is whether thegrowth in proessional employment is producing a
social mobility dividend or our country. The short
answer is not yet. The report examines what the
proessions and government are doing. It looks at
specic proessions and makes recommendations
or urther action to build on those made in
Unleashing Aspiration to improve social mobility.
This report concludes that without urther and
aster action on the part o the proessions,
government and others, Britain risks squanderingthe social mobility dividend that the growth in
proessional employment oers our country.
Social mobility is about breaking the transmission
o disadvantage rom one generation to the next.
When a society is mobile it gives each individual,
regardless o background, an equal chance o
progressing in terms o income or occupation. The
upsurge in proessional employment in the middle
o the last century created an unparalleled wave o
social mobility in Britain. It created unprecedented
opportunities or millions o women and men.
In the decades since then social mobility has
largely stagnated.
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2 Fair access to proessional careers: A progress report
Over recent years there has been a growing
recognition that a society in which birth not worth
dictates peoples outcomes is not only unair: it
is also unviable. The global nancial crisis and thesubsequent economic turmoil that has aected
countries like the UK have brought these matters
to a head. A broad swathe o public and political
opinion has coalesced around a deep social
concern about rising inequality. A new consensus
has begun to emerge that unearned wealth or a
ew at the top, stagnating incomes or those in the
middle and deepening disadvantage or many at
the bottom is not a sustainable social proposition.
Changing that is a long-term endeavour and it willrequire a genuine national eort. It is not merely
a job or government. O course, government
needs to provide a lead, set an example and create
the ramework or change. But social change is
primarily driven rom below, not above. Families
and communities are the oundation stone.
It is there that aspiration is incubated. Schools
and career services have a key role in nurturing
potential and developing talent. Universities,
colleges and employers i they open their doors
airly can then harness and grow it.
The proessions sit at the heart o this agenda or
change. Three years ago I ound that or all the
eorts that the proessions had made to expand
the pool o talent rom which they recruited, they
had actually become more not less socially
exclusive over time. Unleashing Aspiration ound
that tomorrows proessional is growing up in a
amily richer than seven in ten o all amilies in the
UK. The consequence was that too many able
children rom average income and middle classamilies let alone low-income amilies were
losing out in the race or proessional jobs. At
the top o the proessional tree especially, the
deault setting was to recruit rom ar too narrow
a part o the social spectrum. That closed-shop
mentality was bad or the proessions and bad or
any prospect o improved social mobility in our
country. Unleashing Aspiration argued that much
more had to be done to ensure that all those
with the necessary ability and aptitude got a airer
crack o the whip when it came to realising their
aspirations or a proessional career. The report
uncovered a series o practical barriers that
prevented air access to a proessional career
unocused aspiration-raising programmes, poor
careers advice, lack o school choices, articial
barriers between vocational and academic
education, unair university admissions, limitedwork experience opportunities, non-transparent
internships, antiquated recruitment processes,
inexible entry routes. It recommended action
across the waterront to break down those
barriers in order to make a proessional career
more genuinely meritocratic.
Unleashing Aspiration led to the promise o a new
drive to open up proessional careers to a broader
social mix. Three years on, this report asks what
progress has been made. The answer is not yetenough.
On the positive side o the equation, there is
evidence o a galvanised eort on the part o many
organisations and individuals to engage with the
air access agenda. In particular, many young people
working in the proessions seem to be highly
motivated to encourage successor generations
to aspire to a proessional career. The range and
depth o this activity are to be commended.
Overall the Government has shown goodintentionality when it comes to trying to improve
air access to a proessional career, even though
it is making more progress in some areas than in
others. It needs to be more holistic in its approach
and ensure that its eorts are better co-ordinated.
The Social Mobility Business Compact, however,
is to be commended. We would now like to see
the Government encouraging a broader range o
employers, including smaller rms, to commit to
the criteria o the Compact. It should establish
clear goals and objectives or the programme as
a whole. It should publish an annual update on the
progress o the Compact, and the Social Mobility
and Child Poverty Commission should periodically
review it.
Certain proessions have already made progress.
The civil service is a case in point. In 2009Unleashing Aspiration ound that 45% o Senior
Civil Servants had been privately educated. More
up-to-date research has shown a progressive
change in this pattern. O todays top 200 civil
servants (Directors General and Permanent
Secretaries), 27% were educated at an independent
school. Over one-third (37%) had attended a
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3Foreword and summary
grammar school and 18% had been to a state
comprehensive school. There is a long way to go,
but this is a start.
The civil service is one o several individualproessions that this report looks at specically.
It nds that the legal sector is starting to makereal eorts in addressing air access and social
mobility. In some cases the legal sector is at the
oreront o driving activity aimed at changing
access to proessional jobs, whether this is
through co-ordinated outreach programmes or
by introducing socio-economic data collection.
We commend these eorts and would like to see
other proessions ollowing suit. There is, however,a lot more that needs to be done. The urther up
the proession you go, the more socially exclusive it
becomes. Even more worryingly, entry to the law
and thereore the lawyers o the uture is still too
socially exclusive. Overall, law is on the right track.
But its progress is too slow. It needs to signicantly
accelerate.
Conversely, medicine lags behind other proessionsboth in the ocus and in the priority it accords to
these issues. It has a long way to go when it comesto making access airer, diversiying its workorce
and raising social mobility. There is no sense o
the sort o galvanised eort that the Neuberger
Report induced in law. That is regrettable, not
least because when it comes to both gender and
race, medicine has made impressive progress over
recent years. Its success in recruiting more emale
doctors and doctors rom black and minority
ethnic backgrounds indicates that with the right
level o intentionality the medical proession can
also throw open its doors to a ar broader socialintake than it does at present. The proession itsel
recognises that the skills which modern doctors
require include ar greater understanding o the
social and economic backgrounds o the people
they serve. That is a welcome recognition. It now
needs to be matched by action. Overall, medicine
has made ar too little progress and shown ar too
little interest in the issue o air access. It needs a
step change in approach.
This report nds thatjournalism has shited to agreater degree o social exclusivity than any other
proession. Without a single representative or
regulatory body, responsibility or bringing about
change to the media sector sits with organisations
boards, senior sta, editors, and human resources
teams. Our sense is that current eorts areragmented and lacking in any real vigour.
Journalism, with some honourable exceptions,
does not seem to take the issue o air access
seriously. Where it has ocused on the issue, it
has prioritised race and gender but not socio
economic diversity. That needs to change.
Finally, in politics this report argues that we shouldwant the brightest and the best to be leading
our country, regardless o their background.
But when the major political parties continueto select Parliamentary candidates who are
disproportionately drawn rom better-o
backgrounds, to the exclusion o those rom less
well-o ones, they are limiting that pool o talent
rather than widening it. O the Coalition Cabinet
in May 2010, 59% were educated privately. Some
32% o the nal Cabinet under the previous
Labour Government were also educated privately.
Over recent years, the political parties have made
some progress on selecting women and candidates
rom minority ethnic backgrounds. A similar eortis now needed on their part when it comes to
diversiying the socio-economic backgrounds o
those they select to be their candidates or MPs.
The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission
should look or evidence o that in the lead-up to
the next general election.
Across the proessions as a whole, the glassceiling has been scratched but not broken. The
proessions still lag way behind the social curve.
I anything, the evidence suggests that since 2009,taken as a whole, the proessions despite some
pockets o considerable progress have done too
little to catch up. The general picture seems to be
o mainly minor changes in the social composition
o the proessions. At the top especially, the
proessions remain dominated by a social elite.
For example, this report nds that:
the judiciary remains solidly socially elitist, with15 o the 17 Supreme Court judges and heads
o division all educated at private schools beoregoing on to study at Oxord or Cambridge
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4 Fair access to proessional careers: A progress report
o 38 justices o appeal, 26 attended privateschools, eight attended grammar schools, just
two attended state comprehensive schools and
two were schooled overseas
43% o barristers attended a ee-payingsecondary school, with almost a third going
on to study at Oxbridge
o the countrys top journalists, 54% wereprivately educated, with a third graduating
rom Oxbridge
privately educated MPs comprised 30% o thetotal in 1997 but ater the 2010 election now
comprise 35%, with just 13 private schoolsproviding 10% o all MPs
62% o all members o the House o Lordswere privately educated, with 43% o the total
having attended just 12 private schools.
This is social engineering on a grand scale.
The senior ranks o the proessions are a closed
shop. I social mobility is to become anything
other than a pipedream they will have to open
up. Unortunately, the evidence collected or
this report suggests that there is only, at best,limited progress being made in prising open the
proessions. That is not about to change any time
soon. Data collected or this report indicates that
the next generation o our countrys lawyers,
doctors and journalists are likely to be a mirror
image o previous generations. Data rom 2010/11
on those who succeeded in getting a university
place shows that:
41% o law undergraduates were rom the threehighest socio-economic groups and only 21%came rom the ve lowest groups
49% o journalism students came rom thehighest groups and 14% rom the three lowest
57% o medical students came rom the topgroups and only 7% rom the bottom, with 22%
o all medical and dental undergraduates being
educated at private schools.
Private schools, which educate only 7% o all
pupils, continue to have a stranglehold on ourcountrys top jobs. O course parents should be
ree to send their children to the school o their
choice. Ater all, every parent wants the best or
their children. The problem is that despite the
progress o the last decade there are still too ew
good schools, and the gap between private and
state schools oten remains rustratingly wide. Butit is not just in schools that the sources o Britains
low levels o social mobility can be ound. There
are many contributory actors. It is as much about
amily networks as it is careers advice, individual
aspirations as it is early years education, career
development opportunities as it is university
admissions processes. It is also about the act that
too oten the proessions close their doors to
a wider social spectrum o talent instead o
opening them.
This report nds that by and large the barriers
that were identied in 2009 as posing the biggest
obstacles to more meritocracy in the proessions
have remained intact.
When it comes to raising aspirations among youngpeople or a proessional career there is evidence
o a lot more activity than in 2009. Many employers
are now reaching out to schools and organising
taster sessions or pupils. But co-ordination and
evaluation are lacking. Government has taken actionto help here through a number o policy initiatives
which are welcome steps in the right direction, but
as yet they do not have national scale or punch.
The Government should grow existing initiatives to
match the ambitions set out in Unleashing Aspiration
or a major national drive to raise young peoples
awareness o proessional career opportunities.
A national mentoring scheme is a particular
priority or action.
There has been some progress on reorming
careers services, particularly by devolvingresponsibility to schools, as recommended
in Unleashing Aspiration. These are welcome
developments but there are more steps which the
Government now needs to take. First, although
schools will have a statutory duty to provide
independent, impartial careers guidance or
pupils aged 1416, there is still a question about
whether schools will be able to do this eectively
given that they have no additional unding. The
Government must take all necessary steps toensure that careers advice in schools does not miss
the most disadvantaged pupils. Second, it is critical
that access to independent careers guidance is
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5Foreword and summary
extended to cover 13 year olds. Third, Osted
inspections o schools must routinely consider the
extent to which pupils understand the options and
challenges acing them as they move on to the nextstages o their education, training and employment.
There is a mixed picture on internships. Theevidence suggests that having work experience or
an internship on a CV is even more critical to nding
employment now than it was even three years ago.
Over one-third o this years graduate vacancies will
be lled by applicants who have already worked
or the employer as an undergraduate and, in
some sectors, the proportion increases to 50% or
more. The critical questions are who gets theseopportunities and how do they get them.
There have been welcome developments in
Whitehall, where the Government is ending
inormal internships. All departments will advertise
their existing proessional internship schemes
on a central Whitehall website, with outreach
undertaken to promote internships and work
experience to under-represented groups. Other
sectors have a ar less positive story to tell. In
medicine, or example, work experience is arequirement or entry to medical school but
getting access to it is oten unstructured and
inormal. It is wide open to gaming by those in the
know and indirectly discriminates against those
who are not. We could uncover little systematic
eort on the part o the medical proession to
address this palpable unairness. Similarly, despite
The Speakers Parliamentary Placements Scheme
being among the nest examples we have come
across in any sector, most Parliamentary interns
are still recruited inormally, thus avouring those inthe know and those with connections. Parliament
as a whole must step up to the plate on this issue.
It should be setting a good example not a bad
one or other employers and proessions. That is
not the case at the moment.
But the worst oender is the media industry.
What seems to distinguish journalism rom other
proessions is that interns are substitutes or what
in other sectors would be regarded as unctions
carried out by mainstream paid employees. Thepractice in much o the media industry is more
akin to treating interns as ree labour. The problem
with that is sel-evident. It is possible only or
those who can aord to work or ree. It means
that others perhaps with equal or better claims
on a career in journalism are excluded rom
consideration.Unpaid internships clearly disadvantage those rom
less auent backgrounds who cannot aord to
work or ree or any length o time. They are a
barrier to air access and, indeed, to better social
mobility. It is welcome that the Government
has indicated that employers should go beyond
their legal obligations and pay interns a wage that
reects the value o the interns contribution,
but there is a long way to go beore employers
practices change to reect these policy changes.That will require vigilance and continued eort on
the part o government. It should nd the best way
to kitemark internships or their quality and should
consider innovative means o oering nancial
support to disadvantaged young people wanting to
undertake an internship.
The exponential growth in internships in the
proessions adds up to a proound change in the
British labour market. Access to work experience
is a new hurdle that would-be proessionals nowhave to clear beore they can even get onto the
recruitment playing eld. Given their centrality
to young peoples career prospects, internships
should no longer be treated as part o the inormal
economy. They should be subject to similar rules
to other parts o the labour market. That means
introducing proper, transparent and air processes
or selection and reasonable terms o employment,
including remuneration or internships.
There is a similar uneven picture when it comes
to how the proessions go about selecting andrecruiting their workorces. All too oten thoseprocesses reinorce rather than recongure the
socio-economic make-up o the proessions.
Recruiters end up selecting new people who are
pretty much like the old. Unless airness is more
intentionally embedded into recruitment and
selection procedures then it is unlikely that there
will be anything other than a supercial shit in the
social composition o the proessions. For example,
the UKs leading employers target an average oonly 19 universities or their graduate recruitment
programmes. The overwhelming evidence suggests
that too many proessional employers still recruit
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6 Fair access to proessional careers: A progress report
rom too small a cohort o universities. Since
those universities are the most socially exclusive
in the country, these recruitment practices merely
reinorce the social exclusivity o the proessions.The marginal progress that has been made in the
last ew years to broaden the group o universities
rom which the proessions recruit needs to be
rapidly accelerated i the big growth in proessional
employment, predicted over the next decade, is to
produce a social mobility dividend or Britain.
Similarly, there is uneven recruitment acrossthe UK nations and regions by the proessions.The overwhelming majority o The Times Top
100 Graduate Employers were oering vacanciesin London or 2012 but only 44% in the north
east o England and 41% in East Anglia. It is little
surprise that in the next ew years almost hal
o the growth in jobs in higher-level occupations
will occur in London and the south. Taking these
predictions into account, it seems that regional
disparities in access to a proessional career are
growing and are set to go on doing so. I employers
are genuinely concerned about broadening the
background o their workorces they will need to
show ar greater intentionality in expanding theparts o the UK rom which they recruit.
The same is true when it comes to creating more
exible entry routes into a proessional career.In the 1950s, proessional jobs were open
to a wide variety o people with a range o
qualications. It was possible in a career such as
journalism to work your way rom the bottom,
without a degree, to the top o the proession.
The proessions were socially mobile and, in turn,
contributed to an upsurge in social mobility inthe country. Today it remains important or social
mobility that the proessions, while retaining
the highest standards, nd ways o opening up
opportunities or people at dierent stages o their
lives, rom more exible entry through to career
progression routes.
O course, most proessions will want to recruit
university graduates. Many proessions, however,
have become the exclusive preserve o those
with a minimum o a rst degree, reducing theemployment opportunities or people without
a graduate-level qualication. As qualication
ination continues to take hold even in traditionally
non-graduate proessions like nursing, the danger
is that an exclusive reliance on the graduate labour
market distorts their social intake just as it has
distorted that o other proessions. To ensure thatthere is greater diversity in the proessions there
need to be more diverse entry routes. Thankully
there have been some positive developments here.
In 2009, Unleashing Aspiration reported that only
our o The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
accepted non-graduate entrants. Today, around 50%
oer some orm o non-graduate entry point.
This report argues in conclusion that duringthe last three years the proessions have aced a
challenging and turbulent time. The employmentmarket remains ragile at best. In these
circumstances there is a risk that improving air
access to proessional careers becomes sidelined.
Some o the evidence submitted or this report
indicates that is happening. That is not to say that,
in hearing rom employers, proessional bodies
and regulators, progress is not being made both
by individual employers and by some proessions.
Some organisations have been working to improve
air access or a long time and social mobility has
become an integral part o what they do. It is alsopleasing to see some regulatory bodies, or the
rst time, setting clear objectives on improving
social mobility and oering robust challenge where
progress is not seen to be made. And this report
contains examples o exemplary good practice and
highlights where genuine progress has been made.
There are developments that are to be welcomed.
Many individuals and organisations have put their
shoulders to the wheel and are determined to
continue doing so. Their eorts deserve praise.But the overall picture is ar less positive. To recap:
eorts to raise awareness and aspirations inschools are too sporadic and too unspecic.
They need to become universal and better
co-ordinated
too many employers recruit rom too narrowa range o universities and regions. They need
to widen their net
work experience and internships are still alottery even as they become a key part o theormal proessional labour market. They need
to be treated as such
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7Foreword and summary
selection processes and data collection theoundation stones or making progress are too
haphazard. They need to be given much more
serious attention
entry to the proessions has begun to bediversied but the graduate grip on the labour
market is still strong. There needs to be a
ar bigger drive to open up the proessions
to a wider variety o people with dierent
qualications.
These are signicant areas or improvement. There
is no one proession that can say it has cracked the
air access problem. Indeed, almost no proession
has a clear plan or doing so. Unleashing Aspirationrecommended that each proession should carry
out a review o current practice on air access
with a view to developing practical ideas or
improvement. It urged each proession to report
publicly on these by the end o 2010, with a clear
set o recommendations and an action plan or
implementation. As ar as we are aware, not a
single proession has done so.
This is prooundly disappointing and suggests that,
despite rhetoric to the contrary, all too otenthe reality is that the air access agenda remains
sidelined in most proessions. That is unacceptable
and must change. The proessions should now
consider what steps they need to take. They need
to massively up their game. The Government
should do more to pressurise the proessions to
act. And the new Social Mobility and Child Poverty
Commission should report annually on what, i any,
progress the proessions are making.
I the appropriate action is taken to open up the
proessions to a broader array o talent, Britain can
realise a social mobility dividend rom the growth
we are seeing in proessional jobs. There is everychance that, like the 1950s, the next decade can
be a golden era when it comes to opening up
opportunities in our society. But that will not just
happen. It has to be made. With a genuine national
eort we can break the corrosive correlation
between demography and destiny that so poisons
British society between being born poor and,
in all likelihood, dying poor; between going to a
low-achieving school and so ending up in a low-
achieving job; between missing out on a university
place and so missing out on a proessional career.
This is a prize we must not let slip through our
ngers. Winning it requires ar more eort on
the part o the proessions. And, as my next two
reports will argue, on the part o universities and
government too.
Rt. Hon Alan Milburn, Independent Reviewer on
Social Mobility and Child Poverty
May 2012
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9
Chapter 1
Introduction
This chapter sets out:
The remit o this reportThe long-term growth in proessional employmentThe headline ndings o the 2009 report Unleashing AspirationThe methodology and contents o this report
In August 2010, the Deputy Prime Minister
appointed me as the Independent Reviewer
on Social Mobility. In April 2011, the remit o my
role was expanded to include child poverty, pending
the establishment o a new statutory Social Mobility
and Child Poverty Commission. As Independent
Reviewer, I have been assessing the progress that
both the Government and wider society have been
making in improving social mobility and eliminating
child poverty. This is my rst report.
This report provides an assessment o activity
around air access to proessional careers. It builds
on the work that I led in 2009, when I chaired
the Panel on Fair Access to the Proessions.1 The
Panel was asked to work with the proessions to
identiy obstacles to access and how they could
be removed. The Panel published its nal report,
Unleashing Aspiration,2 in the summer o 2009.
Since then, o course, there has been a change
in government. Nonetheless, social mobility has
remained a core social policy priority, a point
emphasised in the Governments social mobility
strategyOpening Doors, Breaking Barriers: A Strategy
for Social Mobility,3 published last year.
Three years on rom Unleashing Aspiration, equity
o access to proessional careers remains an
important part o the social mobility jigsaw. I job
opportunities are not accessible to all those with
the requisite skills and talent, eorts being made to
improve social mobility will continue to stall. That
is especially important in the short term, given the
unacceptably high levels o youth unemployment
in our country. Social cohesion demands a
reinvigorated drive to ensure that proessional
jobs are as evenly spread as possible across thesocial spectrum.
That is particularly the case, given that proessional
employment has largely withstood the economic
downturn. Graduate-level employment is the
only orm o employment that increased over the
course o the recession.4 In contrast, employment
rates or those holding no qualications saw the
biggest decline o 11.9%. This is also reected
in employment rates or those holding degree-
level qualications, which are almost ve timesas high as employment rates or those holding
no qualications.
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10 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
A proessional career is a surer guarantor o
economic security and social progress than it was
even three years ago. This relative strength o
the proessional sector is set to continue. Labourmarket projections up to 2020 predict, along with
gradual recovery in overall employment levels,
continued evolution towards a more knowledge-
based and service-intensive economy.5
With proessional employment set to increase
over the long term, there is hope that many more
young people, regardless o their background, will
be able to get on and move up. In the 1950s, the
growth o proessional employment helped to
unleash an unparalleled wave o social mobility inBritain. Ensuring that todays surge in proessional
employment produces a similar social dividend
depends on removing any barriers to a proessional
career so that those with talent and potential
experience a level playing eld o opportunity.
Unortunately, Unleashing Aspiration ound that,
i anything, the proessions had become more,
not less, socially exclusive over time. Figure 1.1
tells its own story.
The 2009 report predicted that, i these trendscontinue, a typical proessional o the uture will
now be growing up in a amily that is better o
than seven in ten o all amilies in the UK.6 The
consequence will be that social mobility will slow
down not speed up.Unleashing Aspiration identied six key areas or
improvement:
1. Raising aspirations: new opportunities oryoung people to learn about the proessions.
2. Schools: new opportunities to learn andchoose careers.
3. Universities: new opportunities to pursuehigher education.
4. Internships: new opportunities to get onto theproessional career ladder.
5. Recruitment and selection: new opportunitiesor talent to shine.
6. Flexible proessions: new opportunities orcareer progression.
This report is a stocktake o progress on those
themes as they relate directly to the proessions.
Shortly I will publish a separate report on socialmobility and access to higher education, and in the
summer a ull report on trends in child poverty
Figure 1.1: Comparison o the amily income background o typical proessionals7
Teach
ers
Lecture
rsan
d
profe
ssors
Artists,m
usicia
ns
andwrit
ers
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Professions with afalling proportion ofmembers who grewup in families withabove-averageincomes
%
dierencebetweentheaveragefam
ilysincomeandthe
familyincomeofthehouseholdin
whichthetypical
professionalgrew
u
p
Lawy
ers
Docto
rs
Journalis
tsan
d
broadc
aster
s
Accou
ntan
ts
Bank
ers
Engine
ers
Scien
tistsand
othe
r
medicalca
reer
s
Stockbrok
ers
andtrad
ers
Nurse
s
Professions witha rising proportionof members whogrew up in familieswith above-averageincomes
1958 birth cohort 1970 birth cohort
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and social mobility. These three reports will orm
part o a ormal handover to the new Social
Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
This report restates the case or air access to theproessions and why it matters. It assesses progress
since 2009 against our key criteria:
Raising aspirations: what employers andgovernment are doing to help young people to
learn about and aspire to have a proessional
career
Work experience and internships: whatemployers and government are doing to make
internships transparent and accessible to helppeople to get onto the proessional career ladder
Recruitment and selection: what stepsemployers have taken to ensure their
recruitment and selection processes are
genuinely open to the widest range o talent
Flexible proessions: what measures have beenput in place to provide a wider range o routes
into a proessional career.
It sets out next steps or the proessions, theGovernment and the new Social Mobility and Child
Poverty Commission.
Methodology
My team took evidence rom a wide range o
sources. A list o the organisations consulted
and those which submitted evidence to the call
or evidence (issued in May 2011) is attached as
Annex A.
Desk work
The team reviewed research and statistics, think
tank publications and academic journals in order to
construct an inormed picture o the current state
o play.
Call or evidence
The team issued a call or evidence in May 2011
to around 200 proessional bodies and employers.
Each was invited to send progress updates. More
than 100 responses were submitted.
b-live survey
This survey draws on a study o aspirations,
surveying young people, parents and their
Chapter 1 Introduction 11
teachers, conducted by b-live, a social enterprise,
and analysed by the Education and Employers
Taskorce and Dr Deirdre Hughes.
Evidence hearings
The team held evidence sessions attended
by major employers, proessional bodies and
regulatory bodies.
Bilateral evidence
The review team has met with key stakeholders
in the eld o social mobility and access to the
proessions. In addition, bilaterals have been held
with representatives rom a range o proessionalsectors.
Outline o this report
Chapter 2 sets out the case or why promoting airaccess to the proessions needs to remain a priority
issue or government, employers and wider society.
It also highlights the current employment picture,
employment projection and the overall progress
since 2009 that employers and proessional bodies
have made in promoting air access.
This high-level analysis is ollowed by a more
detailed look at our particular proessional
sectors. For each sector, this includes setting out
what the current workorce looks like; activities
being undertaken by that proession to improve
social mobility; and the remaining challenges, next
steps and recommendations or urther action.
Chapter 3 looks at the progress that has beenmade to improve air access to a proessional
career in the legal proession.
Chapter 4 looks at the progress that has beenmade to improve air access to a proessional
career in the medical proession.
Chapter 5 looks at the progress that has beenmade to improve air access to a proessional
career in journalism and the media proessions.
Chapter 6 looks at the progress that has beenmade to improve air access to a proessional
career in Parliament and the civil service.Chapter 7 sets out the progress made bygovernment through policies designed to improve
access to the proessions.
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13
Chapter 2
Progress in the professions what has changedsince 2009
This chapter sets out:
Why air access to the proessions mattersThe current employment pictureProgress that employers and proessional bodies have madeWhat more needs to be done
Why social mobility matters
There is an overwhelming moral and nancial case
or continuing eorts to improve social mobility. It
is not air that the circumstances o birth should
go on to dictate the opportunities available or
the rest o an individuals lie. As the April 2011
social mobility strategy1 so clearly sets out, social
cohesion depends on opportunities being more
evenly available across society so that talent and
potential not ate and background determine
peoples ability to progress.
I anything, the case or a bigger drive to galvanise
social mobility has grown since 2009. The global
nancial crisis, the subsequent recession, the
current sluggish state o the British economy and
the process o scal consolidation have all taken
their social toll. Since the publication oUnleashing
Aspiration in July 2009, unemployment has risen by
181,000 and youth unemployment (or those not
in ull-time education) by 261,000.2 Inequalities
social and geographic have widened.3 Poverty,
among children in particular, is likely to have
increased.4
A broad swathe o public and political opinion has
coalesced around a deep social concern about
rising inequality. A new consensus has begun to
emerge that unearned wealth or a ew at the
top, stagnating incomes or those in the middle
and deepening disadvantage or many at the
bottom is not a sustainable social proposition.
People are looking or action so that our society
becomes more open, more mobile and more air.
Government has a key leadership role to play but
it is not a job or government alone. Other socialactors will need to play their part parents and
communities, schools and universities, employers
and proessions.
The proessions have a critical role. They are a key
and growing source o employment opportunities.
As the society which they serve becomes ever
more complex and heterogeneous, the proessions
themselves will need to keep pace by becoming
ever more diverse. In an increasingly competitive
global market, they will need to do more to makethe most o the widest possible pool o talent.
There is both a pressing social and a sel-interested
case or their becoming exemplars or the sort o
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14 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
open society that public opinion increasingly craves.
Sadly, all too oten the proessions as a whole
have been behind the social curve. I anything,
the evidence suggests that since 2009, taken asa whole, the proessions despite some pockets
o considerable progress have done too little to
catch up.
The current picture
Who are the proessions?
There is no single denition o the proessions
but or the purposes o this report, we use the
denition set out in Unleashing Aspiration. Typically,
they have some or all o the ollowing traits:
Recognisable entry points or example, withstandard qualication requirements
Codes o ethics or example, that set outaspects o proessional responsibility
Systems or sel-regulation or example,setting and regulating standards or proessional
development
A strong sense o vocation and proessionaldevelopment.
Today, the biggest proessions are in engineering
(5.6 million);5 local government (2.6 million);6
healthcare (1.4 million);7 and nancial and
insurance services (1.1 million).8 However, smaller
proessions, such as accountancy (286,000)9 and
law (around 165,000),10,11 remain high-quality,
high-status, high-reward proessions.
Since 2009, the proessions that have grown in
number the most are IT and telecommunications.Those that have seen the biggest alls in
employment are investment banking and und
management.12
The labour market
Much o the second hal o the 20th century
in the UK was characterised by economic and
industrial change which increased income mobility
and the number o proessional, managerial and
administrative occupations.13 While there were
2.2 million proessional posts and 3.1 millionassociate proessional posts in 1984, these rose
to 3.9 million and 4.9 million respectively in
2009,14 when Unleashing Aspiration was published.
Today there are an estimated total o 12.8 million
proessionals in our country. In total 42% o all
employment in the UK is in the proessions.15
A recent report by University Alliance ound thatduring the global nancial crisis and subsequent
economic recession employment in proessional
occupations continued to grow, while the largest
job losses were in routine manual and non-manual
occupations.16 Occupations with a high proportion
o graduates were less aected by job losses.
According to the Conederation o British Industry
(CBI),17 those working in more highly skilled
occupations tended to are better over the course
o the recession, with employment in these areasincreasing (as did employment in caring, leisure and
other service occupations). Employment in all other
occupations decreased. Graduate-level employment
is the only orm o employment to have increased
over the course o the recession (by 3.6%).
In the short term, o course, some orms o
proessional employment are still eeling the
eects o the economic downturn. Overall, a small
decrease in vacancy levels o 1.2% is predicted
or 2011/12. Nonetheless, some sectors such aslaw and engineering are planning to increase their
recruitment numbers signicantly.
The uture will see continued growth in
proessional employment. The UK Commission
or Employment and Skills ound in its most recent
labour market assessment that there is likely to
be a slow recovery rom recession, with the UK
economy generating around 1.5 million additional
jobs by 2020. Managers, proessionals and associate
proessional roles provide the most signicant
increases. Around 2 million additional jobs in these
occupational categories are projected by 2020.18
This osets projected decreases in a number o
other categories, such as skilled trades occupations.
The shape o the UK workorce is changing.
The share o total employment taken by white-
collar occupations is projected to rise rom
42% to 46% between 2010 and 2020. Figure
2.1 shows employment projections or the nine
major occupations in the period rom 2010 to
2020, comparing them with developments over
the previous decade. A rather aster pace o
change, with accelerated growth in proessional
roles and bigger declines in trade and blue-collar
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 15
Table 2.1: Expected percentage change in vacancies rom 2010/11 to 2011/12 by sector,excluding oil companies and chemical or pharmaceutical companies19
SectorIT/telecommunications company 32.5%
Construction company or consultancy 29.4%
Public sector 27.8%
Energy, water or utility company 16.0%
Engineering or industrial company 10.0%
Fast-moving consumer goods company 6.4%
Insurance company 5.9%
Law rm 5.4%
Banking or nancial services 0.4%
Retail 2.9%
Transport or logistics company 4.9%
Accountancy or proessional services rm 12.9%
Consulting or business services rm 16.0%
Investment bank or und managers 41.7%
occupations, is now expected than was the case
over the previous decade. The proessions will
account or approximately 83% o all new jobs in
Britain in the next decade. They hold the key to
improving social mobility.
This changing labour market provides Britain with
both a major economic and a social opportunity.
I the proessions can genuinely open their doors
to the most talented people, then the UK can
improve its competitive position in the global
economy. I the proessions can broaden the
background o those they employ, then the UK can
speed up social mobility and contribute to greater
social cohesion.
Figure 2.1: Employment changes rom 19902000 to 20102020
All industries1990 to 2000 2000 to 2010
Managers, directors and senior ocials
Professional occupations
Associate professional and technical
Administrative and secretarial
Skilled trades occupations
Caring, leisure and other services
Sales and customer service
Process, plant and machine operatives
Elementary occupations
thousands
2010 to 2020
2,000 0 2,000 2,000 0 2,000 1,000 0 1,000
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16 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
The socio-economic make-up o theproessions
There is, however, a long way to go to make a
reality o that opportunity. The latest longitudinal
data21 we have on social mobility and access to
proessional careers is rom the 1970 birth cohort,
as set out in Unleashing Aspiration. It ound that
the overall trend is a growing social exclusivity
in the proessions. In nine o the 12 proessions
examined, there was an increase in people coming
rom better-o amilies between the 1958 and the
1970 birth cohorts.
It is difcult to assess trends in access rates to the
proessions or the most recent generation. Latest
data rom the Higher Education Statistics Agency,22
however, on the socio-economic background
o undergraduates across a range o vocational
degrees shows that:
while 40% o engineering undergraduates wererom the three highest socio-economic classes in
2002/03, this had dropped to 38% by 2010/11
architecture has seen a more signicant dropin the number o undergraduates rom thetop three socio-economic classes, rom 42% in
2002/03 to 36% in 2010/11.
These gures echo the pattern we will see in
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 on the social background
o those entering medicine, the law and the
media. The general picture seems to be o mainly
minor changes in the social composition o the
proessions. At the top especially, the proessions
remain dominated by a social elite. That is neither
benecial or the proessions themselves norconducive to a more mobile society.
A progress update rom the proessions
Unleashing Aspiration made 88 recommendations
about what needed to be done to make access
to and progress through a proessional career
more genuinely meritocratic. Some o those
recommendations were targeted at schools,
universities and government rather than the
proessions themselves. There were, however,
our main areas o activity that were specically
recommended or employers and proessions to
take orward. These were:
raise aspiration, especially in schoolsmake work experience and internships more
transparent and accessible
reorm recruitment and selection proceduresprovide a wider range o routes into a
proessional career.
As preparation or this report, a call or evidence
was issued in the summer o 2011. Employers,
including The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
and regulatory and proessional bodies, were
asked to provide evidence on what action they
have taken to address the barriers to air access
highlighted in Unleashing Aspiration.
Just over 100 submissions were received rom
a cross-section o employers and proessional
bodies. The legal sector provided the most
responses, with the majority o returns rom
law rms. The nancial services sector (banking
and accountancy) also responded well to the
call or evidence. It is also pleasing to see sectors
engaging with this agenda that were not involved
with the work o the Panel on Fair Access to the
Proessions, such as retail and some o The TimesTop 100 Graduate Employers.
These submissions have been extremely helpul
in providing a snapshot o what is happening
both within and between sectors. A number o
emerging themes have been identied as a result.
The overall sense rom the submissions is o a
galvanised eort on the part o many organisations
and individuals to engage with the air access
agenda. In particular, many young people working
in the proessions seem to be highly motivated toencourage successor generations to aspire to a
proessional career. The range and depth o this
activity is to be commended. There is, however,
a very long way to go. The glass ceiling has been
scratched but not broken.
In the sections below, I examine what the
proessions have been doing in the our areas o
activity identied byUnleashing Aspirationto assess
where they could make the biggest impact in
driving air access.
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 17
Figure 2.2: Number o respondents by sector to call or evidence
25
Retail
Publicsector
Publishing
Scien
ce
Personnel
Medicine
andhealthcare
Media
andjournalism
Managementconsultancy
Law
ITandtelecoms
Insurance
Financeandaccountancy
Engineering
Energy
Consumergoods
Charityandvoluntary
Catering
Arts
Architecture,building
servicesand
construction
Numberofrespondentsbysectortocallforevidence
20
15
10
5
0
Raising aspiration
For the purposes o this report, raising aspiration
is about how young people are encouraged to
aspire towards a proessional career. We know that
aspirations or success are high among the majority
o young people but there seems to be a disparity
between young people rom dierent socio
economic backgrounds in levels o knowledge
and condence about routes into proessional
careers. For example, 56% o children whose
parents are employed in the proessions also wish
to have a proessional career compared with only13% o children whose parents are in semi-skilled
occupations.23 This may reect a dierence in the
extent to which young people have access to good
quality careers advice, be that through amily and
riends or schools and careers services. Preliminary
ndings rom b-live, a social enterprise, which is
conducting a national aspirations survey among
young people, endorse this suggestion.24
While the primary responsibility or careers
advice and general aspiration-raising lies with
parents and schools, they cannot do it on their
own. It is unreasonable to expect them to haveexpert knowledge on every kind o employment
opportunity available. That is why employers have
a role to play in lling in inormation gaps about
what a career in their organisation or sector looks
like and how young people can go about securing
a proessional career.
From the submissions to the call or evidence, it
is clear that many proessions primary ocus is on
outreach activity. Many respondents highlighted the
work they do within their local communities andwith schools. Examples included:
virtual mentoring in schools across the UKsponsoring a specic school that is perorming
badly
asking schools to nominate a small numbero pupils with the potential to gain a place at
a top university or to pursue a career in a
specic proession, and providing support
or those pupils.
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18 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
Figure 2.3: Relatives at university versus no relatives at university and interest in applyingto a selective university
35
30
Percentage
ofrespondents 25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes definitely Yes probably Yes possibly No Unsure
Relatives at university (Years 7, 8 and 9) No relatives at university (Years 7, 8 and 9)
Figure 2.4: Free school meals versus non-ree school meals and post-school options
0
10
20
30
40
50
P
ercentage
ofrespondents
Go straight to Gap year then Get an Get a job Dont know
university university apprenticeship
Free school meals (Years 10 and 11) Non-free school meals (Years 10 and 11)
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Case Study: J.P. Morgan ChaseFoundation and Social Mobility
FoundationJ.P. Morgan is working with the Social
Mobility Foundation to introduce a
residential banking/nance pilot to the
charitys established Aspiring Proessionals
Programme (APP). The pilot will ocus
on 50 high-achieving young people rom
under-represented backgrounds rom
across the country, who will be taking
part in the rst year o APP and have an
interest in banking/nance.As part o the pilot, the students will be
encouraged to enter the universities
rms rom which J.P. Morgan recruits and
provided with the necessary skills to make
competitive applications or internships/
jobs with prestigious nancial services rms
through:
e-mentoring with a mentor romJ.P. Morgan
tailored visits to Russell Groupuniversities
university and skills workshopstwo-week residential work placements
at J.P. Morgan in London, comprising
structured work experience to give
the young people a real insight into the
career they aspire to join, and a range
o university/skills training workshops
and social/networking activities in theevenings
personal statement checking support,guidance on aptitude tests and
interviews.
Crucially, the participants will continue to
be supported through their A-levels and
university with the aim o giving them the
right blend o skills and experience to be
able to work or rms such as J.P. Morgan
when they graduate.
Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 19
The amount and variety o activity being
undertaken is striking. There is clearly a lot o
eort that has been invested in supporting and
working with young people. There were, however,examples where dierent proessions are working
in the same part o the country targeting the
same schools. That can lead to some schools being
overloaded while others are ignored. It also runs
the risk o duplication o eort and resources,
particularly or schools in close proximity to the
City. The Law Society, in its response to the call
or evidence, said the prolieration o initiatives
designed to address some o the barriers to air
access have created conusion.
It is important that such activity is delivered in
a co-ordinated, sustainable way so that schools
and employers can manage their resources more
eectively to allow as many young people as
possible to benet rom such programmes
and initiatives.
PRIME, the new legal sector initiative that oers
good-quality work experience opportunities, is an
excellent example o a sector-wide collaboration.
Case Study: PRIME
PRIME is a commitment by the legal
proession to provide air access to quality
work experience or young people rom
less privileged backgrounds. Supported by
the Law Societies o England and Wales,
Northern Ireland and Scotland, and The
Sutton Trust, PRIME sets out, or the
rst time, minimum standards or whom
work experience should reach and what it
should achieve. It commits member rms
to providing work experience that gives an
insight into the range o careers available
in the legal proession and the potential
routes into those careers.
A group o 23 o the UKs largest law
rms launched PRIME in September 2011
and over 75 have now signed up across
the UK, 41 o which have ofces outside
London. Ensuring that rms meet their
commitments under the initiative is crucial
and its members are monitored and will
be evaluated annually by the National
Federation or Educational Research.
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20 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
It is important that schemes such as PRIME are not
just London-centric but are accessible to young
people across the country. The PRIME model may
also be something or other sectors to consideradopting or adapting in order to reduce duplication
o work experience programmes and help to
ensure that all schools, rather than a ew, are able
to benet.
Clearly, many outreach initiatives, particularly those
ocusing on Years 9, 10 and 11, will take some
time to have an impact, especially i the purpose
o outreach work is to change the workorce
demographic. Tracking and monitoring o young
people rom school and sixth orm colleges touniversity and beyond is a long-term commitment
that is not without its challenges. In conversations
with research organisations, it is clear that there
is a lack o robust evidence about what works in
terms o employer outreach activity. Lessons could
be learnt rom the experience o universities. For
example, the evaluation o Aimhigher25 provides
some evidence o the types o outreach that have
the greatest transormative impact. Unortunately,
most outreach initiatives do not have an evaluation
ramework in place. This is something that shouldbe addressed.
Work experience and internships
Employers can oer a range o schemes that
oer individuals a chance to build the experience
and knowledge needed to secure a proessional
position or that employer or sector. For example:
work experience: usually short-term andexible, typically oered to 1618 year olds to
give them a taster o working in a particular
sector
internship: usually three to six-month positions,typically oered to undergraduates, graduates
and non-graduates
sandwich placement, ormally part o a universitysandwich course: usually a one-year ull-time
position, undertaken in the second year o a
our-year course, related to the course subject
summer placement: usually undertaken byundergraduates during university summer
holidays, to give them both a taster o a
particular organisation and a chance to showcasetheir potential or a permanent role.
Work experience and internships are usually
organised between employers and individuals,
whereas sandwich and summer placements
tend to be organised between employers and
universities, and oten contribute ormal credits
towards university courses.
Internships and work experience more generally
are part and parcel o a modern economy, and
increasingly they have become the rst rung onthe ladder to proessional employment. They are
an important part o the recruitment process,
giving individuals a taster o what working in
an organisation is like, helping them to build up
experience and skills and giving them a chance
to showcase their potential to employers.
Employability skills are a top priority or business.
The most recent Education and Skills Survey
conducted by the CBI ound that, or the third
year in a row, employability skills were rated themost important by graduate recruiters. Four in ve
(82%) value these skills, which include the ability
to problem solve, work as part o a team and
manage time eectively. Employers also reported
that they were on the lookout or graduates in
certain subject disciplines and 50% take applicants
degree results into consideration. Having relevant
work experience is also ranked very highly by
employers and is a key actor or two-thirds o
those surveyed.26
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 21
Figure 2.5: Most important actors considered when recruiting graduates
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Employability skills Relevant work Degree subject Degree result University attended
experience/industrial
placement
2008 2011
The Wilson Review27 also sets out a strong case or
the importance o work experience, placements
and internships, saying lack o work experienceappears as a key barrier to young people, including
graduates, in securing employment. It ound that
all three types o work experience are extremely
valuable to students.28 The Wol Review29
highlighted that recruitment is an extremely
expensive process, and thereore employers were
looking or strong signs that new employees had
the potential to add value and progress within their
business. Wol ound that employers saw work
experience as the most important signal or
this potential.
The evidence suggests that having work
experience or an internship on a CV is even more
critical now to nding employment ater graduating
rom university than it was even three years ago.30
At least hal the entry-level vacancies advertised
by City investment banks and the leading law rms
are likely to be lled by graduates who have already
completed work experience with the employer.
The Association o Graduate Recruiters31 also
ound that an estimated 36% o this yearsgraduate vacancies will be lled by applicants
who have already worked or the employer as an
undergraduate and in some sectors the proportion
increases to 50% or more. Furthermore, more
than hal o graduate recruiters said it was
either not very likely or not at all likely thata graduate who had had no previous work
experience either with their organisation or at
another employer would be successul during
their selection process and receive a job oer.
Many recruiters commented that, irrespective
o the academic results that a graduate had
achieved, it would be very hard or an applicant
to demonstrate the skills and competencies that
they were looking or i they had not had any prior
work experience.
Almost all o the UKs leading graduate employers
provide work experience programmes or
students and recent graduates, oten through
university sandwich courses or summer
placements. The largest numbers o placements
are at the investment banks, which or 2011/12
had more than 2,700 internships and other
experiences available. Investment banking is
one o just three sectors where the number o
placements on oer rom employers outstrips or
matches the number o permanent jobs availableto graduates.32 Despite the strong evidence that a
sandwich placement year improves employability
opportunities,33 there has been a decline in this
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22 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
practice in recent years. In 2002/03, 9.5% o
the total ull-time student cohort undertook a
placement. But by 2009/10, this had allen to only
7.2%.34
A small number o universities provide themajority o sandwich placements, including the
Universities o Aston, Bath, Bournemouth, Brunel,
Loughborough and Surrey.35
From this we can see that, although work
experience is becoming increasingly important to a
wide range o employers, opportunities or young
people in the university placement sector to gain
it are reducing. This report endorses Proessor
Tim Wilsons recommendation that every ull-
time undergraduate student should have theopportunity to experience a structured, university-
approved undergraduate internship during their
period o study.
Internships are becoming a core oundation
o the modern labour market in proessional
employment. The Chartered Institute o Personnel
and Development (CIPD) estimates that three-
quarters o the employers it surveys regularly
employ interns.36 This is the equivalent o 280,000
organisations across the UK; an increase romsummer 2009 when just 13% o employers
surveyed by CIPD planned to take on interns.37
There has been great concern expressed about
the act that many internships are unpaid. An
evaluation38 o the Graduate Talent Pool, a
government-unded internship website, in 2011
ound that there was considerable disparity
between those sectors that oered a majority
o paid internships and those which did not. For
example, only 37% o cultural and creative, 44%
o media-related, 58% o nancial and proessional
services and 65% o marketing, advertising and
public relations internships were paid. Other
sectors oered a majority o paid opportunities,
including manuacturing and engineering (85%),
the built environment (78%) and government and
public administration (98%).
Following new quality assurance processes being
introduced in October 2011, each vacancy is now
checked to ensure it oers a genuine opportunity,
with concerns about unpaid internships and
the National Minimum Wage taken up with the
employer. Since its launch, the website has carried
approximately 44,000 vacancies, around 60% o
which were paid. Since the new quality assurance
process began, the number o unpaid internships
has declined signicantly. For example, o the 2,058
vacancies advertised on the site in February 2012,only 2% were unpaid vacancies oered by business
(a urther 27% were unpaid voluntary work
placements with charities, which are exempt rom
National Minimum Wage legislation).
A 2011 CBI survey39 also ound that more
employers oering internship opportunities
were willing to pay their interns. Some 89%
o employers said they paid their interns at or
above the appropriate minimum wage. Just 13%
o those oering internships paid expenses-onlyand none said that they paid below the National
Minimum Wage. During our deliberations and
in the responses we received to our call or
evidence, however, we came across ew examples
o internships that were well remunerated. LOral
was a rare example to the contrary. It recruits
more than 80 interns a year through its website
and pays them 18,000 pro rata. LOral is also
planning to reserve up to ve internships or
students rom disadvantaged backgrounds.
Some have argued that young people could be
making a sound investment i they take up a high-
quality but unpaid internship, since it increases
their prospects o nding paid employment.
Internocracy, a social enterprise, disagrees.
It argues that unpaid internships lter out swathes
o young people rom the rst step o the career
ladder particularly in the most inuential sectors
such as media and politics and oer a ast track
to a chosen ew.40 Similarly, a report produced
under the auspices o the Creative IndustriesCouncil in January 2012 argued that it is not
sustainable or creative businesses to be based
around exploitative labour practices such as interns
working unpaid or signicant periods o time.41
This report echoes those concerns. Unpaid
internships and inormal riends and amily
schemes are still ar too prevalent across
the proessions. Inormal work experience
opportunities are difcult, i not impossible, to
gain unless young people have amily contacts tohelp them to gain access to an employer. Unpaid
internships clearly disadvantage those rom less
auent backgrounds who cannot aord to work
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 23
or ree or any length o time. They are a barrier
to air access and, indeed, to better social mobility.
The evidence that we have collected despite
some examples to the contrary, such as theemployers that have signed up to the Social
Mobility Business Compact continues to point
in the direction o connection rather than ability
being the key that unlocks a work experience
opportunity or an internship. It is bad or business
to restrict the pool o potential applicants to
those with a personal connection or those who
can aord to accept unpaid work. It reduces the
talent that is available. Furthermore, reserving
opportunities or the relatives o employees orclients, when having work experience on a CV is
critical to securing a job, will inevitably contribute
to a narrowing o air access to proessional careers
or those without connections.
The explosion in internships in the proessions
adds up to a proound change in the British
labour market. Access to work experience is
a new hurdle that would-be proessionals now
have to clear beore they can even get onto the
recruitment playing eld. Given their centralityto young peoples career prospects, internships
should no longer be treated as part o the inormal
economy. They should be subject to similar rules
as other parts o the labour market. That means
introducing proper, transparent and air processes
or selection and reasonable terms o employment,
including remuneration or internships.
A Common Best Practice Code for High-Quality
Internships42 was published in the summer o 2011
by leading proessionals, with the support o the
TUC and the Department or Business, Innovation
and Skills, whose Proessions Collaborative Forum
organised the development o the Code. It sends
out a clear signal to employers that they should be
providing air and high-quality internships. It should
be adopted by employers across the proessions.
The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission
should assess whether they are doing so.
Recruitment and selection processes
How employers go about recruiting and selecting
their employees helps to determine the sort o
people they employ. Ideally, those processes shouldbe neutral and should produce outcomes that
match business need with candidates capability.
This does not always happen. All too oten the way
the proessions go about recruiting and selecting
reinorces rather than recongures the socio
economic make-up o their workorces. Recruiters
end up selecting new people that are pretty much
like the old. Unless airness is more intentionally
embedded into recruitment and selection
procedures, then it is unlikely that there will beanything other than a supercial shit in the social
composition o the proessions. There are several
elements to consider.
Which universities employers recruit rom
A university degree is the key to a proessional
career. Most proessionals are graduates. Over
time this has become increasingly the case.
Unleashing Aspiration raised concerns that too
many proessional employers targeted only a small
number o universities as part o their recruitmentrounds. It ound that around 70% o graduate
recruiters targeted ewer than 20 university
campuses,43 meaning that large numbers o able
graduates were missing out on learning about
graduate-level vacancies.
Three years on, the Association o Graduate
Recruiters has ound that this practice is still
prevalent among employers. Just over one-third
targeted between one and ten UK universities in
2010/11.44 Although it is encouraging to see that aurther 27% were expanding their recruitment to
include more than 20 universities, recent research
on the 2011/12 graduate market shows that the
UKs leading employers target an average o only
19 universities (see Figure 2.6).45 Many proessional
employers are continuing to market to and recruit
rom a small number o the most highly selective
universities, rather than promote their organisation
and available employment opportunities to a
broader mix o institutions.
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24 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
Figure 2.6: Number o universities targeted by top employers in 2011/12
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
5 or fewer 610 1115 1620 2125 2630 3140 More than
universities universities universities universities universities universities universities 40 universities
The ve universities most oten targeted by
Britains top graduate employers in 2011/12 were
Cambridge, London (including Imperial College,
University College London and the London School
o Economics), Manchester, Nottingham and
Oxord.
These universities are among the most highly
selective in the country but they also have some
o the lowest proportions o students rom
disadvantaged backgrounds, as can be seen in
Figure 2.7.46
The overwhelming evidence suggests that too
many proessional employers still recruit romtoo small a cohort o universities. Since those
universities are the most socially exclusive in
the country, these recruitment practices merely
reinorce the social exclusivity o the proessions.
The slow progress that has been made in the
last ew years to broaden the universities rom
which the proessions recruit needs to be rapidly
accelerated i the big growth in proessional
employment predicted over the next decade is to
produce a social mobility dividend or Britain.
Where employers recruit
In 2009, Unleashing Aspiration highlighted the
uneven distribution o proessional vacancies acrossthe UK, with the majority in London or the South
East.47 Recent evidence48 has done nothing to allay
this concern, as can be seen in Figure 2.8.
The overwhelming majority o The Times Top
100 Graduate Employers were oering vacancies
in London or 2012 and hal plan to hire new
recruits or positions in the South East. The North
West, the Midlands and the South West had the
next highest numbers o employers recruiting
graduates, ollowed by Yorkshire and the NorthEast. O all the English regions, East Anglia was the
least likely to yield graduate vacancies only 41%
o employers had opportunities there in 2011.49
Recent orecasts50 show that the southern part o
England is expected to see more rapid employment
growth than the devolved nations and the northern
regions o England. Almost hal o the growth in
jobs in higher-level occupations will occur in London,
the South East and the East o England.
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 25
Figure 2.7: Participation o under-represented groups in higher education*
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
Imperial College
University College London
London School of Economics
University of Nottingham
University of Manchester
Sector average in England
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% from state schools or colleges % from NS-SEC 4-7
% from low participation neighbourhoods
*Young full-time undergraduate entrants
Figure 2.8: Location o graduate vacancies at leading UK employers in 2012
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
London North West Midlands South East Yorkshire North East East Anglia
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26 Fair Access to Proessional Careers: A progress report
Taking these predictions into account, it seems
that regional disparities in access to a proessional
career are growing and are set to go on doing
so. I employers are genuinely concerned aboutbroadening the background o their workorces,
they will need to show ar greater intentionality
in broadening the parts o the UK rom which
they recruit.
How employers select
Getting selection processes right means that doors
are opened to a wider pool o talent. Unleashing
Aspiration made clear that it is or individual
employers to decide on the selection processes
that work best or them but that some processes
risk obstructing equity o access, such as:
opacity in recruitment processes, or examplenot providing sample online tests i using
assessment centres or setting out what is
expected o applicants
over-reliance on academic qualications ratherthan recognising wider achievements
the plethora o organisations that charge to helppeople through selection processes, which candisadvantage those who cannot aord the ees
or those who are unaware that such tools exist.
Selection processes vary considerably in how
applicants are assessed and appointed. Some
employers may use selection criteria that can
inadvertently avour some applicants over others.
Others prioritise those with a amily connection.
For example, a number o rms give nancial
incentives to employees to reer people they know
to the recruitment process.
Contributors to the call or evidence provided
a range o examples o what they are doing to
ensure they advertise or and recruit as diverse a
range o employees as possible. Examples included:
interviewing candidates in less ormal,less intimidating surroundings
using dierent channels or advertising vacancies,including social media
appointing diversity managers
using school-blind or university-blind applicationorms
training or sta in human resources to be awareo subconscious bias.
These approaches are more conducive to a air
selection process and are ar more likely to deliver
a more balanced intake o proessionals. From
the evidence submitted or this report, it seems
that, sadly, these initiatives although gathering
pace are still not the norm across proessional
employers. It is time they were.
Collecting workorce socio-economic data
The collection and publication o data on gender
and race have helped to bring about signicant
change in employers behaviours. Shining a spotlight
on who works where has also helped to bring
about a more diverse workorce. In Unleashing
Aspiration, it was recommended that employers
consider collecting data on the socio-economic
prole o their employees to ensure they had a
ully rounded picture o their workorces. Such
data collection would also allow employers to
evaluate the impact o their activity on improvingthe diversity o their workorces and ensure that
resources are being used in the most eective way.
It has been argued that collecting socio-economic
data is a bureaucratic burden and involves
unwarranted and unwanted intrusion into
employees backgrounds. When data rst started
to be collected about gender and ethnicity, it was
an equally contentious issue and was opposed
on the same grounds. Over time, however, it has
become the norm and has become viewed as abenet to employers determined to change the
prole o their workorces in order to make them
more socially representative.
The call or evidence threw up some pockets o
good practice when it comes to data collection
across the proessions. For example, a number o
rms have recently introduced additional questions
into their online diversity monitoring orms. These
will allow employers to gather data and map
progress. But they were very much the exception,
not the rule. That is disappointing.
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Chapter 2 Progress in the proessions what has changed since 2009 27
Case Study: Tate
To open up access to careers in the arts
sector, Tate is hosting 20 paid traineeshipsin its Collection Care division between
October 2011 and November 2014.
This initiative is unded by the Heritage
Lottery Funds Skills or the Future
programme, a national scheme that
aims to improve workorce diversity and
address skills shortages. Each placement
lasts or 18 months, is based primarily at
Tates London sites and is paid at London
Living Wage level, as are all Tates London-
based interns. Trainees undertake a
broad range o