Slow progress in opening up professions, says report

Former health secretary Alan Milburn, the government's independent reviewer on social mobility, said too many children from average and lower income homes were still ‘losing out’ in the hunt for professional posts.

He said there had been ‘growing public concern’ that social mobility in the UK had been ‘stagnant for far too long’.

In his Fair Access to Professional Careers report, he said 83% of jobs created in the next 10 years would be professional, increasing the level of professionals from 42% to 46% by 2020.

Andrew Leck, head of ACCA UK said: 'While the accountancy profession is not in the media headlines today, it does get a commendation in Milburn’s review for having “consciously constructed ladders of opportunity that allow non-graduates to enter and progress in a professional career.” This is good news, but my sense is that we cannot rest on our laurels. Together with the medical, legal and journalism professions, we need to work collectively to share best practice to ensure change.’

Louis Armstrong, chairman of Professions for Good – an umbrella organisation of professional bodies that include the AAT, CIOT, ACCA, and the ICAEW, said: ‘The professions have made demonstrable progress on a number of recommendations made in Alan Milburn’s original report in 2009. We launched a Best Practice Code for High Quality Internships guide in 2011 – taking direct action to ensure that internships, often the first rung on the ladder of accessing a professional career, are more fairly and transparently available to all.

‘Secondly, we met the challenge of providing practical ways for the professions and employers to track and foster social mobility by launching a Social Mobility Toolkit for the Professions in March 2012. Many professions now have a range of ways to join and qualify, including non- graduate routes.

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