Member Article

Professions asked to open their doors

Top professions, such as law, medicine, and accountancy, have been told to open their doors to people from poorer backgrounds.

A new body is to be set up in a bid to overcome the “closed shop” mentality identified in a Government-commissioned report by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn.

Extra funding for poorer students and an online National Internship Service are also among measures to be unveiled by Business Minister Pat McFadden in response.

Mr Milburn’s report, published last year, warned elitism risked creating a “forgotten middle class” generation and wrecking the British economy.

Gordon Brown said: “Our mission must be to ensure that all of Britain’s people, from whatever background, are allowed to develop their talents and learn a skill which will transform their lives.”

Help to secure work experience for 10,000 students from “modest income” families and “an army of mentors”, would also form part of the package, he said.

Pat McFadden said: “This isn’t about class war - the real class war would be to tell people they should know their place and to continue restricting opportunity to a narrow group.

“This is about opening up opportunity to the broad majority in Britain, to ensure that those who have the ability also get the chance to do the kinds of professional jobs which are going to grow in number in future years.

“The measures we have announced in recent months, and the further steps we announce today will help raise the aspirations of young people and they demonstrate our long-term commitment to a more socially mobile society.”

The legal view

James Wilders, Graduate Recruitment Partner at Dickinson Dees in Newcastle, is responsible for hiring trainee solicitors who then serve a two year training contract with the firm before qualifying as a solicitor:

“At Dickinson Dees our priority is to recruit the best candidates. Their background really doesn’t matter just so long as they are energetic candidates with the best people skills. We therefore recruit people from all sorts of social backgrounds. The fact that someone might come from a well off family is irrelevant.

“The cost of training in law can be off putting and most of our trainee solicitors have incurred quite significant debts during the course of their studies. It is hardly surprising therefore that people from more disadvantaged backgrounds might be discouraged from entering the profession bearing in mind the length of time over which they have to study and the amount of student debt they accrue during this time.

Mr Wilders believes that the Government’s plans to improve opportunities for people from poorer backgrounds do not go far enough.

“The clear implication of the Government’s announcement is that the absence of financial support for students in higher education is penalising people from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or even Alan Milburn) to reach this conclusion.

“Measures to assist less well off students in their education and careers would of course be welcome. However limiting such support to the “brightest” young people from poorer families as the Government has announced only solves half the problem. Based on the Government’s announcement, wealthier candidates will continue to be unfairly advantaged.

“A better approach would be for the Government to accept the fact that education should be universally available to all. Financial assistance could then be means tested (as was the maintenance grant which was paid when I was an undergraduate). On that basis everybody would have the same access to university with the only differentiating factor being intellectual ability.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .