‘It’s time to end the university-first approach to opportunity’

Before I was elected to represent Wrexham, I spent years working in accounting and finance. I also saw first-hand how easy it is for talented people to rule the profession out before they have given it a second thought. If you haven’t grown up around it, and nobody at school or college has shown you the options, it is remarkably easy to assume that the world isn’t for you.

That experience is why I am supporting More than numbers, the campaign launched this month by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). It goes to the heart of a question this government has rightly put at the centre of its agenda: whether opportunity in this country depends on talent and effort, or on background and postcode.

Accountancy is about so much more than adding numbers together, It is problem solving, collaboration and advising some of the country’s most exciting businesses, large and small. It is a diverse, hands-on and engaging profession. And crucially you don’t need a degree, the bank of mum and dad or to be based in London to have a successful and rewarding career in it.

There is a disconnect, though. Financial and professional services are one of the UK’s greatest economic strengths, employing people from Wrexham to Edinburgh and everywhere in between. Yet new research from AAT finds that 41 percent of UK adults don’t know you can become an accountant without a university degree, and six in ten (59 percent) left school feeling only slightly or not very well informed about what they could do next.

The same research exposes a striking gap between what we prize and what we know works. Over half of people (53 percent) regard university as very prestigious or respected, compared with 11 percent for apprenticeships. Yet practical skills (35 percent) and work experience (32 percent) are each more than three times as likely as a degree (10 percent) to be seen as factors in career success.

People clearly recognise that skills and experience matter most once you’re in work, yet the advice young people get at school still points most of them in one direction.

For a government focused on growth, that should ring alarm bells. Key industries are crying out for skills, and nearly a million young people are not in education, employment or training. We cannot afford for potential talent to discount entire sectors simply because nobody has shown them the way in. Every young person who never hears about a route that would have suited them is a loss to them, to their community and to the economy.

The evidence that these routes deliver is strong. Separate analysis by Public First found that 19 to 24-year-olds in the AAT community earn, on average, 11 percent more than their peers nationally. These are good jobs with good wages, and they are available in places like Wrexham, where young people want to build careers without having to leave home to do it. Because so many study while they work, they reach the workplace with experience employers value from day one.

The political will is there. Over the summer, the Prime Minister committed to valuing the hard hat as much as the graduation cap. Alan Milburn’s interim review found that current careers guidance lacks value, particularly for young people exploring vocational pathways. That finding should trouble all of us, because it means the very people we most want to reach are the least well served.

The Milburn Review is an opportunity to build the genuine alternative to the A-levels-to-university conveyor belt I have been calling for. Getting there will take more than new qualifications or funding streams. Young people need to understand the routes available to them, and so do the schools, colleges and careers advisers who guide them.

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That is why I support AAT’s call for the government’s skills reforms to make the full breadth of vocational pathways visible and accessible. Campaigns like More than numbers, which offers free tools and practical support to young people throughout October and November and puts the spotlight on students, members and employers from every kind of background, show what good engagement can look like. Government should be learning from that work and building it into the system, so it reaches every young person as standard and doesn’t depend on a campaign happening to land in their school.

Labour has always been the party of aspiration for working people. Too often, aspiration has been defined narrowly, as a path through university that suits some and leaves many others feeling they have failed before they have started. If we are serious about breaking down barriers to opportunity, we need every young person to leave school knowing the full range of routes open to them, and confident that each of them is respected.

I came to accountancy after working as a hotel general manager, so I know it is a profession people can move into from very different starting points. More young people should know that from the start, and our skills reforms are the chance to make sure they do.

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