You don’t have to be pale and male to have a career in money
Today, hearts will be pounding, as young people across the country receive their much anticipated A-level results.
Many will be taking up university places, but others will be looking to take their first steps into full-time work.
Traineeships can offer school leavers the opportunity to gain paid experience that can lead them, debt-free, into full-time employment.
Sadly, too few young people know about the career opportunities that the investment management industry has to offer. Part of this is up to us to fix, by doing more to change perceptions about who we are and what we do as an industry.
When we’ve spoken to young people about how they view jobs in financial services, the words they often used included “stressful” and “stuffy”.
Worryingly, a third said they felt they would not fit in, with the majority identifying the typical employee within financial services as a male, white graduate. Only a handful thought they could find a job in financial services straight from school.
Busting these myths and challenging perceptions is something the Investment Association is working hard to address through Investment20/20, our industry’s grassroots careers service.
Over the past six years, the service has helped more than 1,400 trainees start their careers in investment management. Half of those have done so straight out of school.
It is not necessary to have gone to university or be a maths whizz to find a job in the investment sector. And you certainly don’t need to be white, male or privately educated. In fact, half of the school leavers who took part in our traineeship programme last year were female, a third were black or from an ethnic minority background, and over 80 per cent were from state schools.
From a commercial perspective, we know that diversity of thought leads to better decisions from the investment floor and the way our businesses are run. It’s also important that our industry looks more like the people we serve – Britain’s savers.
That means spreading the net further to reach those young people from different backgrounds, who have the potential to flourish in financial services.
To hire for potential, firms need to examine the way they recruit. That means looking again at the language used in job adverts to ensure it is jargon-free. It also means going beyond the script in interviews to understand the skills a young person can bring to a role besides relying purely on their academic achievements.
Life experience can also be an indicator of future success, equivalent to grades. Young people who have managed to juggle a part-time job alongside their studies have the eagerness to learn and resilience to succeed in our industry.
A university degree is certainly not a prerequisite for business success.
As parents and employers watch images of young people up and down the country celebrate or commiserate their A-levels results, let us make sure that we are nurturing their talent in modern-day Britain by looking beyond perceived traditional routes into financial services.
And for students getting their results today, there is #NoWrongPath into your future career.