Banks back effort to attract more state educated youth

A campaign to get more state educated young people into the banking sector has been launched. Education charity the Sutton Trust will work with four major banks to boost the number of young people they recruit from non-privileged backgrounds.

The move is backed by a report that found more than half of bosses in the sector were privately educated. The study, Pathways to Banking, by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for the Trust, of 500 leaders and 1,800 new recruits in the financial services also found that 34% of recent intakes and 51% of leaders in the banking sector who were from the UK went to independent schools.

The report recommends a framework of activities, focusing on an early start and providing on-going support, which will ensure young people from low and middle income backgrounds are informed about the range of jobs available to them in the sector. BCG estimated that in Britain 30-40% of those earning over £120,000 per year are working in financial services.

By acting to increase access for non-privileged young people to the sector, the study concludes that banks will also benefit from a more diverse workforce, ensuring that there are a mix of perspectives within teams to improve decision-making and a broader understanding of customer needs.

The Sutton Trust is working with Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Lloyds in the initiative. The campaign follows the success of the Sutton Trust’s Pathways to Law programme, funded by the Legal Education Foundation. This has supported 2,000 students during the last seven years and now involves 12 major universities, including Oxford, and 30 top law firms, including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Eversheds, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters and Mayer Brown.

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