25 ISS 0th UE
Incorporating NQ magazine
October 2023
www.pqmagazine.com/www.pqjobs.co.uk o.uk
MYTHS CREATE BARRIERS
Misconceptions about what a career in accountancy actually entails may be creating unnecessary barriers for many young people, preventing them from seeing accountancy as an attainable career option. New research from Grant Thornton shows these misconceptions could be limiting the potential talent pool of the profession. Exploring Gen Z’s views of accountancy as a career, Grant Thornton discovered 62% of respondents believed you need high exam grades to become an accountant. Another 57% said you need to go to university, and the same percentage thought training for the qualification is expensive. Over half also see accountancy as a sedentary profession – 53% think accountants sit at a desk all
day! The worry is that two-thirds of young people surveyed have never received careers advice about accountancy. However, those attending private schools are 20% more likely to have been given careers advice about becoming an accountant than those from comprehensive schools. Private school students are also more likely
to know a real accountant than those going to a state school. Gender is also found to impact young people’s perception of accountancy as an attainable career. Men are 13% more likely to believe that they can become an accountant than women. Nonbinary people are less likely than both men or women to feel a career in accountancy is possible.
Grant Thornton’s head of inclusion, diversity and ESG, Jenn Barnett, said: “It is clear that the accountancy profession needs to work harder to bust historic misconceptions. There remain clear misunderstanding about not only routes to entry but also the scope of the career on offer, which may be preventing many from considering it as an option.” Barnett stressed: “The school you attend, your background or gender should not dictate your access to information or the career path you follow, yet our research shows that these factors contribute to the level of exposure to and understanding that a young person may have of the profession.” • Grant Thornton has launched a myth busting campaign ahead of its 2023 trainee recruitment window.
WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? Why are women still underrepresented in the very top positions at the Big 4 accountancy firms, asks Dr Patrizia KokotBlamey (pictured) in her new book. Women’s access to the professions has improved remarkably over the past 20 years, and professional service firms, such as the Big 4, have invested heavily in equality,
diversity and inclusion drives. She says some, such as Deloitte, regularly feature in ‘Best Workplaces for Women’ rankings, but the number of women at the very top has failed to budge significantly over the same period. It means women make up just over 20-23% of partners in larger firms.
In her new book, ‘Gendered Hierarchies of Dependency’, Kokot-Blamey analyses this stickiness at the top of the profession. She found that the price of making it to the top is still frequently motherhood, indicating that flexible working and equal opportunity initiatives continue to fail. “There is nothing wrong with prioritising one’s career, but for many women giving up family life and motherhood in this way will be a cost too high to pay,” says KokotBlamey.
She also queries whether a focus on performance, blind recruitment and data-driven HR interventions has done anything but alienate people from one another. KokotBlamey explains: “We all spend so much time at work and, at the same time, work for many of us is no longer a place where we develop friendships or relationships of trust. A shift away from relationshipbased hiring has succeeded in getting more women through the door, but when we look at it comparatively, we can see that they are not as secure in their positions.”