With competition for university places increasing and the rising costs of higher education, many more young people are shunning the traditional, academic route to a professional career within finance and heading straight into the workplace after leaving school.
This trend will undoubtedly have an impact on the workforce of the future and employers need to understand how it could impact on their recruitment processes.
Tim Vye, Divisional Director of Reed Finance, which specialises in senior-level financial recruitment, comments:
There is no doubt that the rise in the number of graduates over the last 10 years has led to increased focus by employers on further education and professional qualifications.
“We work with 90% of the UK's FTSE100 companies and have seen that employers recruiting for senior finance roles base their decision largely on the stability and relevance of the candidate’s career history. Our clients will also consider whether or not the candidate achieved first-time passes in their accountancy qualification – with less emphasis on their degree. With that said, some employers use the requirement of a degree as a prerequisite to aid initial shortlisting of candidates.
“We believe that this degree bias will change as employers increasingly see talented new accountants following different entry routes into the accountancy profession. As recruiters, we have the most chance of supporting this transition by demonstrating that a candidate without a degree can still demonstrate a strong record of committed study towards other qualifications.
“I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals who have chosen a more experience-based route and who have managed to secure good work placements while they are studying. This route is not for the faint-hearted! However, if an accountant can successfully navigate the early years of their career, they will often find that as they climb the career ladder, whether or not they have a degree becomes less of an issue for them in the future.
Reed Finance is part of Reed, the largest specialist recruitment agency in the UK.
