Listen out for my interview with BBC Radio 4 You and Yours on this subject....Available on iPlayer (fwd ahead to 41 min) 

Nick Clegg is championing the social mobility drive so getting an internship is “open and transparent” to change the “who you know not what you know" culture.

It appears that 100 companies have signed up which include some of the largest supermarkets, banks, law firms and energy providers including Barclays, HSBC and Santander, and retailers Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and Morrisons.

 The companies have agreed to advertise work experience places in schools and over the internet, rather than just telling informal contacts.


They also agreed to work with schools to encourage pupils' ambitions and make internships “open and transparent” so poorer children were not put off.


The firms also agreed to use so that application candidates were not screened out because they went to the wrong school or come from a different ethnic group.


While this is all rather commendable I’m afraid Nick is behind the times. 11 years ago as an A Level student I managed to go online and apply to various internships or work experience days being offered by Investment Banks. I repeated the same process with one of the Big 5 accountancy firm and then again during my first year at a University to get a 3 week internship at an investment bank. Lastly I secured a summer internship in my penultimate year of University which led to a full time job offer.


I assure you that I neither knew the difference between a consultancy firm and an investment bank, nor did I know anyone who worked at either. The process to apply, the requirements and timeline were clearly posted online.


This is the reality of the financial sector broadly. The internship process is transparent as is the graduate recruitment process. There are also very strong diversity drives within this industry championed by the very senior most people. Banks like to make money. They want to hire smart people who they think can help them make more money;  They don’t care where a student went to school and even what degree they may have done. All it comes down to is aptitude and being able to demonstrate ability.


Unfortunately, private schools in the UK are very good at providing opportunity to their students that allows them to develop this work ethic and also be able to demonstrate it in an interview when asked “can you give me an example of when you assumed the role of a group leader?” Students have more support through careers advice, mock interview and training that leads to better interview performance.


By comparison, state comprehensives do not provide the same support. Hence students don’t perform as well in interviews. It is also a reality that they are perhaps less likely to apply to the financial sector because of less information.


What Nick Clegg needs to do is address this issue with state schools so more students are encouraged to apply. I can assure him that the financial industry has had an open door for the last decade or more, at least.


This observation about how accessible the financial sector is can largely be applied to larger firms. The 100 or so that have signed up have reached a level of institutionalisation where there is a clear process for everything aspect of functioning and recruitment is one of them. The big HR departments at these other large firms outside of finance also have invested in creating clear processes and then presenting them on their websites and offering opportunities for students to learn about them. For any profit seeking company the aim is to attract the best. The larger firms have the resources to advertise themselves and they have already done so. Nick’s drive for social mobility will not cause much improvement since he’s trying to change the wrong elements of the equation.

Besides motivating students across the state sector broadly and informing them of opportunities beyond what they see in their immediate surroundings, Nick needs to tackle opacity within small, medium sized businesses and less “institutionalised” sectors. Media, films, arts broadly, etc do not have a clear process of how they hire and who they hire.

As someone who tried to make a documentary, short films and a feature film I can confirm that unless you have the former head of BBC drama on your side, you ain’t getting a big wig casting agent to return your call. That’s where the “who you know” culture really has a stronghold. It’s those smaller businesses and informal sectors that don’t have huge HR departments or websites that explains step by step how to apply at different stages of your life.

So good for Nick for promoting a noble cause but if he really wants to make a difference then he needs to:

1.      Make the state school sector better at informing and preparing students so more apply for internships

2.      Get the informal sectors and SMEs to sign up for providing clearer guidance on their recruiting policy

2. a.       But don’t criticise them for firing incompetent interns!

3.      Provide government support to businesses that cannot afford to hire interns through grants etc

The result of these actions will be that the pool of students applying for internships will be braoder, beyond just the very motivated and private school educated, but also sectos of the economy beyond finance will become more accessible hence helping in some small way to redress the unbalanced UK economy.