Milburn report fails to tackle non-graduate social
mobility
21 July 2009
pr038.09
Despite delivering over 80 recommendations and urging Britain
not to harbour a “closed shop mentality”, the long-awaited Alan
Milburn report on fair access to the professions released today
fails the very audience it is intended to support.
Mr Milburn sought to make recommendations on how the
professions, the Government and others can ‘unleash the pent-up
aspiration that exists in the young people of our country’, citing
that professions have become open only to graduates, leaving many
of those without a university degree unable to pursue a
professional career. Yet the report deals almost exclusively with
the issue of degrees and higher education, leaving praise for
non-graduate routes to the penultimate chapter.
The report has overlooked the opportunity to promote existing
initiatives which provide access to careers amongst non-graduates,
and in particular the 45-year-old vocational route to qualification
as a lawyer, so marginalising the career opportunities of very
people the Government should be seeking to nurture, according to
the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX).
“We were delighted to see that the issue of social mobility and
access to the professions is being taken seriously. But by
perpetuating the myth that university is the only way to become a
lawyer, it seems that it’s the Government itself who is harboring a
closed-shop mentality” said ILEX President, Judith Gordon Nichols,
“Or is this report really just a plank in the Government’s effort
to secure university attendance by fifty percent of our young
people?”
Whilst the report laments the demise of the old articled route
to qualification for lawyers, it overlooks the fact that it is
still possible to become a qualified lawyer vocationally via
organisations such as ILEX. Over 80,000 people have chosen to study
law through the vocational route and ‘earn as they learn’. Only 2%
of them have lawyer parents and just 15% of them come from families
where either of the parents received a university education.
“The government needed to look no further than legal executive
lawyers for social mobility in action: many of the recommendations
the report suggests for the legal profession are already in place
through ILEX. By not recognizing such routes, this Government
report has effectively reinforced the misperception that you have
to be affluent, connected and go to university to be a successful
lawyer. We are incredulous that Mr. Milburn’s report does not
mention, let alone encourage, the established vocational routes to
becoming a professional, although the Panel received evidence from
ILEX and other similar vocational bodies” Ms Gordon Nichols
continued.
“What is now needed is for the Government to open their own
minds and fully recognise and embrace the benefits of the existing
vocational routes to professional qualifications. Only then can the
British youth unleash their professional aspirations and maximize
their inherent potential.”
Ends
posted 21.07.09