Elite firms excluding working class with 'poshness test'

Thousands of working class people are missing out on jobs at top firms after failing employers' unspoken "poshness tests", according to the official body set up by the government to promote social mobility.

Jobs in elite banking and legal firms are being handed to candidates not only on the basis of how well they might do the job, but also the way they speak and where they went to school, research conducted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has found.

The research, carried out at Royal Holloway University, found that up to 70 per cent of contracts at 13 top accounting, financial and legal firms were issued to applicants who had attended selective or fee-paying schools.

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"This research shows that young people with working-class backgrounds are being systematically locked out of top jobs," said Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister who chairs the commission. "Elite firms seem to require applicants to pass a 'poshness test' to gain entry."

The report indicates that top firms are discriminating against the great majority of prospective candidates. Nationally, almost 90 per cent of people attend a comprehensive school, while only seven per cent attend fee-paying schools and just four per cent go to selective grammar schools.

Working class people are also likely to find it harder to progress at financial and legal firms due to "the tendency of more senior professionals to promote in their own image and thus 'misrecognise' merit", the commission said.

Class has become "the new glass ceiling", The Independent says. "The 'poshness test' is one way in which Britain’s social divide is widening, despite the rise in the number of professional jobs, which is expected to increase by two million in the next five years."

Dr Louise Ashley, of Royal Holloway, University of London, who led the research, said that firms must make a concerted effort to employ applicants from more "diverse" backgrounds.