Levelling Up Accountancy

Levelling up accountancy

Access Accountancy’s Sharron Gunn discusses how the organisation works to improve social mobility within the accountancy profession

Access Accountancy, which celebrates its 10th year in 2024, seeks to unlock equal opportunities within the accountancy world. A charity, we work with 26 firms and professional bodies across the UK to improve access to, and progression within, the profession.

For me as chair, our importance is two-fold. Firstly, we highlight inclusiveness and the amazing career opportunities the accountancy profession offers, whatever your background. Secondly, we support and help firms and organisations attract and retain a more diverse workforce.

To my mind, one of the substantial barriers to entry and progression is that young people just don’t know about the opportunities and breadth of a career in the profession and may have preconceptions about life as an accountant. Raising awareness of opportunities within the profession and the opportunity to take up a work placement is a key part of what Access Accountancy does.

Being able to give someone the opportunity to work in an accountancy office for a couple of weeks one summer could be life-changing, and as chair I am determined to ensure young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds have access to these placements. Evidence of work experience is something I always look for in potential candidates, alongside a work ethic, and so making sure young people take up placements is vital.

My background wasn’t one of privilege. I didn’t really know what accountancy was and thought it would have been out of my reach. But, fortunately, I had a mentor; my friend’s father. He persuaded me that accountancy would be a good career for me, and so I followed his advice and educational path, and it has been lifechanging for me. Without this support, my career would have been almost impossible.

For those interested in accountancy, my advice is to get some qualifications under your belt, and if you choose to go to university do something that you enjoy and are passionate about – it doesn’t need to be accountancy. My suggestion is to prioritise work experience along the way.

This summer marks the end of my first year as chair of Access Accountancy, and as I approach this milestone I’m excited about our future plans. Our vision is to widen the reach of Access Accountancy, join up with other professional bodies who support our objectives, sign up more firms to actively participate in our programme and, ultimately, offer more work experience opportunities.

Since our formation we have evaluated our impact by collecting and analysing data on work experience, hiring, diversity and progression among our signatories. We’re going to turn our attention to gathering more data ourselves, so we can do our job even better.

As chair of Access Accountancy I recognise there is still more to do, it is this which will form the next part of Access Accountancy’s journey. I’d love you to be part of it – if you are interested, please contact me here.

• Sharron Gunn, chair, Access Accountancy