smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Politicians can't stop themselves from pledging to create equal opportunities for every man, woman and child in a bold and brave new age. It's a surefire crowd pleaser.

The masses clap. Journalists use adjectives with abandon. We all go to bed with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Sometimes you just have to say what people want to hear.

Blair did it. Brown won’t stop giving it a whirl. Even the less than dynamic John Major muttered about creating a "classless society" back in the early 90s.

Nothing changes. The divisions between rich and poor in the UK continue to grow ever wider. Former cabinet minister Alan Milburn is chairman of the group which just published Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions. It’s a damning and yet not entirely earth-shattering assessment of the country’s unequal division of wealth.

The panel has found that if you're from a wealthy family, your chances of becoming a solicitor, doctor or accountant are higher than if you’re from an average income or poorer background. Wealthier families, it seems, have better connections in professional circles, the children go to better schools and receive financial support to gain the necessary qualifications. Milburn uses the term “a closed shop” to describe how difficult it is to break into these higher circles.

Among the report’s 167 pages, it says that the professional services sector is set to expand rapidly; seven million more professionals will be needed by 2020. ‘If the growth in social exclusivity… is not checked it will be more and more middle class children, not just working class ones, who miss out,’ says Milburn.

That tells you all you need to know about how deep-rooted class bias remains in this country – if middle class children are missing out, we really had better do something about inequality.

Putting that to one side, there’s little of substance in the report’s “cost neutral” recommendations. One suggestion is to provide mentors and role models to improve social mobility and raise expectations in the UK. Raising expectations is important, but without structural change it’s a token gesture.

The real reason for elitism in the professions is that the quality of schooling in this country is ludicrously uneven and higher education, especially the kind that leads to professional qualifications, costs an enormous amount of money. Unless these role models are dipping into their pockets, the backgrounds of those entering professions will remain homogenous.

Of course, another reason for the lack of diversity is that entering a profession is not such an attractive prospect these days. Is it really a measure of success? Is going to university such a big deal?

When given the choice between spending years in the education system and accumulating massive debts and then taking orders from other people before maybe becoming a partner by the time you’re 35, or setting up your own business, making money and choosing what hours you work, there’s only one winner.

That’s why learning a trade and then setting up your own company continues to be the most common type of small business today. Encouragingly, a younger generation is also beginning to show a greater interest in starting a business and entrepreneurship generally – thanks in no small part to TV shows like The Apprentice, Dragons' Den et al.

The key is having the ability to choose and it’s money that creates that freedom. As things stand, the majority of people don’t have that choice.