Former Labour Cabinet Minister Alan Milburn claims journalism is most ‘socially exclusive’ profession in UK
A former Labour Cabinet minister has claimed that journalism has become the most ‘socially exclusive’ profession in the UK.
Alan Milburn, who now advises the Coalition Government on social mobility, says in a progress report that more must be done to widen access to professions such as law, journalism and medicine.
Media website, HoldThe FrontPage, reports: “The former health secretary said efforts to recruit people from poorer backgrounds into journalism had been ‘fragmented’ and lacked any ‘real vigour’.
“He said journalism had increasingly become a ‘degree only’ profession and claimed it ‘does not seem to take the issue of fair access seriously’.”
Millburn’s report comes amid mounting concerns that entrants to the key professions are coming from an increasingly narrow social group.
Milburn told the BBC: “There’s a series of barriers that, maybe inadvertently, the professions put in the way of those with ability and aptitude from a variety of backgrounds getting even the first foot career on the ladder into the professions.
“It’s partially about how they provide work experience opportunities, internships, their recruitment processes, where they recruit from.”
His report says too many employers are recruiting from “too narrow a range of universities and regions,” and claims work experience and internship schemes are “a lottery.”