According to 2025 figures from membership body Progress Together, around 90% of senior roles in finance and accountancy are held by someone from a higher socioeconomic background. What’s more, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds earn on average £17,500 less than their colleagues – the largest sector pay gap in the country.

Research for ICAEW’s Evolution of mid-tier accountancy firms 2025 report found that over half of firms ranked access to skills as the biggest barrier to growth, with a further 25% ranking it the second biggest. That social mobility gap offers a solution.

“There's a whole cohort of people for whom this profession is something that's not on their radar, or they don’t see as achievable for them. So, as an industry, we can be missing out on the best people,” says Chris Meyrick, Head of Audit for Scotland at accountancy network BDO and an ICAEW Scotland Board member.

BDO was a founding signatory of the social mobility charity Access Accountancy, launched a decade ago and currently chaired by ICAEW. The firm launched its own dedicated social mobility insight programme, Explore BDO, five years ago. It is now ranked in the UK’s Top 75 employers in the Social Mobility Employer Index 2025.

For Meyrick, an inclusive culture was one of the things that persuaded him to join the company. Social mobility is something that he feels strongly about, both because of its positive impact on society and his own personal experience. His parents left school at 16 to work in the South Wales steelworks and as a nurse. “They worked really hard to give me opportunities and myself and my sister were the first in our family to go to university,” he says.

Even before the formal social mobility initiatives started at BDO, Meyrick thinks it was always baked into the culture of the firm. “When I joined in 2021, the managing partner was Paul Eagland, who’d started out in the profession as a school leaver. It’s good that there are these visible role models who’ve made it to the very top.”

Embed it in the culture

So what can other firms learn from BDO’s experience? “I think it’s important to realise that this is not something you can just bolt on because you think you should,” says Meyrick. “It needs to be something that’s genuinely important to your business and part of your culture and purpose, otherwise it’s not going to work.”

Explore BDO is part of a suite of initiatives designed to promote diversity throughout the organisation. These include the Gender Balance Plan, Race Action Plan and a number of staff networks, including the recently formed Bridge network, focused on social mobility.

Use short placements

BDO’s scheme is a three-day programme aimed at school students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Students take part in insight sessions, skills workshops and virtual networking meetings, giving them the opportunity to speak to people from all levels of the organisation, from trainees to senior leaders.

They also get to showcase their teamwork through a group project. “Coming into this sort of work environment can be daunting for students, so we work hard to make sure that it's a really accessible and welcoming place,” says Meyrick.

Fast-track internships with career support

Those who have completed the scheme can then be fast-tracked into BDO’s school leaver and internship programmes and are supported by members of the Early in Career team during the application process. Over the last three years, more than 100 students have participated in Explore BDO and between 15% to 20% of those have gone on to be offered apprenticeships.

Virtual work experience

Explore BDO is complemented by Springpod, a virtual work experience programme that is accessible to greater numbers and to those in more remote areas of the country. Participants learn about roles at the organisation, complete interactive tasks and challenges, and develop employability skills. In the last year, the organisation saw 4,500 young people sign up to the site.

It doesn’t need to be formal

Schemes such as BDO’s are not always about having a formal, prescriptive process. Getting started is as simple as approaching local schools and offering something such as a work experience programme. “The harder part is making sure you have the right environment set up for them so that it’s welcoming, engaging and makes them feel comfortable to be themselves.”

A key part of this is encouraging staff who have followed non-traditional career routes to talk about their experience as some may feel pressure to fit in with what they see as sector norms, Meyrick adds.

“I’d encourage all firms to do something in this area. Being a smaller firm without a large infrastructure shouldn’t be a barrier. Just get out there and engage.”