The banking field may have troubles in the future if bankers aren’t careful. That’s because, as a survey by insurance companies Axa and YouGov showed recently, many students are steering clear of the banking world.
Students Turning Away from Finance
Some of the highest achieving students have explained that they are actively switching their course work to move away from the banking career choices. They are making this choice based on the banker bashing that they hear often and by the bad reputation that has become associated with UK banking.
During the survey of 321 students, they were presented with 15 career choices and banking and financial services ranked among the bottom five.
Survey Rankings
Of the 15 career choices presented to the students during the study, banking and financial services ranked among the bottom five, along with retail, property, engineering and manufacturing, the survey of 321 students revealed. The top three choices included media, entrepreneurship and technology.
Students give various reasons for their aversion to the banking sector, including 33% who said the banking collapse has steered them this way and 40% said they didn’t like the “ethics” of banking companies. More than 50% said the work would be too boring, while 33% thought banking jobs involve too much pressure.
Perhaps Relief to Banks?
Of course, banks may not be trembling in their boots over this information, as thousands of jobs have been cut as of recently. Still, banks may struggle to attract the best candidates and the most potentially successful for the field, if they don’t work to improve their reputations.
As Paul Evans, the chief executive of Axa said, “Our research has highlighted the stark and worrying conclusion that only a small percentage of high achieving 16-18 year olds aspire to a career in financial services. The reputation of the UK financial services sector has clearly suffered greatly over recent years.