Larissa Feeney

But then for non-technical roles like client service roles, for example, operations roles, they're also open to school leavers.

That actually wasn't an intentional decision.

And I suppose, Susan, the attitude I take is that I have to be open to every pathway.

And that is one of a few pathways that's open to us in terms of developing future talent.

And the challenge for us as a remote team is that if school leavers are obviously not as experienced or developed as graduates are, so it's just the added complexity of ensuring that they're working well remotely.

It does make it more difficult for us in that area.

What do you think?

I think it's a balance of the two.

I think that what I have seen in this sector is a gradual increase in automation of manual tasks over time, which means that there's less of that work for the junior or for the trainee.

So that element, and you can call that AI, and some of it is, and some of it is not, that has led to a reduction in the need for those graduate entrants in this particular sector.

And for us, add to that the complexity of remote training,

Or the risk is around remote training and how careful we have to be with that means that we're a bit more careful when we hire.

However, I would add something else to it, Susan.

And that is in this particular sector.

So I'm talking about my own, which is accounting.

The same probably applies to professional services in general.

If I can look to the US, there's loads of data on the US in this.

The average qualified accountant in the US is almost six years of age.

Most accountants are past retirement age and entrants to the sector are declining year on year.

In 2025, entrants declined by almost 17%.