Larissa Feeney

You have less of a talent pool and then you add to that the impact of AI and the impact of remote working.

And you can see, first of all, how difficult it is for firms to find the right talent.

And then are they balancing that out with increasing investment in technology so that they can increase capabilities around AI?

And obviously remote working plays a part as well.

Yes, exactly.

The skills that they will get, even regardless of the degree that you've come from, Sue.

So even if you take my own case with a degree in hospitality management and having become a qualified accountant, that foundation gave me huge skills in an area like customer service, which has given me a firm advantage in the years since in growing the business.

And that applies to graduates today.

So, yes, your degree could be in any area.

What the professional qualification gives you is a level of understanding and knowledge of business and a huge amount of trust between the business and the professional.

I think the I think chartered accountants, qualified accountants are something like the second most trusted profession globally.

And so it gives you a huge amount of professional ability and professional awareness and commercial awareness that other professions don't have the benefit of.

Yes, I do.

I think that what we have done is we have made changes in the workplace to benefit a generation of workers that it suits us to work from home.

And we may be doing that to the detriment of a future generation.

And I do worry about that.

I know for us internally, that's why we have to be so intentional around in-person meetups, around get-togethers, around cross-collaboration in terms of projects.

And it's very, very difficult remotely, Susan.

And companies do have to put a huge amount of effort into that.

And that's why remote working is so hard, because you don't have to do that in person.