Ben Newton, a 30-year-old man from the United Kingdom, never went to a university. However, as luck would it, he is working at Deloitte as a partner. The average pay for the job is one million pounds (approximately Rs 10 crore), as per a report in The Sunday Times. His journey began 12 years ago when he enrolled in Deloitte’s Brightstart apprenticeship programme. Mr Newton became a partner in the company last year and also became the first partner from Deloitte Brightstart’s apprentice programme for school dropouts.
He told the outlet, “I grew up in Dorset. My dad left school at 16 and was a soldier in the army. My mum worked in a pub and then a travel agent. It was an upbringing far removed from London and the world of finance.” Mr Newton had been the first in his family to be offered a place at a university. He had received an acceptance letter from the University of Warwick to study maths, however, he decided to join Brightstart so that he could get an early start and earn some money. At present, he is working as an auditor and is also a qualified accountant.
In a blog, Mr Newton said, “I got a place at Warwick University to study maths, which I was looking forward to. But that summer, I was working a couple of jobs to save money and decided to research grad schemes to work out what I might want to do after uni. I came across the option of school-leaver schemes and decided, for good practice, to apply to some of them – with no intention of deviating from my path.”
He said he landed a few interviews and one of them was from Deloitte. He added, “I knew I wanted a similar role after university and I’m a bit impatient, so I took the job. I love learning and I know I’d have loved the social side of university, and I do wonder what would have happened if I had taken that route. But on balance, when I look back, it still feels like the right decision.”
Notably, Deloitte launched the Brightstart programme to increase the number of individuals it hired and provide them with an alternative to attending college- a way into the workforce. Finding individuals who might not want to attend college and expanding the talent pool are popular topics, as is encouraging more people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to participate in professional settings.
