Trans-local academic credentials and the (re)production of financial elites

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which credentials from a range of education providers are used to (re)produce transnational financial elites in London's international financial district. Extant research has examined the long-standing relationship between educational background and entry into these financial labour markets. Far less attention has been paid to how the relationship between education and financial elites has changed more recently as financial labour markets have become increasingly transnational in nature and education and learning increasingly extend beyond higher education into the workplace. In response, this paper combines work on transnational elite labour markets with work from the sociology of education on the intersection between work and workplace education in order to understand the different strategies used by individuals (from both the UK and overseas) to acquire a range of credentials following their first degree in an effort to advance their careers within contemporary financial services labour markets. We argue that this research reveals the comparatively neglected trans-local qualities of workplace learning and education as individuals acquire both international and local academic credentials in what are often assumed to be global elite labour markets. The paper concludes by considering the implications of this research for work on the role of education in the (re)production of transnational elites more generally.