This thesis explores socio-economic inequalities in access to ‘elite’ professional or managerial occupations in the UK with a particular focus on inequalities in ‘non-educational’ attributes. Social gradients in educational attainment are often the primary focus when explaining barriers to elite occupations, however they are unable to fully explain socio-economic gaps in access. This thesis therefore extends the study of access to elite occupations, by moving beyond educational attainment to consider a range of other barriers which are widely discussed in academic and policy circles but are under-researched quantitatively.

The findings provide new empirical evidence on the importance of social capital (in the form of relevant personal networks and work experience which influence career choice), non-cognitive skills (often termed soft skills or personality traits) and career self-management (such as career aspirations, promotion- or challenge-seeking values, work experience, commercial awareness and the use of networks for educational or career guidance) for gaining access to elite occupations and creating barriers to these careers for young people from less advantaged backgrounds.

The thesis also makes several other contributions. It empirically shows how social background and gender intersect to provide a large ‘triple advantage’ for males from higher socio-economic backgrounds over females from lower socio-economic backgrounds when accessing elite careers. Methodologically it shows the benefit of analysing elite occupational outcomes over multiple waves of survey data rather than a single mid-career snapshot which is common in related literature but underestimates levels of access to elite occupations as it conflates access (whether individuals enter these careers) and retention (whether they remain in these careers). It also demonstrates the significant research value of using newly available recruitment data from employers to disentangle the role of aspirations (who applies) and recruitment processes (who is rejected by employers) in driving inequalities in access to elite occupations.