Waterfly

THE WATERFLY SEES THE REFLECTION IN THE WATER. IT TAKES NOTE AS THE WATER SHIFTS. HERE’S THE LATEST GOSSIP FROM THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYABILITY SECTOR

Priced Out

The former Tory special advisor who is set to become the first graduate president of the Oxford Union after he stood “for a laugh” tells us this placement is only his second most unlikely job. James Price says it is pipped to the post by the time he worked as Johnny Depp’s bodyguard during his student days. “He came to speak at the Union and I was tasked with protecting him from swooning fans. He was beautiful, like a bruised flower, but he kept mumbling. He asked if everyone could hear him, they said no but he just kept mumbling. It was quite awkward.” Price, who graduated in 2013, will start his reign over the debating society in January, alongside his full time role as a senior account director at Hanover. He tells us: “After two years working in the House of Lords, I think I’m the right person to try to help save the Union, a well-meaning if slightly tired institution, from itself”. Although he ran as a joke, the 29-yearold is taking the role seriously and is organising an exciting line up of speakers, but tells us Johnny Depp is not on his hit list.

Vital Attraction

ormer universities minister David Willetts is optimistic about the upcoming university year. 'I personally think we’ll see an increase in people occupying university places,’ he says. ‘Overseas is the bigger risk,’ he admits, but adds, ‘eventually students in China and India will want some sort of experience in UK.’ If you book them, they will come.

Halfon's High

Chair of the Education select committee Robert Halfon, who graduated from the University of Exeter with a BA in politics and MA in Russian and Eastern European politics, has some familiar advice for students: stay away from drugs. ”I always hated exams so I used to take like half a tonne of pro plus caffeine tablets to keep myself awake so I could revise through the night. I certainly don't recommend it. But to be fair I kept the pro plus company going. I was always high as a kite well after my exams.” He hastened to add: "On caffeine that is, by the way.

All Bar None

Wondering what it’ll be like to study virtually? Waterfly doesn’t want to put a downer on online courses, but before accepting that virtual place it’s worth thinking on what you’ll be missing.

When we caught up with Liam Williams, the stand-up comedian and author of debut novel Homes and Experiences, he recalled how at Cambridge he’d been nervous just attending a show at the famous Footlights theatre. ‘It wouldn’t take much more guts to go on stage, I remember thinking,’ he told us. And, of course he did – and in that lies a lesson.

Dido’s Woes

Students are always asked to come to interviews prepared but it’s not always something achieved by our bosses. When Waterfly caught up with Jeremy Hunt at a Conservative Health event just before the pandemic hit these shores, we were struck by his confidence in the NHS as the virus loomed.

‘There is no country on earth you’d rather be at a time like this,’ he told a lunch at Westminster. Months later, it didn’t seem that way when Baroness Dido Harding (pictured, above), the former TalkTalk CEO charged with implementing the NHS track-andtrace system, turned up before Hunt’s Select Committee without data: ‘Our frustration is that it is very hard for us to scrutinise what the government is doing if we’re not given the data that allows us to do that,’ said an irritated Hunt.

Waterfly had been hoping to speak with Harding the following week, but through an intermediary she asked to delay. ‘I think she wants to keep her head down,’ a source tells us. Waterfly understood. There’s no shame in going back to the drawing-board – and perhaps Harding didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

The Sky is not the Limit

WhenFinito World founder Ronel Lehmann was interviewed on Sky News by Ian King, it was only fitting that our first cover, featuring Sir Martin Sorrell, oversaw the conversation. The image of Sorrell took us back to the S4 Capital founder’s predictions regarding the economy: ‘Q4 will be a recovery,’ the ad mogul told us. When we tested that prediction with Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, he agreed: ‘This is the strangest crisis in history because it’s likely to be very short.’

Lord Anti-Microbe

People might not know that among Lord Jim O’Neill’s (pictured, above right) numerous achievements, he chaired a review under David Cameron’s administration into antimicrobial resistance. ‘This pandemic has completely destroyed this false perception that health and finance are separate issues,’ he tells Waterfly. ‘I’m shocked by how well the international collaboration between biotech and pharmaceuticals has gone. It’s not surprised me that the equity markets have recovered since February; they’ve been trading the infection curve.’ So what’s next? ‘There is a non-zero probability that we will get a vaccine some time before the year is over. Something which would have been impossible six months ago.’ Hope springs.

Interesting, actually

Sick of hearing about AI in general terms, Waterfly seeks specifics. As training contracts kick off in September – or in some cases, don’t kick off – what sort of training can graduates expect from the big accountancy firms?

Chris French of PwC tells us that AI has seen the firm ‘recruit several hundred fully-funded technology degree apprenticeships’ adding that ‘drones, blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and the Internet of Things’ are being looked at.

But if, as he says, the future is arriving fast, then that may not mean we are entering some dystopia where the robot rules. French also notes that ‘VR-trained staff - when compared to classroom-trained staff - saw an increase in confidence, were more emotionallyconnected to the content, were more focused, and completed their training four times faster.’

A Terminal Problem

Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap at St. Martin’s Theatre is set to become one of the first shows to welcome back audiences after Covid but its robustness has not always been good news for all. In his book My Love Affair with a Theatre, late director Derek Salberg details the pessimism surrounding the show when it started in 1952. He wrote: “One who thought it might succeed (but was not wildly enthusiastic about it) was my cousin Victor Saville, once one of England’s top film producers with such films as ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’… He bought a half share of the film rights for £5,000; there was, however, a proviso in the contract, namely that the film could not be made until the play had terminated its London run.” Victor died in 1979, aged 83, ah.

The Bottom Line Father

of the House Sir Peter Bottomley tells us he has been staying well during the pandemic. While Boris has been spotted showing off his fitness with press ups, the 76-year-old boasts: “I have taken from my shelves every book; I have read enough to know whether to keep it or to pass it to a person or to a charity. Each I keep is replaced. You can see that as vertical rather than horizontal press ups. When young, I did one arm horizontal ones. Now I have absorbed so much information and I am heavier." Fit in body and brain.

That sounds very ‘Big Four’ but it’s worth noting it’s also an aspect of the training of smaller firms like Moore Kingston Smith. An MKS spokesperson tells us: ‘Our graduates are now overseeing digital processes including robotic process automation, optical character recognition and natural language processing.’

Accountancy used to be pegged as dull but MKS seeks to ‘automate some of our more mundane and repetitive tasks such as data processing and bookkeeping.’ And the money’s good too – something to chew on.

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