More and more companies are being encouraged to take on young people and now over 130,000 business leaders from a range of industries and backgrounds across the UK take on Apprentices. Apprentices can offer help to businesses across all sectors by serving as a route to find and train fresh new talent.
Why take on an apprentice?
Apprentices are motivated, enthusiastic, flexible and loyal to the company that invests in them. Accountancy Apprentices have committed themselves to the industry and have chosen to carry out the scheme and therefore dedicated to finish it.
Taking on an Apprentice reduces training costs as Apprentices are much more cost effective than hiring skilled staff and you will be able to adapt an Apprentice to your needs and provide a future work force for your business. You can also save on recruitment costs through using Kaplan’s free recruitment service.
Although brand new schemes from several sectors have recently been unveiled, Accountancy Apprenticeships have been successfully running for hundreds of years with established exams, training materials and qualifications already in place.
What can they study?
You can take on and train your Apprentice through up to three levels of Accountancy Apprenticeship available with The Association of Accounting Technician (AAT):
- Level 2 – Certificate
- Level 3 - Advanced Certificate
- Level 4 – Diploma
Once your Apprentice has finished their level four AAT, they’ll be a qualified Accounting Technician and on successful completion, and depending on the type of accountant your Apprentice aspires to be, they will also gain exemptions from certain units of the qualifications that they’ll need to become a chartered accountant such as; ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW or CIPFA.
Funding an apprentice
If you are committed to taking on an Apprentice and have less than 1000 employees at your work place, you could also receive up a £1,500 grant pre Apprentice from the Government for up to ten Apprentices aged 16-24. You can also apply for funding to cover training, with full costs covered for 16-18 year olds.
Don't just take it from us!
Sue Turner, partner at Hart Shaw LLP in Sheffield, currently has two AAT Apprentices working on her accounts and regularly takes on new Apprentices each year.
She said: "We are able to train our apprentices from scratch in our own way along with developing the Apprentice throughout their career path within the company. They not only learn the technical skills to do the job but also the workings of the company – they build relationships with the clients and other departments which help as they reach the higher levels in the firm."
Yamila Borges-Gil, Head of Management Reporting at VISA Europe takes on one higher Apprentice per year who go on to become fully chartered accountants with the CIMA qualification.
She said: "The advantage of taking on Apprentices is that you have motivated young people with the desire to make a difference; they are able to absorb new information and are willing to learn. This helps to improve the department’s delivery and it also contributes to alleviate with the workload."
How we can help
Kaplan’s free recruitment service takes the hard work out of finding the best local talent for your business as all candidates are pre-screened by our recruitment experts to ensure high quality shortlists are provided.
More information on taking on an Accountancy Apprentice.