Host
Jag Dhaliwal
Guests
- Shaun Robertson, Director, Education and Qualifications, ICAEW
- Hazel Powling, Head of Qualifications Development, ICAEW
Transcript
Jag Dhaliwal: Hello and welcome to ICAEW Student Insights. My name is Jag Dhaliwal, and today we’re discussing transitional arrangements around the Next Generation ACA. Students who register with ICAEW from 1 July 2025 will be starting the updated qualification, which means taking new exams and following a slightly different structure. Students who register before that date can complete either the current ACA qualification or transfer to the Next Generation ACA. Whatever route you follow, it’s important to know all of the facts, and that’s why I’m joined today by Shaun Robertson, Director of Education and Qualifications, and Hazel Powling, Head of Qualifications Development. Hi Shaun and Hazel, thank you for coming in today.
Hazel Powling: Yeah, thank you for inviting us. We’re really excited to be here to tell you more information.
Shaun Robertson: Yeah, hello. It’s great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about the Next Generation ACA.
JD: So to kick off, could you just tell me about the Next Generation ACA?
SR: The Next Generation ACA – it’s an ongoing process. Every four or five years we take a big, deep breath, go and see what’s happening in industry, what’s happening in the profession, and make sure the qualification reflects that, because we’ve got a duty of care to the students to make sure you’re studying something that’s going to be useful to you in your career, and we zero-base it all and make sure it’s fit for purpose. So at the moment, the big topics are definitely sustainability, trust in the profession – which means our ethical stance – and technology is affecting everything in the profession. So they become front and centre for this iteration of the qualification. But, however, we’ll be looking at – into 2030 – what happens then as well. So it’s an ongoing process, and every year it’s updated as well. And Hazel has a good look each year to make sure the qualification – it’s a very, I would say the qualification is very dynamic. It’s constantly changing. So the one that you sat is probably quite unique to your year. Every year it changes. So we’re quite proud and excited about this Next Generation ACA, starting in 2025.
JD: Now, it sounds really exciting. Those are some key emerging topics that I think students should definitely learn about. So, Hazel, do you have anything to add?
HP: Yeah, it’s been a really good opportunity for us to look at the qualification as a whole and not its individual parts, and really think about how we might integrate it more. And also look at how we might support students through their journey as well, and looking at employers – so from their perspective, the sort of technical knowledge and skills that they need from those students at a particular point in time and – trying to align all of those things together to produce something that hopefully is just as robust as our current ACA, but it gives more, perhaps, flexibility, more support to students, and indeed, we have an exciting part that we’ve included through specialised learning, so it allows the ability as well for that flexibility and look at different specialisms as well.
JD: And Hazel, you mentioned supporting students. What should our current students know about their Next Generation ACA?
HP: So our current students can continue on their pathway that they’re on currently, so they don’t need to worry about Next Generation ACA and what their qualification is – it’s just as robust, as Shaun has said. We update anyway throughout the qualification, so those students can just continue on that pathway. But if they want to dip in and out of Next Generation ACA, they also have the opportunity to do that.
JD: It sounds like both the current ACA and the Next Generation ACA will be run by ICAEW for just a period of time?
HP: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve got a few years where we’re transitioning and parallel running all the exams, so our current students, yeah, they should be able to complete their current qualification in the timescales that are set out. The current students will have until March 2026 to complete their current Certificate Level. And then, if we think about Professional Level, moving on to Professional Level, so our current students will have three sittings in 2026 – so March, June and September – to complete their Professional Level exams. And Next Generation students for Professional Level will be starting from the March 2026 so we’ve got that period of parallel running. So there should be plenty of exams, and then Advanced Level – but that gets a bit more complicated, so I’ll pass that over to Shaun, I think!
SR: For Advanced Level, the new exams start in 2027 – so July onwards, in 2027. There’s less of a parallel run there. So there’ll be opportunities for students to complete Corporate Reporting in SBM [Strategic Business Management], but they can also completely using the new modules as well. So it’s already there on the website – but 2027 is a transitional time for Advanced Level. One word of warning for all the transitional rules, I would say, is that there is an overlap. And the overlap serves for a reason: it’s to – if you have tripped up unfortunately and you’re doing a retake – make sure you get your retake done. Don’t start on new modules until you complete that, because you might run it the wrong way, as I’ve been saying. So the transitional rules are there to make sure you complete whatever you’ve started as well.
JD: So does that mean, with the resit, you could potentially change to a different exam?
SR: You could, but we want to try and avoid that. So let’s look at an example. If you were sitting Principles of Tax, say, in December 2025 and unfortunately you tripped up, rather than going on to the Fundamentals of Tax, the new syllabus, which has got extra content in there, you’ve got until the end of March to finish Principles of Tax, so we’ll run that exam for another three months to make sure you get your credit for that module. And as I was saying – and tutors are aware of this – at that point in time, make sure that you focus on getting your resit done, rather than going up for the new modules, because we can worry about that later, because there’s always a nice transitional rule, but make sure you try – as soon as you get into the last nine months of the parallel run for Professional and Certificate Level – think about completing your resit in that case.
JD: So by the end of 2027 all of the current sittings will have ended. Is there anything else that our current students need to know?