From September this year, Deloitte will change the way it trains graduates in its England and Wales audit and assurance business. New technology – including artificial intelligence (AI) – is significantly affecting the nature of the firm’s audit work. As such, the training evolution aims to whisk graduates up the learning curve at a quicker pace.

Study time for professional qualifications will be concentrated into year one of the programme, leaving graduates to focus on hands-on practical work in years two and three. This means that they will take the majority (12 out of 14) of their ACA exams in year one. This is departing from the current model, whereby exams are staggered across the three-year traineeship, although adjustments can be made based on individual circumstances.

However, practical skills will not be completely absent from year one – far from it. In that period, trainees will also be required to put their academic learning through its paces in the practical settings of new audit simulations that the firm is devising. Deloitte hopes that, by carrying out both traditional and AI-assisted auditing in those simulations, trainees will be equipped to do more interesting work when they join the firm’s audit teams in year two.

To find out more about the thinking behind the reimagined programme, Insights spoke to Deloitte UK Managing Partner for Audit and Assurance Allee Bonnard.

Tasks and challenges

“There were a number of drivers,” she says, “but as AI is changing a number of the manual tasks that trainee accountants used to perform, for example, preparing and sending audit confirmation letters, or readying data so that a more experienced member of the team can interrogate it, we need our junior colleagues to be further up the learning curve to be able to perform more judgement-based work at an earlier stage. They will also develop skills such as communication and problem solving, making the role even more engaging and exciting.”

While strong communication, teamwork and problem solving have always been key skills for auditors, Bonnard notes, the new training will build on those qualities, along with a series of other core skills such as professional judgement, curiosity and scepticism. With that in mind, trainees will learn how to apply accounting and auditing principles in a variety of real-life scenarios, through a mixture of classroom, virtual and simulated learning environments. Part of that will involve collaborating in groups on a mock audit.

Bonnard explains: “We will be using case studies and setting trainees tasks and challenges to work through together, just like in an audit team, to help them apply their learning. Trainees will learn the foundations of what some might call ‘old-school auditing’ – such as performing a cash reconciliation – as well as learning AI-assisted auditing, through such means as reviewing a cash reconciliation produced by an AI tool. It’s important that we invest in the unique skills we have as humans. They will be even more crucial as technology evolves.”

In year one, Bonnard says, trainees will benefit from having dedicated time to focus on their studies, rather than being faced with the pressure of juggling exams with audit engagement commitments. That balance will support their overall wellbeing.

Throughout the programme, trainees will also receive 22 additional days of study leave than under the current scheme, increasing to a total of 135.

An enriching experience

In year two, trainees will switch their focus to gaining practical auditing experience, benefitting from longer stints of uninterrupted work time. That will involve working on audits from start to finish, enabling trainees to implement what they have learned in their first-year studies and develop as young professionals in the workplace. In the third and final year, trainees will continue to gain hands-on audit experience, in parallel with completing their two, final advanced-level exams.

Along the way, trainees will receive additional training in transferable skills such as communication and problem solving, and in audit technologies, including AI and agentic tools. 

Bonnard notes that the firm built the new programme in consultation with its people. The scheme was designed and refined after taking feedback from various focus groups – including current and recent trainees, she says. “The feedback was really supportive of a clear definition between work and study, as well as the ability to progress through exams more quickly. Our people really value the experiences they gain through working on audits in their first year, so we also included a work placement so that trainees can apply what they have learned ‘on the job.’ We also incorporated feedback on our internal training programme and made changes to improve what and how we train our people.”

For Bonnard, the reworked programme is an “exciting step” in the evolution of Deloitte’s broader, skills-based talent model. “After it commences,” she says, “we will monitor how the year goes for our new graduate cohort and adapt the programme as needed to ensure we maintain pace with developments in the profession and in learning technologies.”