Overview
A popular route to qualifying as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant is to study the ACA qualification after completing an undergraduate degree. But this doesn't have to be in finance, business, or accounting.
You can offer the graduate route to students with a range of backgrounds and disciplines. In fact, we have students from Business and Management, Science and Engineering, and Arts and Humanities.
Benefits
Recognised as a world-leading qualification, the graduate to ACA route appeals to a large volume of young students looking to begin a career in accountancy. These students will come with a wealth of knowledge which forms a great foundation for ACA training.
And, as your students can come from many different disciplines, they can offer a fresh perspective for your organisation, where you and the ACA can mould them. Your students could even specialise in niche client areas such as science, engineering and more, based on their respective university backgrounds.
Structure
To qualify as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant, your graduates will need to complete the four elements of the ACA, outlined here.
Many undergraduate programmes cover elements of the ACA syllabus, enabling your students to claim credit for prior learning (CPL) for some of the Certificate and Professional Level exams. If your student has studied a related subject at university, they may be eligible to apply for exemptions for up to eight exams.
Success stories
The best way to understand the success of offering the graduate route, is to hear directly from some organisations already offering graduate schemes.
Since launching its bespoke graduate scheme, Shawbrook has had the opportunity to grow its own high-calibre talent pool. "It's an exciting place to come and grow your career," says Matthew Hayes, Senior Finance Business Partner and the Qualified Person Responsible for Training (QPRT). "Ultimately we're building our finance team for the future. A lot of work and effort goes into training our graduates, but three years down the line they will form part of our finance team."
Highways England took advantage of offering the ICAEW qualification as a graduate scheme after a £15bn investment programme was implemented to deliver across its network. "We need to offer graduates a finance qualification that reflects the commercial nature of what we do and gives them the skills to become business-savvy accountants. This is why we offer the ACA," commented Nick Sharman, Highways England.
Are you ready to train chartered accountancy talent?
Register your interest to speak to our dedicated support team who can guide you through your options, as well as how to become an ICAEW Authorised Training Employer.
Did you know you can offer more than one route to chartered accountancy with ICAEW? Explore our other routes here: