Ethics is integrated throughout the ACA, ensuring students deliver on the responsibilities of being an accountant and continue to build trust in the profession.
We are updating our qualifications
This information is for employers with Next Generation ACA students who started from 1 July 2025 or have been switched to the Next Generation ACA.
See the existing ACA training process for students who started up to 30 June 2025, or learn more about the transitional arrangements as we update our qualifications.
What is ethics and professional scepticism?
Ethics is more than just knowing the rules around confidentiality, integrity, and objectivity. It’s about identifying ethical dilemmas, understanding the implications, and behaving appropriately.
Along with sustainability and technology, ethics is integrated throughout the ACA, developing trusted advisors who know how to make ethical decisions and justify them.
Throughout their training, students will learn the principles that underpin the ICAEW Code of Ethics, and importantly, they will learn how to apply these principles. Students will:
- practice ethics with their employer using the ICAEW Ethics in Practice scenarios; and
- be tested on ethics within each ACA exam.
Ethics in Practice scenarios
Your students will need to complete a series of Ethics in Practice scenarios. They will need to discuss these scenarios with you, alongside a real-life ethical scenario, during each of their six-monthly reviews. Your students should work sequentially through each scenario and will need to log their ethics progress in their online training file.
- Scenarios 1-6 are intended for use at the two six-monthly reviews that must be held in the first year of training.
- Scenarios 7-18 gradually increase in complexity and present more challenging and open-ended ethical dilemmas for discussion over the rest of the training agreement.
Recording ethics and professional scepticism
You and your student must meet at least every six months for the duration of the training agreement for a six-monthly review. Part of the review should be spent reviewing your students' progress through the Ethics in Practice scenarios.
Your students must record their ethics progress in their online training file every six months.
Ethics in the ACA exams
At Certificate Level, a dedicated Sustainability and Ethics exam will introduce students to these key themes. Ethics is then integrated throughout the ACA and examined in context within each of the ACA exams.
Employer responsibilities
As the employer, you will need to:
- discuss at least one ICAEW Ethics in Practice scenario plus a real-life ethical scenario with your student at each six-monthly review; and
- monitor and review your student's progress, ensuring they record clear evidence of the ethics discussions in their training file.
Student responsibilities
Your student will need to:
- study and prepare three Ethics in Practice scenarios ahead of each six-monthly review;
- prepare to discuss and debate at least one Ethics in Practice scenario plus a real-life ethical scenario with you at each six-monthly review; and
- record an ethics review in the training file every six months.
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