The benefits of taking on young accountants

The benefits of taking on young accountants

In our first year of a new scheme with one of the largest sixth form colleges in the city, four apprentice accountants have joined our office from St Brendan's College.

The first intake includes Kieran Hegarty, Amaya Reid, Lauren Hall and Sohaib Rehman.

Helping recruit the students were qualified accountants Genevieve Crook and Sophia Wallace, who herself joined us from St Brendan's four years ago.

"We managed to get in touch with one of the careers advisers at St Brendan's, who is also my former tutor. We have done talks at the college in April and June, encouraging the students to consider apprenticeships, and have been really pleased with the level of response.

It's great to be involved with helping young and enthusiastic accountants find an alternative route into the workplace and it's going to be interesting to see how this cohort develops over the next three or four years." - Sophia

Marian Curran, principal at St Brendan's Sixth Form College, added: "There are many routes into the workplace and apprenticeships offer a feasible and often underappreciated means by which to enhance your qualifications and at the same time start a new career."

"We wish Kieran, Amaya, Lauren and Sohaib all the best for the next stage in their professional lives and we look forward to working further with Haines Watts in the future."

There are many benefits to taking on young accountants who have decided to pursue careers rather than going to university.

We have an established trainee programme here, as well as manager and partner level development programmes, which works well for us as a business and is a key part of facilitating growth in the SME market, as well as supporting our longer-term ambitions.

As I've said before, anyone who takes on a career at the age of 18 and recognises the long-term advantages of avoiding significant debt is demonstrating a maturity and shrewdness which reflects well on their personality. These are the type of people we are looking to offer opportunities to as they see the world in a pragmatic way.

In addition, we are interested in being able to train young talent in the values and practices we expect at Haines Watts – it is rewarding to see them develop into people who can really advise and help other people. Having a degree doesn’t always give those personal skills that we look for.

I want to welcome all our new starts and we look forward to seeing their progress.