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Mind the gap

President Alison Cornwell CA on why making the workplace a training office could help to reduce talent shortages – and the steps needed to become one

One of the biggest challenges businesses face right now is recruitment. Although this applies to many professions, it is especially true in accounting. And it’s a problem we could all do without. The recruitment process can be a huge drain on time, money and resources.

To further complicate matters, when it comes to finding good trainees who could become long-term employees, reports suggest that Gen Z are more likely to be “job hoppers” than previous cohorts.

And yet, whether you are part of a small accounting firm or a large business, one solution – becoming an authorised training office (ATO) – could be staring you in the face. 

Joining the ICAS ATO programme means a firm will get an ICAS student for a minimum of three years, maybe longer. The calibre of the education our students receive is exceptional, the gold standard. And because I know what a wonderful qualification it is, I want to open it up to more people – not just more accountancy practices, but right across industry.

“Opening up the ATO process is something I’m very passionate about. And it makes a lot of business sense for many companies, not just accounting practices”

From a personal perspective, the quality of the education we at Vue International can give an ICAS student is phenomenal because of the way our business is set up. A trainee might work in the group’s financial control team gaining exposure to accounting, tax and treasury matters, or they could work in our financial planning and analysis team observing short- and long-range planning exercises, KPIs, investment analysis and so on. They could work with our internal audit team undertaking corporate and retail cinema site audits. And of course they would get exposure to our external auditors, PwC, as they would be a key member of our controllership team.

Opening up the ATO process is something I’m very passionate about. And it makes a lot of business sense for many companies, not just accounting practices. In addition, because Vue’s head office is located in England, we can access the apprenticeship levy to contribute towards training costs.

Five steps

As I stated in my column last month, one of my key objectives this year, as always, is to practise what I preach. Accordingly I want to take you through Vue’s journey to becoming an ATO. ICAS is currently overhauling the application process used to confirm the organisation’s suitability for delivering, supporting and developing students to successfully complete their CA qualification. So where the ATO application process used to be about completing paper forms, the process is now going online.

The form is a five-step process. To give you an idea of what that entails, I’m going to break it down, and give you a sense of how little paperwork the process requires.

Step one

To become an ATO a firm has to propose a counselling member, a training principal and a reviewer. The counselling member must be a qualified CA (or equivalent) and I will take this role at Vue. The training principal will probably be my Director of Financial Control. The reviewer doesn’t need to be a qualified accountant but they must work in close proximity to the student. (One page – names and email addresses.)

Step two

This contains information on the establishment of the organisation: name, Companies House number, address, phone number and so on. (One page of standard data.)

Step three

This focuses on the structure of the training. We will prepare an ATO policy which will include how we, as an employer, will handle supervision and support, assessments, study time, leave of absence, secondment to different parts of the business and so on. (Three to four-page policy, plus copy of standard training or employment contract.)

Then you get into the meat of the application.

Step four

This covers what ICAS classes as “relevant practical experience” across six categories: ethics and integrity, communications, teamwork and leadership, personal effectiveness, problem-solving and decision-making, and technical competence.

These six areas further subdivide into 39 competencies which the ATO’s training plan needs to address. For example, within ethics and integrity, one of the competencies is: “Act with integrity, behaving truthfully and honestly, and take responsibility for your own actions and development.”

The deliverable here is the training planner, which will set out the training and experience the student will receive during their training period. I will provide more colour on this section in a future column.

Step five

The final step in the application process is signing off your commitment to the necessary standards and regulations for an ATO, which are there to ensure students are developed and supported appropriately throughout their CA training.

I will provide a further update on our progress in my next column. Ultimately, I want to stress the clear advantages of becoming an ATO, especially in a period of acute talent shortages for many firms and businesses. There simply couldn’t be a better time for your firm to become an ATO and benefit from training an ICAS student.

Learn more about applying to become an ATO

 


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