In my first column as CEO, I set out my vision for ICAS. Almost half a year later, I want to talk about the remarkable amount that has been achieved by the team so far, what you can look forward to and what it all means for our students, members and firms.

First, though, I want to welcome our new President, David Cruickshank CA, who will be a huge asset to us. As a new CEO, I like being able to tap into David’s extraordinary depth of experience, which spans more than four decades. As you can read here, he understands the challenges and the opportunities that ICAS and the profession face.

I said back in February that a key part of my vision is growth. That includes raising our voice and increasing our influence. We’re already heard within the profession, but we want to amplify that presence, and extend it to the wider business community. We are blessed to have access to David’s huge network of contacts, which will help us develop and strengthen relationships with our firms and key stakeholders.

“I have been on the road meeting stakeholders, and we’re about to start hosting roundtables and dinners with smaller groups, bringing people together to see how we can combine forces”

As part of that growth agenda, so far this year we’ve launched the MA in Professional Accountancy with Heriot-Watt University, as well as our new designation, the Accounting and Business Professional and a Level 4 apprenticeship to sit alongside our Level 7 offering. We successfully launched a new accelerated delivery model for the CA and, in April, we announced our new fast-track pathway for international auditors entering the UK.

There is likely to be a ceiling on how many new students come into accountancy year after year. Although the vast majority of our students train in audit, fast-forward 10 or 15 years and the percentage still in that sector falls to single figures. So how do firms fill that gap for experienced hires? This is just one area where ICAS is thinking ahead.

Hitting the road

One of my other remits is to make sure we really engage with our students, members and firms, nationally and internationally.

I have spent the past few weeks on the road meeting stakeholders, hosting roundtables and dinners with smaller groups, bringing people together to talk about the issues that concern them and to see how we can combine forces.

We’ve been engaging with lots of other bodies, too – the Law Society of Scotland, the Chartered Banker Institute and Scottish Financial Enterprise. And we recently co-hosted an event with the Institute of Directors, in which members put their questions to a cross-party panel of newly elected MSPs.

That’s important, because all of us should be coming together – nationwide, but particularly in Scotland – to make our voices heard on the many challenges facing the economy. You can read more here from our Director of Public Affairs, Sarah Chisnall, on our views regarding the recent Holyrood election.

Another key part of my vision is transformation and how we can use technology, including AI, to augment services and improve the member and firm experience.

There is a large project underway to bring the full student-to-member lifecycle and employer ecosystem into one place to provide a consistent, seamless and connected experience – ‘The ICAS Advantage’. Harnessing the power of AI, we will provide greater personalisation, giving students, members and firms exactly what they need, when they need it.

We are building AI agents to simplify processes, better support members and answer simple student queries on course content. Of course, our tutors are there to provide that vital human oversight, making sure what the AI agents say is correct. There is always a human in the loop. So far, the results have been excellent.

We’re also looking to develop much more technical information for our practice firms. We can use AI to help source and mine our white papers, reports and blogs, and collate that into regular technical updates, which our team will then check, revise and review to make sure it does what it says on the tin.

I have also revisited our executive structure, bringing member engagement, events, business development, marketing and communications together into one engagement team, to ensure closer alignment to our growth ambitions and delivering for our members.

Our new Executive Director of Engagement, Geoff Day, starts this month. Like David, Geoff brings with him an incredible amount of experience, having held numerous high-profile roles, including Director of Communications and Brand Experiences at Mercedes-Benz USA and most recently with Edinburgh Napier University. He spent several years in New York as Managing Partner of the acclaimed agency Jackanory and ran his own UK-based agency. I’ve witnessed first hand the transformation he oversaw at Napier and I’m excited about the future of ICAS as the vision takes shape. 

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