Apprenticeships Q&A with Ben Kershaw (class of 2019)

My name is Ben Kershaw, I left Hulme in 2019 after completing my A levels. I started a level 7 apprenticeship in the September of the same year working towards my ACA ICAEW qualification. I now work in the statutory audit department at Royce Peeling Green Chartered Accountants as an Audit Senior.

I am studying the Level 7 ACA Accountancy Professional Apprenticeship.

This gave me the freedom to ‘learn as a I earn’ and allowed me to develop professional skills and knowledge within my sector from a younger age than if I had gone to university.

I did apply for university and was sat on offers from Liverpool John Moores, Manchester Metropolitan, University of Hull, University of Manchester and the University of Liverpool. 

Upon finding out more about apprenticeships, especially in the accounting and finance sector, it became more than apparent to me that university was not necessary in the route to becoming a chartered accountant and that this may actually increase the time it would take to reach this stage of qualification. 

The structure of the apprenticeships mean you learn the exam syllabus whilst you are working, by going to college a week at a time in different increments throughout the year in the run up to examinations. Some may think this would mean it is difficult to balance the studying alongside the work, this is true but a lot of the time the work you are carrying out directly correlates to the area of study you are looking at, meaning you can see real life examples of theory every day.

There were several former-pupils from Hulme Grammar working at the firm I joined post A levels.  One of whom was generous enough to come back to the school and speak to me directly about the opportunities within the accounting and finance sector as well as the pathway I would most likely take.  This gave me an early insight from a more personable source I could trust and get advice from. The Hulme careers advisor at the time, Janet Travis, couldn’t have done more for me in helping to facilitate meetings between the alumni and me. Without her help, as an 18-yr old with no prior connections in this space, I don’t believe this route would have been possible at that time prior to the much wider advertisement apprenticeships in this space get now.

I studied Business, Economics and English Literature and Language, as well as Maths for a short time in lower sixth.

The business and economics side of my A level education gave me a wide view of various business environments and wider economy, this helped me think commercially from the start understanding how business worked from a theoretical standpoint, policy and why clients would carry out certain practices.

English improved my professional communication skills and report writing as well as my ability to answer qualitative questions, whether these be from management, clients or in situations where you must think on your feet in order to overcome an obstacle.

Whilst studying towards my A Levels I worked as a waiter and pot wash in a café. This taught me how to speak to people that I didn’t know, as well as giving me exposure to a wide demographic of people with different backgrounds and of different ages and genders. This is a key skill in the professional world as we speak to new people every day.

My typical day will consist of both internal and external meetings, working on projects of various sizes, managing a small team of trainees, visiting clients and occasionally a social event with my internal or external network.

The apprenticeship environment is a nice transition from school life, you start in a cohort of other trainees, this is usually a mixture of both graduates and apprentices. It does feel like a school year group almost, especially during exam season. Much like school, a lot of people tend to revise together sharing ideas and potential solutions, the shared knowledge really helps improve your confidence as without prior knowledge this can be quite daunting.

The ICAEW Level 7 Accountancy Professional Apprenticeship gives you a level 7 qualification as well as your ACA, this means you will become a full member of the Association of Chartered Accountants (England and Wales) as well as receiving a higher qualification without going to university. 

In the first year of training you see a lot of new things day to day on the job that you also see in your studies, these real world examples really help solidify the theory you may otherwise be quick to forget without regular exposure to them, meaning the work and qualification really complement each other.

Most firms give study leave in chunks throughout the year lining up with external tuition providers such as Kaplan, BPP and FI Learn meaning you get ample time to learn the theory whilst working. I have been one to use annual leave as extra study time though in the run up to some of the tougher papers as this can really take the pressure off when you find yourself busy in the run up to a work deadline.

I threw this one out to my team and the majority answer was the portion of time your qualification actually takes up. With this being a professional qualification catering for people who have no background or knowledge of the accounting and finance sector, the training and examination portion of your apprenticeship is a lot bigger than you might expect with exams sittings taking place at least once every 3 months.  This means you tend to have around three weeks of study every three months.

The exams are tough, the amount of content you have to be proficient in is huge, but you have to remember that this is a professional qualification, and it does require a lot of work and perseverance but comes with great rewards.

Travel – I didn’t anticipate the amount of travelling involved; this is something that I love. I’ve had some amazing opportunities to travel with my job both all over the country and internationally, this came in handy visiting friends at different universities!

They are extremely competitive so make sure you put the work into your CV and application. Apply to more than one.

There are lots of opportunities for insight days and work experience out there so try to get involved where you can. 

You are investing in the rest of your life so make time for it, the playstation/xbox/football can wait.

Do your research, there are so many different firms out there in this space and so many applicants. Have a look at the each of the firm’s values, sectors they work in and types of clients they have to get an idea of which firm aligns best with your values.

Throughout my apprenticeship I have progressed from finance assistant to audit trainee to audit semi senior and am currently in the role of audit senior working my way towards audit manager.

Over the past 5 years my role has changed massively.  I’ve gone from learning and carrying out the basics in audit and financial statement preparation, being led by my senior team members to becoming independent and completing projects on my own and managing the day to day for audits with varying degrees of difficulty, team sizes and businesses spanning from large groups of >£500M turnover to small owner managed businesses of £10M.

Whilst completing the Level 7 and ACA I have had the opportunity to complete the CFAB, BFP and AQ.

Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business – This is a lower level qualification you can complete whilst doing your ACA and gives you an extra qualification.

Business Finance Professional – This is another qualification post CFAB which you can complete whilst doing your ACA which gives you an extra qualification which gives you post-nominal letters.

Audit Qualification – Alongside your ACA you can also complete the AQ, this means that upon completion of your ACA you can also sign off statutory audit reports and become an audit partner reaching the highest level of the audit sector, as well as giving you post-nominal letters.

Various other certificates and qualifications can also be completed as they arise varying firms to firm.

The main advantage I felt my apprenticeship gave me over university was time.  You can qualify as a chartered accountant over four years as a school leaver or do three years at university followed by three years of exams and practical work experience as a graduate. Within the accountancy sector university is no longer deemed to be a huge advantage due to the apprenticeship schemes available at most major firms and may actually mean you will qualify at least two years later on most standard pathways firms offer.