Employer support
ACCA UK hosted its second Employers Conference at the Design Museum in London in June. Over 70 delegates from leading companies including Deloitte, Lloyds TSB and KPMG, attended the event entitled ‘Driving Global Standards through Professionalism’. The conference was used to launch the ACCA Qualification in the UK and was co-sponsored by BPP Professional Education and FTC Kaplan. High profile speakers included Greig Aitken, head of Human Capital Strategy, Royal Bank of Scotland; Sir Nicholas Montagu, former chairman of the Inland Revenue; and Robert Swan, environmentalist and Polar explorer.
UK business relationship managers (BRMs) visited over 1,500 employers in 2007. Nearly 600 visits have been conducted with new or existing ACCA Approved Employer - Practising Certificate Development offices in the practice sector, for monitoring purposes. A further 210 visits have been made to practice employers for either business development purposes or to offer support to key and target employers. Over 650 visits have been undertaken with corporate and public sector employers, either for ACCA Approved Employer purposes, for general business development purposes, or a mixture of both. Significant new employer contacts established in 2007 include: Britannia Group, Corus Hotels, CPP Group, Wincanton, Communities Scotland, Oracle Group, Northern Trust, AXA Insurance, IndustriKapital, Park Hill Investments, The Hyde Group, Medical Research Council Shared Service Centre, Suffolk PCT, Barclays Capital, entrust, Ceridian UK, AXA PP Healthcare, and ICAP plc.
In 2007, ACCA UK developed strategic business plans for the major accountancy recruiters in the UK - Big Four accounting firms, the NHS, and Central Government (Government Finance Profession). In addition, sector specific plans now exist for SMPs and financial services. These plans coordinate the whole of ACCA UK activities with these critical UK employers and business sectors, ensuring that there is a joined up approach to relationships and strategy.
Increasingly, key employers are contributing to ACCA UK activities in new ways. For example, a director of Tenon spoke at the ACCA Scotland Careers Advisers Day, key and target employers attended ACCA’s Professional Development Forum meetings, HM Revenue & Customs worked with ACCA on advice and guidance for workplace mentors, and PricewaterhouseCoopers and Champion provided volunteers to test the new Professional Ethics module.
Throughout 2007, ACCA attended a number of employer conferences to raise its reputation and influence with leading employers. For example, ACCA attended the HM Revenue & Customs Trainee/Mentor Conference in Lincoln and delivered an 'Effective Learning' presentation. Managers in Wales and the Public Sector attended ACCA Wales Health Sector Conference and gave an ethics presentation at two breakout sessions. Staff in London attended the Department For Transport Conference at the Emirates Stadium and also the Government Finance Profession Student Conference in Brighton, where they manned an ACCA stand and presented an Ethics workshop to around 50 delegates. Three ACCA UK staff attended the two-day Government Finance Profession Qualified Staff Conference in Brighton. Anthony Harbinson (ACCA Council member and senior GFP representative) talked to some of the 500 delegates, approximately 150 of whom were ACCA members. Helen Brand, ACCA managing director - strategy and development, attended the Fujitsu finance director conference, delivering a presentation on ACCA and awarding employer approval certificates.
ACCA Approved Employer - Trainee Development was finalised for BP’s European Finance Graduate Scheme. ACCA was invited to attend BP’s Graduate Forum in April to present to members of the European Finance Graduate Scheme Advisory Panel. ACCA also presented as part of the induction of the new intake. Three ACCA trainees were taken on this year’s BP European Graduate scheme, compared to two last year.
Internationally BAT has over 120 ACCA trainees and is now looking to work more formally with ACCA.
A presentation on the ACCA Qualification which was put on Deloitte’s internal intranet. The firm was awarded ACCA Approved Employer - Professional Development status and will soon achieve Trainee Development - Platinum status.
Diageo Group Finance is keen to put through 50 to 100 ACCA/CAT students in Africa and Latin America.
KPMG recruited 35 ACCA graduate trainees in 2007 and for the first time next year the firm will recruit ACCA graduate trainees in its Manchester and Leeds offices. This will result in another 12 ACCA recruits in 2008. Eddie Donaldson (Global Head of HR) at KPMG spoke at ACCA’s International Assembly in November.
All graduate trainees accepted onto the Scottish Widows study programme selected ACCA.
There are now 1,257 ACCA Approved Employer - Professional Development approvals in the UK, more than double the number at the start of the year. Applications for this stream of approval continue to bring BRMs opportunities to engage with new organisations and their ACCA members. New Professional Development approvals in 2007 include: Bradford & Bingley, Manchester City Council, The Co-op Group, Citigroup, Legal & General Assurance Services, JP Morgan Asset Management, Haines Watts, Scottish Executive, MacDonalds Restaurants, Scarborough Building Society, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, Marriott Hotels UK, the Department for Communities and Local Government, Birmingham City Council, and Shell (a global Approval).
The Graduate Partner scheme continues to be a very effective tool for ACCA UK to improve relationships with high profile graduate employers and to strengthen perceptions of ACCA as an in-demand accountancy qualification amongst undergraduates and graduate careers staff.
Overall, the initiative has been well received by employers, careers advisers, and ACCA staff. It creates a pool of high-profile, highly-visible graduate employers that endorse the ACCA Qualification; encourages ACCA graduate employers proactively to endorse ACCA training to undergraduates and graduates; helps develop relationships with existing ACCA graduate employers; and builds relationships with potential ACCA graduate employers. Eighteen graduate Partners have confirmed for the 2007/08 academic year: PRACTICE - KPMG, Ernst & Young, BDO Stoy Hayward, Tenon, RSM Bentley Jennison, Johnston Carmichael; FINANCIAL SERVICES - Standard Chartered, Barclays, Abbey, Nationwide; CORPORATE - Sainsbury’s, Orange, Arcadia, VT Group, Centrica, Enterprise rent-a-car; and PUBLIC SECTOR - Transport for London, Wales Audit Office.
Once again, Professional Oversight Board representatives visited ACCA in the last quarter of 2007 to review the ACCA Approved Employer - Practising Certificate Development scheme as part of its audit of ACCA’s RSB and RQB status. This year POB also looked at the ACCA Approved Employer – Professional Development scheme and reported its findings on the implementation of the CPD Approved Employer programme in the UK. ACCA UK is committed to maintaining a constructive relationship with the UK regulator and it has again responded positively to the draft discussion report from POB and the corporate file review findings.