How apprenticeships grew a smaller Scottish practice

“Invaluable” funding and training provider support enabled one small practice to develop apprentices that “go above and beyond for clients”.

After a long road towards becoming chartered, and a few nightmare bosses, Kevin McKnight’s decision to set up his own practice was a no brainer. But when it came to bringing in some help, as a smaller practice, finding – and funding – the right kind of staff was tricky.

“I needed the help, but I couldn’t really afford to pay someone without support,” Kevin says. “That was one driver, and probably the other main one was, because I work differently to a lot of accountants, it was important for me to train and develop people the way I want them to work in our practice.”

Funding opportunities

Having done his research and looked at the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website, Kevin found that a Modern Apprenticeship in accountancy in Scotland would be fully funded by Skills Development Scotland, with all fees for the AAT registration, exams and books all financed by SDS and delivered by training provider Babington.

Kevin was directed to Babingtons, who then took care of the registration process for the first apprentice (since then, the registration process has been handled by Babingtons direct.) Given that all this was happening amid the Covid emergency, he was also able to get financial support for the apprenticeship via his local council.

“That was invaluable, and I don’t think I could have done it without both the support from them both,” he says now. “It was the support available through SDS and also the opportunity to mould somebody into the perfect accountant that did the deal for me really.”

A different kind of career route

That was five years ago, and Kevin is now onto his third apprentice, with plans for another to join later this year. One of them, Aimee McClurkin, is about to complete her Level Three AAT, equivalent to SCQF 7.

For Aimee, having sampled University briefly and realising it wasn’t the right path, the chance to earn and learn was too good to pass up. “I wanted a different kind of career route,” she says. “I was looking and I thought ‘I like working rather than just all study’; so I like the work life balance.”

Getting started was straightforward: “It was very easy: I started the middle of February 2023, and I think it was a couple of weeks after that I got set up with my Babington tutor, got my Osborne book sent out very quickly; and I sat my first exam two months after starting.”

Three years on, and Aimee is now aiming at Level Four AAT (equivalent to SCQF 8) and working 35 hours a week in the practice. “In effect that’s four full days and a half day on a Friday. And I get two hours on a Wednesday afternoon for studying”. During the first two levels that used to be a full study day, but now, having gained experience, Aimee is spending more of her time working with clients.

Priceless training provider help

With both his apprentices taking on more responsibility, and the practice growing, Kevin says having a training provider able to handle much of the admin around training and progression is priceless. “Personally, I don’t really need to deal with anything unless it’s paying an invoice from them for stages that are unfunded,” he says.

“And they have regular calls with me and the agencies just to get us together and discuss progress from my point of view in the workplace. Because obviously, Babingtons, they only see the progress from a study point of view, and not how that’s then transferred into the workplace.”

Apprentices “are really valuable”

For his part, Kevin has no regrets about taking on apprentices. “The staff have developed the way I expected, and I got a good sense early on of what they were like as people and as learners, and I got a sense from the beginning that they were really going to throw their soul into it, commit themselves to their studies and really develop.

“They’re really valuable and it’s only now I’m at the stage where I can go away on holiday and know that things are taken care of.”

Looking ahead, Kevin says his apprentices have been set targets, both within the workplace and with their studies.

“They always give 100% trying to achieve these aims, and go above and beyond for clients, providing assistance in whatever is required. They’re currently busy getting to grips with the new MTD for income tax rules which come into play this year. That’s a big change within the self-assessment environment so it’s important they’re experts in this area.” 

“Never rule out” apprenticeships

As for Aimee, the next milestone will be completing her Level Four. “I’ve just sat my applied management account, so hopefully I’ve passed that one; and then I’ve only got personal and business tax left of this level, so I’m hoping my next milestone will come August and I’ll be moving up.” Ultimately, she says, the goal is to become chartered.

Looking back, she has some simple advice for anyone considering the apprenticeship route: “I would say never rule it out. When I was in school, I never thought of apprenticeships, it was always drilled into you to think: school, then straight to Uni. But I feel like it’s not always the path for everyone.

“The overall experience, although you’re still learning how to do the job, in fact you’re learning quicker by getting the practical experience rather than just reading how to do it.”

Christian Doherty is a business journalist and freelance writer for AAT.