Worcestershire County Council: a case study in running a successful AAT apprenticeship

How Worcestershire County Council has managed to build a steady pipeline of future accounting talent, plus support its apprentices – all with the help of AAT.

If you work in accountancy, you probably won’t need reminding about the talent shortage that has blighted the industry in recent years. Last May, one survey by outsourcing specialists AdvanceTrack found almost half (45%) of those accounting firms surveyed are “severely” or “significantly” affected by the skills gap (caused variously by baby boomers retiring, an ageing workforce, and Covid disrupting education for hundreds-of-thousands of young people).

At the beginning of this decade, the finance team at Worcestershire County Council (WCC) was facing their own recruitment woes. They had plenty of applications for senior and junior roles. Hiring accountants for mid-level positions, however, was proving difficult. As the lack of CVs arriving in WCC’s inbox showed, there didn’t seem to be enough experienced candidates out there…

WCC hatched a plan. They launched an apprenticeship scheme with the aim of generating their own pipeline of accounting talent who could – one day – occupy these intermediary positions.

Four years on, those initial apprentices are progressing fast, while WCC’s current cohort of eight apprentices are predicted to be just as successful.

“Growing our own apprentices is key to us,” says Steph Simcox, Deputy Chief Finance Officer, WCC. “For me, it’s about investing in them, so they can give back one day too. I want them to become future leaders/CFOs and I’ve got every confidence they will be…”

We’re running a series of articles about how they managed their scheme. As WCC tells us, the success of their scheme is down to many things.

“We’re creating our own CFOs and leaders of the future”

Why AAT is the perfect fit for our trainees

The magic of mentoring trainees

Christian Koch is an award-winning journalist/editor who has written for the Evening Standard, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent, Q, The Face and Metro. He's also written about business for Accounting Technician, 20 and Director, where he is contributing editor.