As Scottish Apprenticeship Week kicks off (21-25 May), Iain Abernethy of Johnston Carmichael argues that apprenticeships are not only good for business – they are good for school leavers wanting to climb the career ladder too

Like the rest of the world, all businesses have felt the full force of the recession. During these challenging times, organisations (small, medium and large) need to ensure that they are employing the right people to ensure business survival and growth.

Through strong leadership and direction, our business has remained strong and grown. With 11 offices across Scotland, we are continually looking at our business strategy and implementation in order to ensure we deliver the best we can to our clients.

Over the years our recruitment processes have changed in response to a number of external factors – like the recession – and we’ve implemented what we hope will be a highly successful direct entry route.  We envisage that many of these direct entries will be school leavers.

This year we introduced JC Futures, a five-year accounting training programme for those who prefer to go directly into vocational training. The scheme encourages talented people to train for the AAT Accounting Qualification whilst gaining practical experience.

In my role at Johnston Carmichael as Training and Development Director, I’ve come to realise that university isn’t for everyone. Some want to skip the three or four years of study and move straight into on-the-job learning, earning a salary and making a career for themselves. For those candidates that are committed to making this choice, more often than not, it’s a good option.

It’s clear that talented people benefit from high value apprenticeships in a number of ways. Work experience is the major benefit as it provides a tremendous platform of understanding for one’s career. Then there is the growing familiarity with the world of work where you can learn the DOs and DONTs of everyday business life. And of course I can’t forget the obvious plus – the salary.

But what’s in it for the employers that invest time and resources into offering apprenticeship schemes? By taking good candidates into our firm through a program like JC Futures, we are able to develop their understanding of work and working practices. Essentially, we are able to train direct entry students in our methods of work. We have tremendous long term opportunities and prospects within the firm and our ultimate objective is for staff to progress their careers within the firm.

From what I have seen, candidates tend to be focused and determined about coming into work rather than university. On the other hand, university students generally have more life experience and those that have been able to gain work experience during their summer holidays tend to hit the ground running. Regardless, it can take up to six months for any candidate to settle in. There is no right or wrong option.

From an employer’s perspective, an ideal candidate does not necessarily possess a university degree, but rather an enthusiastic and positive approach to their work and colleagues. They must of course be academically capable, communicate well, have a desire to progress with their career and not afraid to keep learning and asking questions.

When you match a bright and passionate candidate with an employer that is willing to invest time and energy into their development, the result is often win-win.

You can read more accountancy news and opinion on AAT Insight Scotland – our blog dedicated to issues north of the border.

Throughout this week AAT is running a series of webinars on apprenticeships in Scotland to coincide with Scottish Apprenticeship Week.

One of the things our Facebook page has taught us at AAT is that with so much competition for accountancy jobs, sometimes people need a little help. So we’ve acted on that and started working with recruitment consultant Aimee Bateman.

Aimee’s an experienced recruiter and personal branding expert. She runs her own recruitment consultancy, Bateman Associates, and maintains the engaging online video channel Careercake.tv. Aimee also has numerous appearances as an employment expert on BBC TV to her credit. In short: she knows her stuff.

Aimee is genuinely passionate about helping people into work. She’s recruited for some of the top financial firms in the UK, and her experience has taught her exactly what employers look for when it comes to job applications. She has a wealth of tips to help you stand out from the crowd, and she can’t wait to share them with you.

So how do you Ask Aimee? As she says in her introductory video below, you can submit your question to Aimee in one of these ways:

– Tweet AAT using the hashtag #AskAATAimee

– Leave a question under one of her videos on AAT’s Facebook page

– Leave a question in the Ask Aimee thread on AAT’s discussion forums

– Leave a comment under one of her videos on the AAT career coach YouTube channel

(You can also leave a comment at the end of this article, if you like.)

At the end of each week Aimee will shoot a new video answering the most popular/interesting questions submitted by you. (Aimee only has so many hours in the day, so she’ll only be able to answer a couple of questions per video.)

Aimee’s first video of answers was in response to questions submitted on Facebook – and as you can see she had plenty to choose from:

Here’s her first video of answers:

If you want to be among the first to receive Aimee’s latest videos, be sure to subscribe to the AAT Career Coach YouTube channel.

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Read AAT student Ceris Williams’s guide to landing your dream accountancy job

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The routes into a career in accountancy are more varied than ever. Amanda Meyer, Professor of Accountancy at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Scotland, argues that non-traditional routes are now more prevalent than ever before

A professional accountancy qualification should almost guarantee a highly lucrative and successful career. However, industries have been hit hard in the recession and young individuals wishing to join the blue-chip profession that is accountancy need to consider their options carefully.

The importance of professions to the UK’s economy and society cannot be understated and there is a strong case for government and the professions to do more to ensure fair access for all.  However, with student degree fees set to rise significantly in 2012 from £3,000 per annum, to a maximum of £9,000 in England, bright and able young people should be encouraged to consider non-traditional ways of gaining their education to minimise debt.

Wise employers will also need to cast their net wider to ensure that they do not restrict their access to an untapped population of capable students by focusing on those who can afford to pay or are willing to take the risk of incurring huge student debt.

Interestingly, unlike many other professional accounting bodies around the world, access to training for the UK based bodies such as CIMA, ACCA, ICAEW and ICAS, is not restricted to graduates.  School leaver options are available for many of the UK based professional bodies, either directly or through access programmes such as AAT.

School leavers are therefore now faced with a real choice and I suspect that the educational landscape for professional accountancy training will change quite significantly over the next few years. Should students therefore invest in their future by undertaking a traditional three of four year degree at university?  As a Professor of Accountancy at Robert Gordon University (RGU) you might expect an unequivocal yes from me.

Indeed I wrote to this effect a few years ago, whereby I argued that a university education is the perfect vehicle for developing the contemporary, non-technical skills that are the key differentiators in overall business performance. However, can these skills not be developed in the workplace?  Will a university degree provide today’s young people with the best return from their future career?

I still believe that a degree is a very important qualification to gain, as a university education has a different role to play to that of a professional accountancy body in the intellectual and ethical development of an individual wishing to pursue a career in accountancy.

I also believe that savvy students will – and should – look to the non-traditional routes that are available; and this is a particular focus of my university.  Students should consider distance or blended routes to facilitate faster entry into the workplace and should also be looking for qualifications that offer more than just a degree.

Recent educational developments have illustrated how professional accountancy bodies and universities can work in collaboration to harness the benefits of a university degree and a professional qualification.

This combined qualification can be further augmented with work experience providing the perfect foundation from which a young individual can launch a rewarding and lucrative career.

AAT is an ideal way to start a career in accountancy. Whether you are looking for an alternative to university or want to earn as you learn with an apprenticeship. You can begin your career in accountancy with AAT in five easy steps.

Research has shown that one in ten office workers experience office bullying – a figure that has doubled in the last decade. AAT member Caroline Smith shares her experience of this taboo subject.

‘Just a minute, aren’t you coming with us?’ a friend asked.  The penny had finally dropped.  There were four of us that worked together and a day trip to London had been organised with a train ticket for four people.  However, it was never intended that I would be in the original line-up as the day had been organised by my long-standing foe.

At the time, I was in my first proper job so when I had started working there I wasn’t feeling particularly confident, although I had tried to give the impression that I was.  The battle lines had probably been drawn the first day I walked in.

You see I was young, I was single at the time and I was earning a little bit of money.  It was only a little bit of money as well, but it was a little bit more than my office nemesis and without a family of my own, I had a reasonable freedom to spend it as I wished.  Worse than this, justification for hate at first sight was cemented by the fact that I lived in what my antagonist deemed to be a ‘posh’ area.

It is fair to say that from the beginning the odds were stacked against me.  What followed was five years of general nastiness.  Every opportunity was taken to goad me about how I was a snob, how I earned too much money for my job and how I didn’t have a boyfriend or, later on, how I did have a boyfriend. She couldn’t make up her mind.

Best of all, if I did manage to make a mistake she had a wonderful excuse to point it out to the boss.  In fact, one day he did say ‘don’t worry about what she’s saying about you – we all know what she’s like’.  Well, I didn’t know what she was saying about me on that particular day, but it must have been bad for my line manager to mention it.

By this time I was engaged and I was more irritated by her constant reminders of how many people she knew had spent thousands on their weddings only to divorce within a few years, and how this could so easily happen to me.  True enough, perhaps, but inappropriate to keep saying it, and saying it with such a smug smile (for the record, we’ll be celebrating our 10th anniversary this year).

My response was to rise above it and do my best to ignore it and dismiss it as the childish jealousy it was. Hard to do when someone is making a big display of not talking to you.  I thought that I just had to put up with this as everyone was bound to take her side anyway.  In this belief though, I was quite wrong.  In fact, I found support from others who had seen what was going on but, like me, were reluctant to bring attention to it.

Surprisingly it was my line manager who actually asked if I wanted him to do anything about the situation and he was the one who called it ‘bullying’.  Personally I thought that was a bit extreme, and it seemed draconian to take disciplinary action against something relatively minor.  I couldn’t see what it would achieve anyway.  More than anything I did not want to be seen to be ‘as bad as’.   However, instead of being what I hoped would be a shining example of ‘good’ behaviour I just left myself open to be more of a target as I was seen as weak.

Needless to say I didn’t join the trip to London as I diplomatically claimed I couldn’t go.  The whole experience though has left me with a great deal of empathy for anyone who has been bullied in any way whatsoever.  Whether you are the object of derision or the line manager who has to sort it out, bullying is notoriously difficult to deal with.

Here are some top tips if you do have to deal with an office bully:

•    Tell yourself that no-one has the right to bully you, no matter how you perform
•    You don’t have to resolve the situation yourself – your HR team should know how to handle the situation
•    Document the bullying, being specific about words, circumstances, times and dates
•    Steel yourself – you will need to be patient
•    Don’t start an email war – it might harm your chances of a successful resolution