Our UK audit practice is built of over 2,300 people working across 24 locations, led by Wendy Russell and supported by 50 audit partners. We’re really proud of the strong position our audit practice is in from a wellbeing, resource and quality perspective, the latter of which is shown through our recent positive AQR results.
So what is audit, and why is it important? In short, audit is the evaluation and review of a businesses financial accounts, ensuring accuracy and compliance. An audit is usually undertaken by an independent third party (us), with the objective to provide assurance to the business, enabling them to make confident decisions about their future.
Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals. Our tailored and responsive approach provides the expertise our clients need to grow and make informed business decisions.
Our audit teams sit within three core areas:
Wherever you join us, you will get to experience every side of the audit world, doing interesting, multifaceted work with companies of all shapes and sizes. You’ll also learn what it takes to provide quality financial advice and earn clients’ trust through integrity.
Our commercial audit teams audit thousands of commercial organisations every year, ranging from FTSE and AIM companies to small and medium sized enterprises. We're the fourth largest auditor of the UK's top 2,500 private companies. Working in commercial audit you will have the opportunity to work with companies of all shapes and sizes, each bringing their own unique challenges and experiences for you to learn from.
Joining our PSA team, you will be joining the market leaders in audit of the NHS and Local Government (including councils, Police and Fire). Our teams ensure financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial affairs of the audited body and that public services are economic, efficient and effective, ensuring that public money is spent appropriately and that public services are well managed.
Our internal Digital Audit team is at the forefront of technological innovation, harnessing the power of data and coding to drive precision and efficiency in our audit process. The constantly evolving landscape calls for an approach that puts what is right first and you will need to push ideas harder and ask difficult questions, giving our auditors the tools and solutions they need.
Our audit training programmes are designed to take you from either an apprentice or graduate, to a professionally qualified accountant, building your skills and experiences along the way.
Wherever you join us, you will get hands-on experience of different aspects of audit, and the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients. We give our trainees real responsibility early in their career, so we need you to be ready and willing to take that on, taking ownership for interesting and challenging client work.
As an audit trainee your first 12 weeks will be spent on our onboarding career launchpad programme, which prioritises the mental well-being and resilience of our trainees while, at the same time, preparing you to deliver high-quality work. You will spend this time doing pratical and skills-based learning and applying your knowledge in a safe space before you join your teams to begin client work.
You’ll need to be focused, committed, and organised as a trainee to balance your study and work requirements. You will be provided with study leave to help you complete your professional qualification but you will also find you need to study in your spare time outside of your working hours. There will be times when you need to make tough decisions, but your team have all been through the same training programmes and can support you.
Whether you join us as an apprentice or a graduate, you will work towards one of the following qualifications:
Apprentices:
Graduates:
At the end of your programme, you'll become professionally qualified. And all kinds of opportunities will open up. If you have dedicated yourself through your training programme and want to drive your career forward, we’ll be there to advise and guide you. This diagram shows the typical career progression pathway from audit associate to partner.
We'll help you understand your interests and strengths, so you can get where you want to go. You can continue to progress in your team or experience life in a different area of our business with a secondment or permanent move. Or if you fancy experiencing life in a completely different country, you could work on a project with one of our global member firms.
Not sure whether audit is the right career path for you? Why not find out more about our tax and advisory teams so you can make the best decision for your future.
Ronojit shared with us, how he finds adapting to different cultures, and what he has learnt in his time with us so far.
I had my heart set on a professional services firm and I managed to get onto the Grant Thornton apprentice scheme.
