Apprentice Accountancy Scheme September 2025

Our highly successful ACA Apprentice professional training scheme is now live! Our ambition for our apprentice trainees is that you will:

• Start a fantastic, purpose driven career in an inclusive and supportive environment
• Get involved in challenging, inspiring work that makes a difference to the nation
• Undertake varied work with an unrivalled network of high-profile government departments, public sector bodies and non-departmental government bodies
• Achieve the prestigious Chartered Accountancy qualification and membership of the Institute of the Chartered Accountants in England Wales (ICAEW)
• Learn more about yourself and your ambitions as you develop skills as a professional, a manager and a leader
• Enjoy a supportive and social peer network and work with teams and colleagues who are excited to support your development

We also offer an extremely attractive pay and benefits package:

• A highly competitive starting salary – upon qualifying your salary is more than £59,000 a year for London and £52,000 a year for Newcastle
• Annual pay increases with additional increases upon passing each professional exam milestone
• Fully funded ACA qualification and ICAEW membership subscriptions
• 35 days’ holiday (including public holidays)
• Fully paid 25 weeks study leave in block release
• Civil Service pension scheme
• Opportunities to take responsibility early in your career
• An excellent system of support from NAO colleagues

As you navigate your path towards Chartered Accountancy as an Audit Apprentice, you will work with a diverse range of clients including central and local government. You will start out supporting our core financial audits and you will gradually get to work on bigger audits and more complex projects, taking the lead as you develop your skills and confidence. While primarily focused on financial audits, you will also have the opportunity to participate in a breadth of other work including support for Parliament, investigations and our high impact value for money studies that frequently make headlines.

You can find out a lot more about us and our work from our website https://naoaccountancyscheme.co.uk/ and our main website https://www.nao.org.uk/.

The start date for the scheme is Monday 1 September 2025.

Academic Requirements

To join our Apprentice Scheme, you must have:

• 5 x GCSEs at grades 4-9 (A-C) including Maths and English.
• A minimum of 120 UCAS points (or 300 based on the pre-September 2017 UCAS tariff point system) or equivalent from your top 3 A' Levels, not including General Studies.
• If you have 104 UCAS points (or 260 based on the former UCAS tariff point system), you may still be eligible to apply as your application will be reviewed in the context of your socio-economic background.  If you are still studying, enter your predicted grades.
• You should not be on a current training contract with another accountancy firm or be part-qualified.

If you need any reasonable adjustments during the process, please get in touch with our team at HRServiceDesk@nao.org.uk so we can discuss how best to accommodate your requirements.

Nationality Requirements

• UK Nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals from the EU, EEA, or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

As the apprentice accountancy training scheme is 5 years, candidates need to have the right to work as a permanent, full-time employee in the UK without restrictions for the duration. We would recommend that you visit the UK government website to check eligibility.

We are not able to sponsor work visas so please contact us at HRServiceDesk@nao.org.uk should you have any questions regarding your eligibility.

Application Deadline (31st March 2025 23:59):  We recruit on a rolling basis so once positions are filled, we will close recruitment.  We reserve the right to close recruitment earlier than the closing date should sufficient application numbers be received and offers made, so we recommend early submission of your application.