| Job description | Type of role: 5-year apprenticeship
Locations and starting salaries: London: £27,513 p.a. / Newcastle: £21,501 p.a.
Our highly successful ACA 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
The start date for the scheme is Monday 1 September 2025. We do not defer start dates so please only apply if you can join on 1 September 2025.
The role is based at either the main office in London (Victoria) or our regional office in Newcastle city centre. If you accept an offer from us, you will need to relocate to your chosen location or be able to commute to that office. During your initial 3-month induction you will spend most of your time in the office and college. Once you have completed induction, you will be working alongside your colleagues in the office, onsite at client site or working from home.
Application Deadline
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.
If you need any reasonable adjustments during the process, please contact our team at HRServiceDesk@nao.org.uk so we can discuss how best to accommodate your requirements. |
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| Responsibilities | 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/. |
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| Skills required | • Analyse data to draw sound conclusions
• Demonstrate sound judgement
• Communicate effectively with others
• Demonstrate enthusiasm, initiative, and drive
• Build and maintain effective team relationships
• Build and maintain key client relationships
• Plan and organise workload to deliver high quality work to deadline
• Understand the bigger picture |
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| Educational requirements | • 5 x GCSE's at grade 4-9 (A-C) or equivalent including Maths and English.
• A minimum of 120 UCAS points (or 300 based on the pre-2017 UCAS tariff) or equivalent from your top 3 x A-Levels, NOT including General Studies. If you have not yet taken your exams, please enter your predicted grades into your application form.
• If you have 104 UCAS points (or 260 based on pre-2017 UCAS tariff), you may still be eligible to apply as your application will be reviewed in the context of your socio-economic background.
• Applicants for the apprenticeship must NOT hold a degree.
• You should not be on a current training contract with another accountancy firm or be part-qualified.
Please note, if you receive an offer for the training scheme you will be required to provide evidence of your academics. If you have studied outside of the UK, you will need to provide evidence of your certificates and we will map your academics to the UK equivalent using NARIC.
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)
Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas. Please contact us at HRServiceDesk@nao.org.uk should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility. 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. |
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