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Call to grow recruitment of chartered accountants

Firms in Tees Valley have been urged to train more chartered accountants to help boost the local economy.

The call comes from business adviser Rob Tindle, who says the area has suffered a steady decline in trainees studying for the ACA qualification of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in recent years.

“ACA student numbers in Tees Valley have been falling since the big accountancy firms closed their offices in Middlesbrough and moved staff to Newcastle,” said Mr Tindle, who runs his own accountancy firm on Teesside.

“Meanwhile, for a variety of reasons, some local firms have simply lost the habit of training chartered accountants. This is something we need to address urgently by investing now in the professional services sector to help underpin the long-term future of Teesside’s business community.”

Mr Tindle, a committee member and former chairman of the Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants, recently organised a training briefing for local firms by Lorna Hansell, the ICAEW’s regional business development manager.

“Lorna was able to dispel some of the popular misconceptions about training ACAs and we hope to follow this up with a Tees Valley training event to reinforce the message,” he said.

“Unless we act now, the future of the accountancy sector on Teesside will be uncertain, with local businesses being forced to go to Newcastle or even as far afield as Leeds for high quality professional advice.”

One local practice has already risen to the challenge. Graeme Boagey, a partner at Middlesbrough-based Chipchase Manners, said the firm had just taken on two trainee chartered accountants after a gap of several years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .