Deliotte Apprenticeship (ACA) v degree

[Blubell46]

Hello,

My dd is in Year 13 and is applying to uni to study economics and has also applied for apprenticeship course.

She has got an apprenticeship offer from one of the Big4 accountancy to study ACA ( professional qualification).

Just wondering if anyone has a child studying an Apprenticeship and feels they missed out on the Uni life? Or feel that future employers see them differently to graduates?

Just trying to balance both sides of the arguments. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you

I work for a company who provides apprenticeships and we have a massive community for them, there is no less social, or opportunities to get involved in extra curricular - in fact we encourage it.

A large number of them are doing fantastically well in terms of career progression after they 'graduated', some have gone on to do L7 apprenticeships, some are now senior managers running their own teams with apprentices in etc... as a PP has said, people turn down a standard university place to complete these, they are very competitive to get into and well worth while.

I work for a big 4. Most graduates start after university but a very few start straight after school. You notice the difference in maturity, knowledge, etc.

They are still quite young at 18 and have to cope with work and exams; if they fail twice they could be asked to go. They are giving support, study leave, etc; but I would say It will be tough at 18.

University give you other knowledge and experience that you will never get at the work place or studying the ACA.

I think it will be a lot of pressure for an 18 year old. I would suggest she goes to university; she will never get that chance again. It is not all about the money. She can apply again after university.

My DP daughter is doing an apprenticeship for accountancy and hasn't gone to uni. She's really happy and thriving. She a very practical girl and just decided this made more sense. She's very bright and hardworking I think she's going to really do well in life. She has a strong network of local friends though so not missing out on uni life in that sense

Take the apprenticeship. Big 4 always looks good on your CV. The school leavers do the same professional exams as the grads (unless you do an accountancy degree which exempts you from some) when they’ve completed the first set of exams. If it’s still the Brightstart programme they get 3 attempts at passing and 2 at professional.
They’re really well supported there, in Bristol which is where we have experience there quite a large cohort and it’s very social.
Excellent career prospects afterwards and no debt.

I think they there is a huge advantage in doing the apprenticeship. You have lower costs and no student debt. In fact you are earning and could even buy a cheap BTL if living at home.You also qualify younger and can get to a higher level quicker.

However I doubt that my DD would have been able to cope with Big 4 at aged 18. She needed the degree to experience lots of other things. She used her time wisely and was involved in clubs and was up for awards etc. She also worked in some interesting places during Summer. She came out with the best degree and that helped her self confidence. So now she is mature and able to cope with Big 4 and 100% focused. So I don’t regret her degree as it really served a purpose. Also I think that you learn quite a lot of soft skills at university eg team management on projects or people management in clubs etc. You also learn resilience eg being 200 miles away from home etc.

It really depends on your daughter’s personality.

I’ve been reading through all the posts & in the main you’ve had some great advice.
@Dearover is correct about there being a new Syllabus starting in Sept 25.
I believe the PWC flying start program that a PP mentioned is different to the Deloitte scheme as with flying starts they also attend university to get a degree not just accountancy collage to get the ACA.
It will depend on what department she is in but there can be a lot of travel with working at a Big 4 firm, particularly in audit. As I mentioned before, I don’t have experience of the younger starters but perhaps they don’t get put on away jobs that last weeks in a different town/city. That doesn’t impact the tax department so much as they tend to be more office based.
Someone who said apprenticeships aren’t regarded as highly as a degree doesn’t apply to this. She’ll be getting a post-grad qualification which is international highly regarded. They do the same exams as the grads do.
My only reservation would be the difficulty of it & her maturity level. But she could go for it & if it doesn’t work out then take the rest of the year to eg travel or work then just join uni in 2026 (or 2027 as not sure on dates for applying for uni) and she wouldn’t be behind her peers really as quite a lot of students take gap years (or they certainly used to).
But if it works and she loves it then she’ll be in a great position.
As an PO said are competitive apprenticeships to get into so you should be so proud of her.

She needs to be prepared to work hard, some of these apprenticeships are very taxing. But she will get valuable experiences and be paid, instead of racking up tens of thousands in debt. If she tries it and it's not for her, she can always to to university in a year
Lots of kids have a gap year and she will have been earning in that time, so can save up a bit for uni expenses.

Both my DDs are at uni at the moment and both totally “missing out on uni life” as far as I can see.. no parties, few clubs, no coffees in the union etc. Both heavily in debt already though.
Absolutely apprenticeship with a company like Deloitte, bloody hell OP, why are you asking.
If you want the independent living bit of uni life, set her up in a shared flat.

I'm ACA and I don't have a degree. Being Big4 qualified will open doors regardless of degree status. And in 10 years no-one will be asking.

She should go for it and if she doesn't like practice, the ACA qualification will mean she can do all kinds of jobs she doesn't even know exist at the moment. Audit especially is a great way to see what different industries and jobs are out there (even if audit itself is really boring!)

How smart is she? What sort of universities would she be looking at? If top tier, I'd go to university instead because an accountancy exam whilst hard won't give her the intellectual breadth and simulation, and won't give her much choice to change roles later. Accountancy is something that is at high risk of AI automation in the next decades. If she's a weaker student or suits rote learning and clear vocational goals rather than abstract thinking, then accountancy is a better option.

Massive congratulations to your DD for getting an offer, she will have been up against a ridiculous amount of people.

We run a similar scheme where I work and its extremely well organised, there’s a lot of support for the students and career wise it’s an amazing start.

Personally, if one of my DS’s got offered this I would telling them to grab it with both hands!

I think this type of question on mn can be tricky. There is a wide range of experience and knowledge.
Apprenticeships are very different now to previously. I have worked with grads and those on Apprenticeships, If I was interviewing and I had 2 tied, I'd pick the Apprentice due to the experience and knowledge in the workplace.
I work with deloitte grads and Apprentices (not accounting) the company is brilliant and I've seen fantastic things from them.
I'd say yes. I'll also be pushing for my DC to go that route rather than uni.

I think that we will be facing this in a couple of years time.
Ds is in his GCSE year and then is doing A levels that reflect his goal of working in Banking or Finance. He has had conversations with a couple of banks and accountancy firms at events who spoke to him about degree apprenticeships and he says he might consider that route. His older sister started Uni this year and DS says he's not sure he wants to do that and certainly doesn't want to acrue loads of debt.
DH is of the opinion that if DS is smart enough he must go to Uni to get the "Uni experience" and IF DS wants to do that I will support it 100% but DH really can't get his head around DS not taking a more traditional route and insists DS has the same opportunities as DD. I suppose we will wait and see as we have 2 years to go yet but if DS wants my advice I will suggest he does as your DS has done and apply for both and make a decision based on what offers he gets but to be honest I think Uni isn't necessarily the best route to everyone.
My friend has 2 DS who did the same subject via the 2 different routes and the one who didn't go to Uni is ahead of his older brother in terms of career and has savings rather than debt.

I am just speaking from my own experience .
My own daughter was offered an apprenticeship at one of the Big 4 and was told that the focus wasn’t necessarily on grades, it was the potential.
My daughter turned down the offer and decided to go to university to study Economics and will work at one of the top investment banks when she graduates.
Her friend also turned down her degree apprenticeship and went to university instead as she achieved better grades than she expected
My niece applied for a degree apprenticeship at GSK . She was told she needed three C grades at A level. She started the apprenticeship , but dropped out and started university the following year. She doesn’t have any regrets.
I think the main issue was that she felt that the apprenticeship was too narrow

Well done to your DD - it’s incredibly competitive and she’s done brilliantly. I’m ex Deloitte and the Bright Starts have an amazing reputation. Last year an ex Bright Start made partner at the age of 30. I’d encourage her to go for it.

I agree, it depends on the personality of the student

The deloitte apprenticeship is the best option.

Edited to say I have 12 years big 4 and 24 years an accountant.

I work at a non big 4 accountants and we take on both graduates and a level students as apprentices. I would definitely strongly consider the apprentice route after a levels purely due to the debt from uni. Graduates are effectively paying an extra 9% of tax once they earn over the threshold. Once a qualified ACA it doesn’t matter for most jobs if you had a degree or not, in the same way that once you have a degree jobs are less bothered about what you got in your GCSEs or a levels, qualifications are only about getting to the next level.

if she qualifies then she isn’t restricted to finance as a poster up thread said, ACA members work in a wide range of careers after qualifying,

Reservation I would have is that the ACA exams are very hard, they are a massive step up from a levels and big 4 do have a tendency to get rid of staff that don’t pass exams, obviously same would still apply if she went to uni first

She could always take the Deloitte offer (and the pay) and if it doesn’t work out go to uni the year after. she just gained a years life experience and some pay 🤷‍♀️ towards uni fees.

Both my husband and I are qualified accountants. I did a degree, then a graduate scheme. My husband paid for his own accountancy qual (ACCA) whilst in a minimum wage basic financial reporting role. Guess who earns more (a lot more) and doesn’t have uni fees to pay back.
The ACA qual is worth a lot more than the degree. The Deloitte experience on a cv is worth a lot more than a degree.

My son has done a degree apprenticeship (*) with one of the big four. He also applied to uni and deferred his place for a year to give him that option in case he didn’t like the degree apprenticeship.

Firstly, congratulations on getting the place. They’re really hard to get nowadays and hugely oversubscribed.

Pros - you earn a living, get real work experience, get a degree, are more advanced in the workplace then your year group at 21 years old, don’t have uni debt etc

Cons - my ds did sometimes have a ‘what if’ moment regarding not going to uni. But at the same time didn’t regret what he’s done. He has still moved away from home, developed friendships, a social life etc but perhaps it just took a little longer. They’re thrown more in at the deep end rather than being slighlty spoon fed in uni halls.

• ds’s course there was a lot if self study rather than lectures etc

six years on, he’s qualified, earning good money, lives in his own flat etc.

Conversely, a friend who graduated last year with a business degree struggled to find employment, and slightly by chance, ended up in a local accountancy firm, starting the course from the school leavers level.

So my advice would be, take the place offered, defer the uni place for a year, and then see how it goes.

(* pedants corner - my ds did the professional qualification, rather than the degree).

Forgot to say, in the city my son moved to, there’s a ‘young professional ‘ group, where they do alot if socialising etc so they do mix with other you youngsters etc.

The dd of a very good friend is in this years cohort and having a marvellous social life. Not uni, but lots of apprentices thrown in together, finding their feet and their dancing shoes together.

With regards to the grades some of DDs cohort did the Degree Apprenticeship route and they had quite low offers for A level. The application process was tough and very competitive and it seemed that personality, problem solving ability etc was more important. One of them did find it all too much though and dropped out after a few months and went to Uni the following yera.
Getting a DA is hard and they are very hard work as well but worth it IMO.

People have mentioned about failing exams. My experience if you don’t get thrown out at the first failure. You do have several chances. If you do fail though, sometimes you can transfer to another company to carry on getting your qualification.