Our school leaver opportunities

As one of our trainees, you can play a major part in our on-going success story. From early on in your time with us, you will be entrusted with real client assignments and real responsibilities. In return, we will support you with our first-class training and development programme, designed to lay the foundations for an exceptional career.

On the job training

Our trainees will complete the AAT or CFAB qualification, followed by the ACA/CA professional qualification with a view to becoming a qualified accountant.
You will have exciting development opportunities available where you can build your knowledge in many of the sectors in which we operate. You will work in a friendly and progressive environment, within teams of varying sizes. From early on you will be given responsibility, dealing with range of clients including private clients, individuals from the entertainment world, family estates or charities.
We use first-class tuition centres alongside our own internally developed technical training programmes to help you prepare for your examinations. This is supported by our dedicated training team who will monitor your progress throughout your studies. We expect our prospective trainees to have gained a thorough understanding of what the exams will involve, so please ensure that you have researched the professional qualification you are interested in pursuing thoroughly in order to convince us that you know what you’re letting yourself in for!
We recruit approximately 10 school leaver trainees each year across our office network.

Person requirements:

We seek people with initiative; people who are collaborative team workers, natural communicators and able problem-solvers. Above all, we seek people who are motivated by providing the highest level of client service.
Applicants must have at least 300 UCAS points (120 if using the new UCAS tariff), or equivalent, gained at one sitting. Plus excellent GSCE results with a minimum grade B in English and Maths.

Company information:

As a top 20 UK accountancy firm, and advisers to some of the UK’s wealthiest individuals, Saffery Champness is a dynamic and exciting place to launch your career.
Through hard work and innovative thinking – to say nothing of the personal touch which has long been our trademark – we have achieved strong market positions across a range of sectors, but particularly private clients.
Our style is personal and we value our strong client relationships and genuinely partner-led service. Providing excellent training and development opportunities for staff is an important part of what we do, as our long-standing Investors in People accreditation demonstrates. We are also very proud to have been named as one of Britain’s Top Employers for the fourteenth consecutive year.

Reward and benefits

We want to give you the best possible start to launch your accountancy career. As a Saffery Champness trainee, you will begin on a competitive starting salary. Throughout your training you will take part in bi-annual performance reviews to discuss your future roles and responsibilities.
As well as your annual salary, you would also be enrolled in the firm’s profit sharing scheme, which runs from October to September each year.
Your overall remuneration would also include our highly regarded flexible benefits package, which we continually improve and upgrade. The flexible benefits scheme comprises both payroll-deductible benefits and direct benefits, all designed to save you money and make your life a little easier. Payroll-deductible benefits include:

• The ability to buy and sell holiday days
• Cycle to work scheme
• Paid overtime or TOIL
• Health screening
• Life insurance (up to three times your annual salary)
• Critical illness cover
• Season ticket loan
• A contributory pension plan
• Childcare vouchers

All of these rewards and benefits would mean little without the attraction of a challenging and varied workload in a dynamic office environment. And with excellent prospects for progression, staff members who demonstrate real ability know they will be able to progress quickly through the ranks and rise to more senior positions – with the potential for partnership opportunities further down the line.