Assistant Accountant - Advanced Apprenticeship

Knowledge

By the end of their apprenticeship, your apprentice should understand:

• Principles of financial accounting, adjustment and reporting including calculation and input of accruals and prepayments, maintenance of the fixed asset register, accounting for asset purchase and disposal, depreciation, and financing.
• Principles of management accounting, including costing, forecasting and financial planning
• Principles of creating and maintaining financial records including accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management and principles of payroll.
• Fundamentals of potential vulnerabilities within systems of financial control such as internal fraud and money laundering.
• Fundamentals of indirect taxation including approaches to completing indirect tax returns and supporting documentation and records.
• Fundamentals of digital financial and accounting packages and applications including the maintenance of key databases, spreadsheets, data analytics and the appropriate use of data to provide information.
• Principles of cyber-security and working safely online within a finance and accounting context.
• Principles of data security and legislative requirements regarding data handling in a financial and accounting context.
• Approaches to diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness and their impact on finance and accountancy.
• The role of accountancy or finance within the organisational business strategy.
• The wider financial and accounting professional landscape including the requirement to stay abreast of changes in technology and practice and awareness of the role of regulators and professional bodies.
• The principles of professional ethics and codes of conduct in a finance and accounting environment.

Skills

Your apprentice should be able to:

• Assist with the investigation and response to financial information queries.
• Record and analyse financial data using the organisation’s standard tools and processes.
• Apply double entry bookkeeping and accounting standards to process financial documents, generate financial statements and report financial information to users of accounts.
• Assist with production of accurate financial information for the preparation of accounts.
• Reconcile financial data, such as, preparation of reconciliations or review of reconciliations.
• Investigate, resolve or escalate transactional queries and errors within their remit as appropriate.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders.
• Communicate financial information in a way that non-finance stakeholders can interpret and understand.
• Utilise digital skills to present key financial information using finance and accounting software and applications.
• Use software packages to assist with basic accounting tasks in line with cyber and data security requirements, using data securely and safely, including backing up data.
• Communicate using varying approaches and different media methods with an appreciation of the risks and benefits to the business of social media and other digital applications.

Behaviours

Your apprentice should be able to:

• Build strong collaborative working relationships recognising the importance of diversity and inclusion.
• Apply a transparent, objective and sustainable manner to meet the ethical requirements of the profession.
• Organise work efficiently and effectively to meet required targets, escalating queries or problems as appropriate and demonstrate a professional approach to working to deadlines.
• Accept and adapt to changing priorities and working requirements readily and have the flexibility to maintain high standards in a changing environment.
• Engage with wider stakeholders and keep up to date with changes in the finance industry which impact their organisation or role.
• Apply a critical eye to transactions and trends for reasonableness, demonstrating a ‘right first time approach’.
• Carry out the duties of their role by reference to sustainability good practice whether specific to their occupation or externally recognised. 

Expert Tutors

All tutors involved in the delivery of courses and apprenticeships within the College are approved to teach the subjects and modules they deliver.

Our recruitment process ensures that tutors delivering a given programme are suitably qualified and, where appropriate, possess relevant technical and industrial experience and a familiarity with professional practice. This is especially important for apprenticeships where off-the-job training needs to align with apprentices' on-the-job experience.