Member Article

UNW Young Talent Best in the North

Newcastle-based accountancy and advisory firm UNW are celebrating a resounding exam success by their student trainees in the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 2015 exams.

Four rising stars at UNW were recognised with a number of accolades as UNW achieved a clean sweep of the top three places in the Professional Stage Order of Merit at the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants’ Graduation & Prizegiving event in May.

The Order of Merit is a ranking of all the students in the Northern Region who sat the ICAEW professional stage exams during 2015. Brittney Marshall was in first place, Martin Oliver second and Ralf Hall third. In addition, a fourth UNW student, Peter Sym achieved a top ten ranking with a seventh place and there were also a number of awards for excellent performances in individual exams.

Martin Oliver won the prize for the best mark in the North for the Corporate Reporting exam and was second in the UK. In addition to achieving the best mark in the North, Brittney Marshall’s Tax Compliance exam result was the highest in the UK whilst Ralf Hall was top of the North with his results in two exams, Business Planning Tax and Audit and Assurance and his Audit and Assurance result was the third highest in the UK. Peter Sym achieved the top mark in the North for Business Strategy and was ninth in the UK.

Michael Morris, Audit partner at UNW said: ‘We are absolutely delighted at our students’ performances in these exams. It’s a great achievement to receive industry recognition in these highly regarded qualifications and national awards and they are very well deserved. We’re very proud of their commitment particularly while they balance their studies with their demanding training contracts working across our client base.’

UNW has also continued to rank in the top 7% of accredited organisations across the UK - and one of just 53 in the North East - to be awarded the Investors in People Gold standard.

UNW staff partner Steve Lant said: ‘It is good that some of our students have received recognition for their excellent exam performance during the last year. Whilst the prize winners obviously grab attention, the exam results across all our students have been excellent and are indicative of the quality of our recruits and the training support given – both in relation to formal study towards exams but also on the job training and development. People development is a very important part of our culture throughout the firm at all levels of experience and the exam results give us an external objective measure for part of that development.’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Waddington .