Grant Thornton to take on 12 North West school leavers

Business and financial advisory firm Grant Thornton UK LLP is set to take on a raft of school leavers across its North West operations.

The firm has today (August 18) announced plans to welcome 12 school leavers at its offices in Liverpool and Manchester, as part of a wider strategy to take on 77 at 20 of its offices in 2016 and 2017.

Grant Thornton said it has seen a 47% increase in applications for its School Leavers Programme, which offers young people a route into accountancy without the need to attend university.

One of the successful candidates is 18-year-old Luke McCormick from Manchester, who will join the programme at the end of August after undertaking a placement on the industry-wide Access Accountancy scheme.

He commented: “The Access Accountancy Scheme provided an invaluable opportunity to explore the profession in ways I never knew were possible.

“I am really pleased to be joining Grant Thornton’s School Leaver Programme. I decided I would rather start work straight after leaving school rather than attending university because you get to experience the true nature of the job first- hand and gain invaluable insight and knowledge through working with experts in the profession every day.”

Luke added: “I can’t wait to start with the firm this summer.”

Grant Thornton’s operations in the region are headed up by North West managing partner Carl Williams, who himself worked his way up the firm instead of going to university.

He said: “It’s great to see that our efforts to improve social mobility and to ensure that we recruit the best talent, regardless of background, are paying off.

“Grant Thornton has provided me personally with the development opportunities and support to progress. As a firm we are committed to removing traditional barriers to entry and we’re pleased to see other firms beginning to follow suit.”

Carl continued: “My message today to those receiving results this morning would be not to panic if you haven’t received the grades you were hoping for.

“University is only one route into professional services and I’d encourage them to look at the range of non-graduate programmes, internships and work-experience placements on offer at both Grant Thornton and the other leading firms.”