Institute bids to win back E&Y training contract

The ICAEW is on a charm offensive to woo back Ernst & Young’s contract for training the firm’s recruits.

Minutes from the body’s most recent council meeting disclose the attempts. About 400 E&Y trainees a year take ICAS’s courses rather than the ICAEW’s.

The Big Four firm switched from ICAEW to ICAS in 2000 because it offered a more intensive study regime where graduates sat most of their exams straight after completing their studies.

But the minutes of the latest meeting say that the institute is hoping to strike back. ‘Discussions [are] continuing with Ernst & Young, with a view to persuading them to return to training with the ICAEW. The chief executive particularly thanked the president for his effort in this regard.’

When contacted by Accountancy Age this week, president of the ICAEW Richard Dyson said: ‘We have had a meeting with Mark Otty and discussions are ongoing.’ Dyson is an E&Y partner.

The topic also came up at the council meeting during a presentation by Nick Land, the head of the practice advisory board, on training.

A former chairman of E&Y, Land is not involved in the latest moves.

E&Y’s graduate trainees account for about 400 out of ICAS’s average annual student intake of 1050. Over the last 10 years its average intake of students has increased threefold.

E&Y said: ‘We have no current plans to transfer back to the ICAEW but as with all our supplier relationships we keep our options under constant review against a set of agreed criteria.

‘In 2000 when we moved the professional education of our students to ICAS we assessed that their model offered more rigour and better met our needs and ICAS continue to provide an excellent service.’

ICAS would not comment on the ICAEW’s approach.