Grant Thornton UK LLP is set to welcome seven new joiners to its Cardiff office this year, as part of the leading business and financial adviser’s largest ever nationwide intake of graduates and school leavers.
The new starters will join a variety of key departments across the Welsh business, including commercial audit, tax, public sector audit, and reward advisory services.
This year, a record number of new school leavers and graduates will be starting their careers at Grant Thornton, with a combined total of 496 people joining the firm via these routes. Of this, a total of 213 school leavers will be welcomed onto Grant Thornton’s apprenticeship programme, which is a 13% increase compared to 2022 (188) and the highest number ever to join the firm in one admission.
For the first time, nationally, the firm’s audit department – which hires the largest number of trainees in the business – saw more school leavers than graduates join the function.
As well as welcoming its new trainee intake, the firm, which is a founding member of Access Accountancy, offered 218 work experience placements to sixth form students through the scheme this year – a significant increase compared to 2022 (131).
Rhian Owen, Partner for Grant Thornton UK based in Cardiff, said: “At Grant Thornton, we’ve been evolving our approach to identifying talent, with more of a focus on future potential and strengths, as opposed to past achievements and academic profile. Our emphasis on increasing our school leaver intake has allowed us to access a new, diverse talent pool that we would previously have been missing.
“The school leaver apprenticeship route offers an excellent path into the profession for young students. Our school leavers develop into well rounded business advisers, gain an internationally recognised qualification and become professionally qualified a year ahead of their peers who choose to go to university and then join our graduate programme.”
18-year-old Kai Morrison joined Grant Thornton as an Audit Associate this year after completing his A levels at Newport High School. He said: “I was impressed by Grant Thornton’s reputation within the professional services industry and their commitment to providing high quality services. Additionally, the firm’s inclusive and collaborative culture was attractive to me. I had heard about how great the culture is at Grant Thronton and how much they care about their people. Even though I have not been here for long I have seen that there is a big push around being people orientated and it feels like a big community.”
Oyinkan Adu, a 21-year-old Audit Associate who studied a BSc in International Development with Economics at the University of Bath who joined Grant Thornton’s Cardiff team this year, said: “When I started university, I thought I would go into civil service or work with an international organisation to practice my degree in its traditional scope. However, over time I realised how many career opportunities I had, and how suited my skills are inproviding financial advisory services. I was drawn to this career path as I found genuine interest for it in terms of the critical analysis and the constant aspect of learning on the job. I was attracted to Grant Thornton in particular, as I have only heard great things about their training and support to staff.”
22-year-old Bethan Llywelyn has just started at Grant Thornton’s Cardiff office as an Audit Associate after studying Accounting and Finance at the University of Bath. She said: “The main thing that attracted me to Grant Thornton was the personal nature of the application process. Grant Thornton was the only firm I applied to who consistently contacted me with feedback and advice at every step of the way. This made me feel like I was valued as an applicant, which was very important to me in a company I would want to work for in my career.”
