Unified training bid

A pan-professional training body could be up and running by September, following the submission of a revised bid to the government.

The CCAB, along with the Association of Accounting Technicians, will put forward its latest plans to the education and employment department in the summer.

In January last year, the government rejected proposals from the bodies for a national training organisation that would act as a single authority to oversee accountants’ education and training.

Internal wrangles have dogged the scheme since the parties met in 1997 to hammer out a deal. The proposals were rebuffed after the group failed to present a coherent path for students wishing to use NVQs as a route into the profession.

Following that decision, the DfEE, which oversees NTOs, said the profession would need to establish and fund a single body before it received government backing.

Start-up and running costs will be provided by the professional institutes, according to the planning group heading the proposal. This money will be further complemented by government and European funding which is available for particular research projects.

The group is currently consulting employers and the accounting sector.

A forum will be held in April where plans for the new body will be put to representatives.

If they are endorsed, a formal proposal will be drawn up for consideration by civil servants at the end of May. The new body would be known as ANTO (Accountants National Training Organisation), with an official launch likely in September.

More than 60 bodies have been created in other industries to oversee training, accelerating government grants.

AAT chief executive Jane Scott Paul said ANTO would provide a one-stop shop for a range of information about the accounting sector.

But she added: ‘ANTO would not replace all aspects of the individual institutes.

It is creating something which we do not have at the moment and it will give an added dimension to education work within the CCAB and the AAT.’