Grant Thornton UK students sign up to new audit qualification

Thirty five Grant Thornton UK students have signed up for the new integrated qualification (IQ) in audit created by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

The IQ in audit which was announced earlier this year will start in September and will lead to both public and company registration for auditors, the right to use both the chartered accountant (CA) and chartered public finance accountant (CPFA) designations and membership of both ICAS and CIPFA.

The first students to have signed up for the new qualification are from accountancy firm Grant Thornton UK, although a ICAS spokesperson said talks are under way with other firms but that they couldn’t be named at this point.

As part of the IQ in audit, students will take 11 ICAS CA modules and four CPFA modules over a three year period.

Grant Thornton UK head of public sector Sarah Howard said: "We believe the new IQ provides a great opportunity to invest in equipping our public sector students and clients to deal effectively with the challenges and opportunities arising from commercialisation, new service delivery models and increased joint working between the public and private sectors."

ICAS CEO Anton Colella and CIPFA CEO Rob Whiteman welcomed the Grant Thornton UK students and expressed their confidence that the new qualification would become the benchmark for any practitioner or prospective student wishing to pursue a career in audit.