Assistant accountant apprenticeship, level 3 · Register title: Assistant accountant (ST0002)
Grow an assistant accountant who can take on your month end
The Growth and Skills Levy covers the training and assessment, and we handle the enrolment and the paperwork. Your apprentice studies online for the AAT Level 3 Diploma in Accounting and applies it every month to your own accounts, budgets and VAT. They might be your finance assistant ready for more, or someone joining you from sixth form or another career.
RoATP approved · Approved AAT Centre
What they'll be able to do
Three milestones, ending ready for assessment
Prepare VAT returns and their supporting records, and work to the profession's ethics and codes of conduct.
Process accruals, prepayments and depreciation, keep the fixed asset register, prepare financial statements and reconciliations, and explain the figures to colleagues outside finance.
Produce costings, forecasts and budgets, investigate variances, use finance software and data securely, and spot the warning signs of fraud and money laundering.
Their learning journey
Five themes, built around your work
The wider professional landscape
The role of finance in your organisation, professional ethics, and indirect tax. AAT unit: Tax Processes for Businesses.
Financial accounting
Double entry, accruals, prepayments, the fixed asset register, depreciation, reconciliations, and preparing financial statements. AAT unit: Financial Accounting: Preparing Financial Statements.
Stakeholders and communication
Working relationships, and explaining financial information to people outside finance. AAT unit: Business Awareness.
Management accounting
Costings, forecasts, budgets, sign-off, and investigating variances. AAT unit: Management Accounting Techniques.
Digital and data security
Finance software, spreadsheets and data analysis, cyber security, anti-money laundering, and preparation for assessment.
Open-book test and professional discussion
An open-book test of 40 multiple-choice questions in 150 minutes, and a 60-minute professional discussion based on their portfolio. Graded fail, pass, merit or distinction.
Every programme works the same way. They learn it, use it in your organisation, then look back at what they did and why.
Know it
Financial and management accounting, VAT, and the controls that protect your organisation.
Show it
Accurate month-end figures, reconciliations, budgets and variances, explained so colleagues outside finance understand them.
Live it
Professional judgement and a right first time approach.
Who you could put forward
Someone already with you, or someone new
Your finance assistant, ready for month end
They've mastered the ledgers. This takes them into statements, budgets and VAT.
The person already running your finances
Experienced, trusted, and without the qualification to match. Nicola was a Trust Business Manager when she started.
A sixth form leaver
Someone you hire onto the apprenticeship instead of losing them to university.
Someone changing career
An adult bringing judgement from another working life, ready to retrain in finance.
You're trusting us with someone from your team. Here's how we look after them.
One tutor from start to finish, who knows accounting and gets to know your organisation.
A one-to-one review every month, and a three-way review with you at the end of every theme. Nobody is guessing where they are or what's next.
Learning online, built around the working week, with live tutor sessions every fortnight. No day or block release. AAT exams are sat at a local exam centre.
What your organisation gets
Month end shared, budgets understood, controls that hold
Month end, shared
They can prepare the reconciliations, adjustments and statements, so your senior finance people review rather than do it all.
Budgets your managers understand
They're trained to explain forecasts and variances to people outside finance.
Controls that hold
VAT done properly, data kept secure, and fraud or money laundering risks spotted early.
Training and assessment are funded from the Growth and Skills Levy you already pay, up to the funding band for this standard. If you don't pay the levy, there's nothing to pay for apprentices under 25, and a 5% contribution for those aged 25 and over.
We check eligibility before you commit to anything. We complete the enrolment, the funding agreement, and the records the rules require, in the format auditors expect.
You get one named account manager, from your first conversation to your last review. If something isn't working, you go to them, and we take it seriously.
The honest answers
Questions people actually ask
Yes. The AAT Level 3 Diploma in Accounting is a required part of this apprenticeship, delivered by us as an Approved AAT Centre. AAT exams are sat at a local exam centre.
Both. Someone already with you can grow into the role, and someone leaving sixth form or changing career can start with you on the same programme.
Training and assessment are funded from the Growth and Skills Levy, up to £12,000. If you don't pay the levy, there's nothing to pay for apprentices under 25, and a 5% contribution for those aged 25 and over. We'll confirm exactly what applies before you commit.
From 1 October 2026, you may receive up to £2,000 for an apprentice aged 16 to 24, an extra £1,000 if they're 16 to 18, and an extra £3,000 if they've received Universal Credit for more than six months. We'll check what applies to you before you commit.
At least 348 hours of off-the-job training across the programme, all online and built around their week. No day or block release.
Not always. We check what they already know at the start and agree the right level with you.
If they move to a new employer, they can carry on their apprenticeship there. Your funding commitment from the Growth and Skills Levy ends when they leave.
Let's begin
Tell us who you'd like to back.
We'll reply within one working day. You'll know whether this programme fits them, what it costs you, and how quickly they could start. No commitment. And if we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
Together, let's go