Professional accounting or taxation technician apprenticeship, level 4 · Register title: Professional accounting/taxation technician (ST0003)
Grow the accounting technician who turns your numbers into decisions
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 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting while drafting and interpreting your accounts, testing your controls, and explaining what the figures mean. They might be the assistant accountant you want to keep, or the person you see as your next management accountant.
RoATP approved · Approved AAT Centre
What they'll be able to do
Four milestones, ending ready for assessment
Draft financial statements for sole traders, partnerships and companies, make year-end adjustments, and analyse performance with ratios.
Plan budgets, cost decisions, and use management accounting to add value, working across teams.
Assess risk and financial controls, spot fraud and money laundering vulnerabilities, keep data secure, and apply professional ethics in complex situations.
Two specialist units complete, from tax, audit, or cash and credit management, and ready for end point assessment.
Their learning journey
Four themes, built around your work
Technical knowledge
Double entry and accounting standards, financial statements for single entities, year-end adjustments, and ratio analysis. AAT unit: Drafting and Interpreting Financial Statements.
Business knowledge
Budgetary planning and control, costing and decision making, and adding value through analysis. AAT unit: Applied Management Accounting.
Systems and processes
Risk management, financial controls, fraud and money laundering vulnerabilities, and data security. AAT unit: Internal Accounting Systems and Controls.
Ethics, regulation and compliance
Professional ethics, accounting standards and regulation, sustainability, and preparation for assessment. AAT unit: Ethical Standards.
Two specialist units
About six weeks each, chosen from Business Tax, Personal Tax, Audit and Assurance, Cash and Financial Management, and Credit and Debt Management.
Professional discussion and role scenario assessment
A 60-minute professional discussion supported by their portfolio of five workplace assignments, and a role scenario assessment based on a fictitious organisation released at least ten working days before. 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 at a professional level, risk and controls, and ethics in complex situations.
Show it
Accounts drafted and interpreted, controls tested, and figures turned into recommendations.
Live it
Professional scepticism, and encouraging the same standards in the people around them.
Who you could put forward
Someone already with you, or someone new
Your assistant accountant, ready for more
They can run month end. This teaches them to interpret it and advise on it.
The person you see as your next management accountant
Someone you want making recommendations, not only producing reports.
Your senior bookkeeper or payroll lead
Experienced in one area, ready for the whole picture.
A school leaver who's come up through level 3 with you
Flynn joined after his A levels and completed both levels with us.
In their words
The people, not the provider
These reviews also benefited my employer by clearly demonstrating how I was applying my theoretical knowledge in practice, while identifying further opportunities for me to contribute more effectively and continue developing in line with the needs of the business.
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
Numbers that lead to decisions, and risk spotted early
Numbers that lead to decisions
They interpret your accounts and explain what they mean for the business, with recommendations.
Risk spotted early
Trained in financial controls, fraud and money laundering vulnerabilities, and data security.
Higher standards around them
The standard asks them to encourage careful, ethical practice in their team, not only to follow it.
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
We deliver it through the AAT Level 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting, as an Approved AAT Centre. AAT exams are sat at a local exam centre.
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.
At least 348 hours of off-the-job training across the programme, all online and built around their week. No day or block release.
Usually they'll have the AAT Level 3 Diploma or equivalent experience. We check 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