Azets targets 500-plus new recruits for 2023

Azets has announced plans to recruit more than 500 apprentices, graduates and school leavers in 2023.

The UK Top 10 accountancy firm currently has 650 apprentices, graduates and school leavers across England, with 331 having joined in August 2022.

Intu Properties plc. The FRC has consistently reported that big firms deliver poor audits. The most recent report stated that around a quarter of the audits by major firms were poor.

The regulator could shut down the persistently failing firms, but hasn’t. The promised post-Carillion auditing legislation has failed to materialise. Lack of professional scepticism and independence are the most common factors in audit failures. The lure of lucrative consultancy fees could be ended by requiring auditors to act exclusively as auditors. That would prohibit audit firms from selling any consultancy services.

Periodically, after a scandal big firms resurrect the possibility of the audit/non-audit split – two arms under a common ownership. It is very different from requiring audit firms to concentrate on audit only. Through such tactics, headlines are managed and crisis is mediated. Meanwhile, audits deliver little of value but audit firms continue to enjoy the state guaranteed market of external audits. Yes, there is no business like auditing business.

Azets is offering another 531 early careers opportunities for September 2023, to take the total to nearly 1,200 by the end of this year.

In 2017, Azets had just 30 apprentices, reflecting the firm’s rapid growth and ongoing investment in talent development over the past six years.

This latest graduate recruitment drive is part of Azets’ recently announced plan to add 900 roles across its UK business over the next 12 months.

The positions cover all levels, from associate through to partner,