Access Accountancy’s ‘Discover Your Future’ campaign hits record engagement levels

In 2024, Access Accountancy partnered with Rate My Apprenticeship for the fifth consecutive year, to deliver its ‘Discover Your Future’ campaign, providing careers support to school students.

Discover Your Future promotes accountancy as a career option for Year 12 and 13 students, focusing on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Using contemporary accountancy influencers to encourage students to pursue a career in accountancy, the campaign is designed to:

• improve confidence;
• normalise a day in the life of an aspiring accountant; and
• showcase different routes into the profession.

As part of the campaign, students had the opportunity to enter a competition and win monetary prizes to support their learning and future careers, by engaging with short video clips from Access Accountancy influencers.

The prizes included £500 technology vouchers for Apple, John Lewis and Amazon. This year saw 1,225 competition entries, up 35% on 2023. Of the students who entered, 88% met one or more social mobility criteria.

Mia, winner of the John Lewis voucher, said: “I am putting my £500 John Lewis voucher towards buying a laptop for college and then any further education or apprenticeship. This has been a massive help and has helped me buy the laptop that I wanted. It will mean that all my work is in one place, organised and overall easier for me. Thanks again for this opportunity.”

Ola, recipient of the Amazon voucher, added: “I’ve used the voucher to buy a new laptop, headphones and a couple of revision accessories. It means I can revise at home and use the technology gifted to me to explore opportunities that I didn’t have available to me before.”

Farrah Beveridge, National Early Careers Manager at RSM UK, led on the partnership. She comments: “Access Accountancy plays a fundamental role in improving access to and progression within the industry. Working in partnership with signatory firms, we are dedicated to supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Our latest campaign reinforces the importance of our mission to help students gain new skills and experiences, and I’m delighted that our winners can make use of their new technology to support their learning and career aspirations. However, the growing number of students participating in Discover Your Future shows that we have more work to do – to increase the number of signatories and provide more career opportunities for young people.”

If you are interested in sharing your opportunities to young people, and would like to improve access to the profession, please get in touch.