The Birmingham office of business and finance adviser Grant Thornton gave 10 young people a detailed insight into a career in accountancy with a view to recruiting the talent of tomorrow.

The Year 12 students came from a range of schools across the West Midlands, including CTC Kingshurst Academy, Solihull, King Edwards VI College, Stourbridge and St Peter’s Collegiate College School, Wolverhampton.

They spent two weeks with Grant Thornton’s audit, tax and advisory teams, learning about the skills and expertise required to advise the firm’s portfolio of private and public sector clients.

Becky Eagle, audit director at Grant Thornton, who devised the programme and looked after the students during their two-week internship, said: “We ran a pilot of this project last year which was very successful and led to us offering three out of the five students a position to train to become a qualified accountant with the firm.

“Grant Thornton is well-known for its training programmes and in addition to our annual autumn intake of new trainees we were keen to work with a broad spectrum of West Midlands’ schools and give young people from varied backgrounds this opportunity.”

At the end of the two-week internship students made a presentation to a panel of directors on how Grant Thornton could advise a dynamic growing organisation, which was considered in conjunction with feedback throughout the two weeks.

A unique element to the programme is that successful candidates are offered a position to join the firm’s Accelerate school leaver programme after completing their final year of A-level studies.

Ms Eagle added: “We’re always looking for the best talent to join us at Grant Thornton and in some of these young people we may well be looking at the firm’s future partners.

“It’s been fantastic to see them develop in confidence over their two-week internship and I’m thrilled that some of the students will be joining our growing and exciting audit department in 12 months’ time.”

The Birmingham Post has launched a free app for iPad and iPhone. Download it here.