HAMPSHIRE accountancy firm HWB has welcomed a record number of trainees to the business this year, doubling 2020’s intake.

The Southampton-based firm has brought in 11 graduates and school leavers who have started training in accounts and audit, payroll, tax and marketing roles.

This is to help manage HWB’s expanding business across all departments as demand for accountancy services and business advice continues to soar.

It is also part of a growing trend throughout the financial industry, part due to a current lack of senior staff availability, for firms to develop the next generation of accounting, business and tax advisers themselves.

The trainees include Ben Buckler (payroll); Joseph Hill, Oliver Jenkins, Joe Colverson, Ben Forster, George Vaas, Nathan Parr, Diya George (accounts and audit); Danny Hockin, Thayef Chowdhury (tax) and Hannah Brown (marketing).

Operations director Tracy Jenkins said: “At HWB we are 100 per cent committed to investing in the next generation of staff and to facilitate opportunities for them to grow. We welcome our new cohort.

“Any business that does not do this will eventually stagnate so it is our policy to bring in young people from across a wide range of backgrounds to develop into our advisers for future years.

“The pandemic has undoubtedly disrupted many of their final years at school or university and made education particularly difficult due to remote learning and lack of contact so we feel it is incumbent on us as a firm to now back them fully.

“While the pandemic has certainly also caused some issues with recruiting senior staff, it was always going to be our strategy to freshen up the business, especially the digital aspects, by training young people in new roles to build our future generation to serve our very diverse and expanding client base.”

The trainees will work towards industry standard qualifications mostly hosted by either the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA), Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) or Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) and combine learning on the job with college work. The Financial Reporting Council, which upholds industry standards, reported in its annual publication Key Facts and Trends in the Accountancy Profession 2021 that there are more than 160,000 accountancy trainees in the UK and ROI.

Chartered accountants HWB, headquartered at Chandler’s Ford, near Southampton, provides business and tax advice.