Accountancy firm HWB has welcomed a record number of trainees to the business this year which has doubled 2020’s intake.

The firm, which covers Wiltshire, 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 the firm's expanding business across all departments as demand for accountancy services and business advice continues to soar.

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

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 include Ben Buckler inpayroll, Joseph Hill, Oliver Jenkins, Joe Colverson, Ben Forster, George Vaas, Nathan Parr and Diya George in accounts and audit, Danny Hockin and Thayef Chowdhury in tax, and Hannah Brown in marketing.

They will work towards industry standard qualifications hosted by either the Associations of Accounting Technicians, Chartered Accountants, or Tax Technicians, or the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals, and combine learning on-the-job with college work.