ACA training agreement FAQs

No. You cannot use the designatory letters ACA after your name until you are admitted to membership as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant. ICAEW treats any inappropriate use of the ACA designation as a very serious offence.

It is a formal, written agreement between a student and an employer that is specific to your ACA training. It outlines the support you will receive from your employer while you study and what is expected from you in return.

Your training agreement is likely to cover;

• start date and the length of time your training agreement will cover (eg, three years);
• the number of exam attempts that your employer will support; and
• the number of study days your employer will allow, and how your exams should be fitted in around your work.

For more information please refer to the Training Agreement: Overview

If you are based outside the UK, please go Find your route for more information.

There are four essential elements of the ACA qualification that need to be successfully completed to be eligible for ICAEW membership. These are: the 15 examinations, practical work experience, professional skills development plus ethics and professional scepticism.

You need to complete these elements while completing an training agreement for a minimum of three years with an authorised training employer. You also need to have regular appraisal/progress reviews every six months during that time with your employer. When you have completed these elements on your online training file and your employer has completed the final sign off, you will be invited to ICAEW membership after your training records have been processed.

Most ACA students will have a minimum of a three-year training agreement to achieve the 450 days of work experience required. However, some students may be eligible for a reduction in the length of a training agreement, including:

• ACCA students or affiliates – you may be able to claim credit against some of the ACA exams and credit for previous work experience if you gained that experience while working for an organisation already authorised by ICAEW to train ACA students AND your experience was gained in the last two years. If this applies to you, you may be able to claim up to 12 months’ credit for work experience, potentially reducing your training agreement requirement to 24 months.
• AAT students – if you have registered to study the ACA through the AAT-ACA Fast Track route , you may be able to claim credit against some of the ACA exams and up to 12 months’ credit for prior work experience if it was gained while you were in full-time employment and your employer was already an ICAEW authorised training employer.

The length of a training agreement is determined in accordance with the ACA student regulations and by agreement between the student and authorised training employer which is to provide the approved training.

A training agreement cannot be longer than five years, unless the student is training under a strategic degree or other programme offered in partnership with an ICAEW Partner in Learning.

ICAEW encourages students to stay with their employer for the duration of their training agreement where possible. If you change employer part way through, they must be an ICAEW authorised training employer (ATE) for your ACA training to continue.

In addition, any new employer could ask you to complete additional practical work experience or training to demonstrate your skills and also to help them recover any training costs. A training agreement at any new employer would need to be for a minimum of three months and include at least 65 days of practical work experience.

You cannot apply for ICAEW membership until you have fully completed all four elements of your ACA training agreement (and have had your completed training records signed off by your employer and verified by ICAEW). ICAEW encourages students to stay with their employer for the duration of their training agreement. If this is not possible then you will be required to re-register into another training agreement to complete the remaining time. Please be advised that if this is under three months then you will be required to register for a minimum of three months and obtain at least 65 practical work experience days. If you change employer before the end of your agreement, you must make sure that you have all of your training records signed off by that employer before you leave – to ensure you do not lose any experience and time you have already accumulated.

So as not to lose any time or practical work experience that you have gained so far, you must ensure that your online training file is up to date and all entries have been confirmed by your employer before they cancel the training agreement. Please be advised that your practical work experience entries need to be recorded until the date the training agreement is cancelled. Your employer will need to send ICAEW your training agreement cancellation form to us within four weeks of your departure. It is your responsibility to ensure they have done this.

Your new employer will need to submit your student re-registration form  to ICAEW within four weeks of your arrival. It is your responsibility to ensure this happens.

Yes. To ensure you do not lose any time or work experience accumulated to date, you will need to ensure before you leave that your employer has confirmed/provided feedback for all entries on your online training file.

Remember your new employer cannot sign off any work experience you gained while you were working at your previous employer, so you must get everything signed before you leave. You should therefore always make sure that your records are accurate and up to date before you consider moving to a new employer.

Your employer will need to send ICAEW your training agreement cancellation form within four weeks of your departure date. Your new employer will need to send ICAEW your student re-registration form within four weeks of your start date. It is your responsibility to ensure your relevant employers have done this.

The following things need to happen:

• The employer you are leaving must cancel the training agreement they have with you. This needs to be returned to ICAEW within four weeks of your leaving date.
• You will need to complete a re-registration form with your new employer (who must be an ICAEW authorised training employer). This form needs to be returned to ICAEW within four weeks of your start date.

Your new employer can only sign off development and ethical behavior evidenced by them ie, at your new place of work. So you will need to complete all the Professional Development Ladders and the ethics learning programme requirements with your new employer. But remember, you are not losing development; you just have to demonstrate it to your new employer. If you have the skills, then you should quickly be able to demonstrate them, so it should not delay the completion.

ICAEW regulations state that the Case Study exam cannot be sat until you are in the final 12 months of a training agreement. However, students can have completed their training agreement before sitting the Case Study. So, in this case, you do not need to extend your training agreement.

If you have not completed your practical work experience (PWE) within your training agreement, you would need to extend the agreement to ensure you accumulated enough PWE to meet requirements.

No. If you have completed your training agreement, you do not have to extend your agreement to complete the examinations. You are able to sit the remaining examinations as an independent student.

As soon as you have finished your training agreement, we strongly encourage you to complete your online training file and get this signed off by your employer. You do not have to wait until you finish your exams to get this done. If you submit your online file now for sign off and verification by ICAEW, it means that you can be invited into membership as soon as you pass your last exam.

No, you will be unable to submit your training file for final approval until your training agreement end date. You are required to complete a minimum three year training agreement and obtain at least 450 practical work experience days.

If you reach 450 days before the end of your training agreement, you must keep logging any more days in your online training file until the very last date of your training agreement. If you fail to do this, it will delay the verification of your online training file and can delay your membership admission.

Some individuals with previous professional qualifications (such as AAT, ACCA etc) may be eligible. For more details, please see Join us as a member of another body.

You will need to prove to ICAEW that you have successfully completed all the required components of the ACA.

• ICAEW will have records of your exam history and will be aware of when you have successfully completed all the relevant exams.
• Please complete all tabs of your online training file and ensure it has been signed off by your employer (along with the Audit Qualification tab – if applicable)
• It is your responsibility to ensure your employer has submitted your records to ICAEW for verification.

You have a 12-month eligibility window to join ICAEW. This date starts from your training agreement end date or the date you received the results for your final ACA exam (whichever is the latter). During these 12 months you will need to submit your training file for verification, allow time for any queries (which in peak times can be up to 12 weeks), get your file verified, apply for membership and join into ICAEW membership.

You are able to access your training file by going to your dashboard, there will be a link which takes you to the training file. Alternatively you can login to the ICAEW website then change the URL to www.icaew.com/trainingfile.

Please call/email the student support team and request the manual forms to complete your training file.

This will usually mean that you have not recorded practical work experience until the end date of your training agreement, please be advised that if you have re-registered into a new agreement midway through your training make sure that you have recorded up until the previous agreement was cancelled as well.