ICAEW and BDO LLP welcomed Alison McGovern MP, Shadow Employment Minister, to BDO’s Liverpool office on 8 July to demonstrate the contribution that chartered accountants are already making to the Levelling Up agenda.

This month, BDO welcomed its fifth cohort of 51 university students on work placements within the firm’s shared service centre. The firm also has a long-standing partnership with social mobility charity, Leadership Through Sports and Business (LTSB), working together to provide work experience, employability skills workshops and apprenticeships for young people from less advantaged backgrounds.

During McGovern’s visit, the MP for Wirral South met representatives of the 500+ staff recruited in the last five years of BDO’s Shared Service Centre. She also met ICAEW members working in the wider Merseyside region to hear about their work with local businesses and the wider community. ICAEW hopes this event will form part of a wider series of visits with political stakeholders and regional accountancy firms in the coming months.

BDO welcomed McGovern to its Temple Street office as part of a series of events led by ICAEW, which aim to demonstrate how the accountancy profession is creating jobs and skills training and development across the UK. 

The firm’s recruitment strategy has been targeting investment in local youth talent with the aim of boosting social mobility in the region. BDO has also started working with Ingeus, a local training provider that supports the government’s Job Entry Targeted Support (JETS) scheme, designed to create career opportunities for those whose jobs have been affected by the pandemic or who have been unemployed for three months or more.

Ed Dwan, Head of BDO in the North West said: “The growth of our business in Liverpool over the last five years is a huge success story for BDO, particularly the investment in our shared service centre, which has transformed BDO’s day-to-day operations and increased efficiency across the firm.

“We are really proud to now be one of Liverpool’s major private sector employers, making a real impact on social mobility and increasing access to accountancy in the area. In the last year, we have promoted 120 of our people in Liverpool, demonstrating our commitment to providing long-term, sustainable careers for people across the region.”

Graham Dale, Head of Public Affairs, ICAEW said: “Levelling Up is a policy that sounds good, but we wanted to demonstrate it in reality to policymakers. BDO’s success in Liverpool also represents success for those who are employed there and gaining new skills through this profession. We believe this is Levelling Up in practice and something the wider profession can be proud of.”