ICAEW has unveiled significant changes to its world-leading ACA qualification, which will launch in September 2025, featuring a streamlined structure, new resources for developing digital skills and the ability for students to specialise early on in their careers.

The Next Generation ACA focuses on three key pillars – technology, sustainability, and ethics – to ensure accountants of the future are best prepared to meet the demands of the changing business environment.

The ACA’s business, finance and accountancy modules and work experience remain core components of the new qualification, but the specialised learning and development programme adds another. This third component offers students a new opportunity to develop specialist skills alongside their key skills and will:

• deepen students’ competence in ethics, technology and sustainability to reflect the ever-changing world and workplace, through integration with professional work experience;  

• adapt quickly to future changes in the workplace and profession;  

• enhance students’ specialised workplace knowledge and skills through a wide range of flexible learning resources; and, 

• provide students with enhanced support through a comprehensively redesigned learning journey. 

Malcolm Bacchus, President, ICAEW, says: “Our students are the ICAEW members of tomorrow, representing the next generation of ICAEW Chartered Accountants. The changes we have made to the ACA provide students with world-class training to be the leaders of tomorrow across a wide range of careers.”

Alan Vallance, ICAEW’s Chief Executive, says: “For nearly 150 years, gaining ICAEW membership has launched global careers in business, finance and accountancy, and we must ensure that it remains best in class for the next generation.

“These exciting changes are the culmination of the most extensive and collaborative consultation process in our history, and we can’t wait for these developments to come into place next September.”

Collaborating to shape tomorrow’s chartered accountants

The Next Generation ACA was developed with employers, students, members and ICAEW’s partners In learning. The changes will ensure students have the skills at their disposal to navigate complex future challenges.

Will Holt, Managing Director, Education and Training, ICAEW, adds: “Consultation has been at the heart of the development for the Next Generation ACA, with thousands of ICAEW training employers, students and members across the world participating in our consultation programme.

“We have placed technology, sustainability and ethics at the very heart of the ACA with greater emphasis on professional skills development. The Next Generation ACA will develop the skills that chartered accountants will need to successfully work alongside technology during their career.”

Technology

The redesigned ACA incorporates digital skills throughout its curriculum, reflecting an increasingly technology-driven business world. Ian Pay, ICAEW’s Head of Data Analytics and Tech, explains: “Technology has always been integral to accountancy. With AI, we’re seeing a step change, bringing both opportunities and challenges that accountants must address.”

Rather than limiting technology to a single module, the new ACA weaves it into every aspect of learning. “Technology is embedded across all modules.” Pay adds.

Sustainability

Another central theme of the new ACA is sustainability, reflecting the growing pressure on businesses to address environmental and social impacts, and the role of accountants in helping them do so.

Richard Spencer, ICAEW’s Director of Sustainability, says: “Accountants play a key role in the shift towards a net-zero world. That’s why sustainability must be embedded in qualifications like the ACA.”

The new Sustainability and Ethics module, introduced at the Certificate Level, will teach students how to combine non-financial reporting with financial metrics, essential for modern business practices.

ACA exam moderator Steve Tinsley explains: “New regulations require businesses to account for their environmental impact, and accountants need to know how to report on this.”

Ethics

Similar to the approach taken with technology, there has been increased emphasis on ethics throughout the qualification. David Gomez, ICAEW’s Senior Lead, Ethics, described the Next Generation ACA as “a framework for decision-making in your daily professional life”.

Gareth Brett, Interim Director of Trust and Ethics, adds: “This generation is more attuned to ethical challenges and can lead the way in tackling them.”

The Sustainability and Ethics module will cover key ethical principles, while case studies at the Professional and Advanced Levels will help students navigate real-world dilemmas. “Case studies are an effective way to teach ethics,” says Gomez. “They make ethical principles tangible by showing real-life situations that have gone wrong.”

Visit our hub to find out more about the Next Generation ACA and the changes we are introducing.