Pathways FAQs

Pathways is only available to fully qualified members from certain bodies who have at least five years of full membership. If you wish to check your eligibility for pathways please see our Requirements of Pathways page.

If you are a student or part-qualified member (often called ‘affiliate’) of one of those bodies, you are not eligible to apply as you are not a fully qualified member, but you may be eligible via another membership route.

If you are a fully qualified member of one of the eligible bodies, and also registered with ICAEW as an ACA student, then as long as you meet all of the required Pathways criteria, including having an eligible sponsor to support your application, then you are eligible to apply for Pathways. You will need to apply for Pathways using your existing ICAEW student number. It does not affect your ACA student status in any way.

However, you will need to think carefully about whether stopping your ACA studies and applying for ICAEW membership through Pathways is the right decision for you. You may need to consider:

• The view of your employer
• If you gained membership of your professional body through any kind of reciprocal membership agreement or full/advanced credit or exemptions – then you would not be eligible to apply for Pathways
• If you do not have at least five years of full membership with your professional body as a fully qualified member – then you would not be eligible to apply for Pathways

ACCA members, who hold the AQ with the ACCA, can have their AQ recognised upon gaining ICAEW membership. ACCA members who do not have the AQ with the ACCA are advised to gain it with the ACCA first as there will be further exams and experience requirements to gain it with ICAEW.

For all other applicants, Pathways does not provide a route towards the AQ because our regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), has not recognised these qualifications for audit purposes in the UK.

Therefore, all other Pathways applicants who wish to gain the AQ will be required to re-qualify with ICAEW. Please see our Audit Qualification (AQ) page for further information. 

A friend or family member can serve as your sponsor – as long as they meet all of the required criteria.

Anyone acting as a sponsor who is found to have testified in an inappropriate manner will be liable to investigation and will be reported to their professional body.

• See full Pathways sponsor criteria

If this individual is in a non-finance role (eg, lecturer / business development / procurement) but still meets all of the required sponsor criteria, then they can serve as a sponsor.

• See full Pathways sponsor criteria

There is no time requirement for the amount of time that the sponsor and applicant need to have known each other. The sponsor must be able to confirm that the applicant is of good character, that to the best of their knowledge they know of no reasons why the applicant should not be admitted to membership of ICAEW, and is required to use their professional judgement to verify the information provided by the applicant within their application and in the Examination of Experience is true and accurate.

Clearly, for a sponsor to perform these requirements and to countersign their name as part of the application, the sponsor will have to know the applicant well.

A sponsor must meet all of the eligibility criteria including that they hold full membership of a professional body that itself is a full member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). You can check which professional bodies are full members on the IFAC website's Members & Associates page.

No. A sponsor must be a member of professional body that is a full member of IFAC. Any individual from a body that is an associate IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member cannot serve as a sponsor for a Pathways applicant. You can check which professional bodies are full or associate members on the IFAC website's Members & Associates page.

In theory, a sponsor can support a number of different applicants. Where it is obvious that a sponsor is sponsoring multiple people (eg, within their team, within their organisation etc), then it would be acceptable for one sponsor to support a number of different applications.

However, if a particular sponsor is seen to sponsor multiple individuals, and in which there is no obvious link between the applicant and the sponsor, then ICAEW can seek further clarity as part of the application verification process and investigate further. Any misrepresentation by sponsors and/or applicants is taken very seriously, and individuals may be reported to their professional body on possible grounds of misconduct.

Yes, as long as both meet the required criteria. However, if ICAEW suspects any form of collusion or misrepresentation in such a situation, it will conduct further investigations as part of the application verification process and can seek to inform the relevant professional bodies of the applicant and/or sponsor.

You would be able to start / continue your ACA studies.

• See our Examination of Experience page

All answers are treated as confidential. However, if you prefer not to use (or are limited by a non-disclosure agreement or similar) to naming a particular company or client in your work example, then you can simply refer to them as client XX or company YY.

However, if you intend to do this, you should add some context to assist the examiner. As an example, you could say: ‘Client XXX, a market-leader in the international automotive trade’ or Company YY, a local family-run business in the retail sector’ or similar example.

• See our Examination of Experience page

The expected length of your answers at the Examination of Experience Part 1 is between 3,000-6,000 words – with approximately 500 words per question. If you go too far either side of this guide, the examiners may reject your answers.

• See our Examination of Experience page

ICAEW, like other organisations, is assessing the potential future role of Gen AI tools in its examinations. However, for the time being these tools MUST NOT be used in compiling your Pathways application. ICAEW may run software to detect potential Generative AI usage. Where ICAEW finds evidence which suggests content has been produced using Generative AI tools, the case will be referred to its Assessment Committee.

ICAEW’s Assessment Committee is able to take action against applicants who have been deemed to have used Generative AI tools in compiling their applications, such as rejecting the application outright, setting the mark of the examination to zero, restriction of further examination attempts for an extended period of time, referral to the applicant’s current professional body, and any further sanctions deemed appropriate by the committee and within its powers.

Upon the date of your last submission, you would have been sent an email confirming these results. If you are unable to obtain this information you can complete a contact form and include the following: your name and ICAEW record number (and if known the date of your last submission) – we can then email a copy of your previous Examination of Experience results and your examiner feedback letter.

From 2025 onwards, you will have a maximum of 5 years to complete your exam. Should you decide to resubmit 5 years after you have first submitted for Pathways, you will be required to use more up-to-date work experience in your resubmission (for those parts of your submission which have yet to pass).

If you fail an Examination of Experience attempt, the examiners provide you with information on which questions you have failed and why. Reasons for failing a particular question can include (but is not limited to):

• insufficient evidence of your personal involvement
• limited relevance of your example to the question being asked
• the example is not clearly described
• insufficient evidence of your example being in the last five years.

You should use this guidance to help you revisit your failed questions for your future resubmission.

No. Each Pathways examination paper has undergone a comprehensive marking process by experienced Pathways examiners, which includes that your Examination will have been assessed by at least two examiners.

Under the Pathways scheme, ICAEW does not require you to retain your home body membership after you have become an ICAEW member. However, if you relinquish your home body membership, you need to ensure you are aware of the implications. You will need to take appropriate action where necessary. The implications could include:

• Loss of your home body practising certificate – this may affect your need to acquire an ICAEW practising certificate before you engage in, or continue to engage in, public practice;
• Loss of your audit qualification (AQ) this would affect your ability to act as a ‘responsible individual’ for audit and/or count towards the control percentage in a firm of UK/EU registered auditors;
• Difficulty and/or delays in regaining home body membership should you require this in the future; and
• Requirement to sit additional or entry exams with your home body should you need to regain membership of your home body in the future.

If you are successful at the Pathways Examination of Experience, you will be invited to join ICAEW as an ICAEW member. To join ICAEW, you must pay the ICAEW admission fee and annual membership fee (plus practising certificate fee where required).

You cannot refer to yourself as an ICAEW member or use the ACA designation until you have joined ICAEW (ie, paid your fees). ICAEW treats all misuse of these terms as a very serious offence.

All certificates are sent directly to your requested postal address unless you are based in UAE or Vietnam where certificates are initially sent to your local ICAEW office and then sent onto your requested address.

All certificates are sent via Royal Mail standard post. It is not possible to request certificates are sent tracked or via a recorded service. For certificates being sent within the UK it can take between 4-6 weeks to arrive, for those being sent internationally it usually takes between 8-10 weeks to arrive.

Yes, you can delay your membership entry for up to 12 months without incurring any penalties or extra costs. However, if you delay your entry into membership by 12 months or more (taken from the date your Pathways exam results were released), then you will need to pay an extra £100 (+ VAT where applicable) and submit a series of additional documents which include at least one reference from an ICAEW member who has worked with you for at least two years, as well as other required documents.

You cannot use the ACA designation or refer to yourself as an ICAEW member at any point until you have joined ICAEW (ie, paid the required admission and membership fees). ICAEW takes misuse of these terms as a serious offence.