Business-savvy students from King Edward VI High School for Girls beat off competition from 17 other local teams to win the Birmingham heat of ICAEW’s national business and accounting competition, BASE. King Edward VI High School for Girls impressed the judges and will go on to represent Birmingham at the BASE national final which takes place at in Birmingham in June. This was one of 49 heats attracting over 3,000 students around the country.
BASE links schools, students and employers to develop employability skills and provide an insight into what a career in accountancy, business and finance might be like. Assuming the role of ICAEW Chartered Accountants, the students had two hours to analyse a business situation, before presenting their ideas to a panel of top business professionals.
Katherine Clark, ICAEW Regional Operations Manager said: “With one of the biggest heats in the country, judges had a different job picking the winner and runner up. All teams showed excellent teamwork when dealing with the very challenging business tasks. They showed they had excellent business skills and students thought about how the EU referendum and ethical impacts can affect businesses now. I expect I’ll be seeing more of these young people in leading roles in the future. ”
Helen Drew, Partner at Crowe Clark Whitehall Partner said: “It was hard work for all students but they rose to the challenge and worked well as teams. King Edward VI High School for Girls showed excellent teamwork and delivered a very comprehensive recommendation. Their presentation clearly explained their conclusions, covering ethical and sustainability issues as well as the numbers. It was a really pleasure to be a judge.”
The competition has seen more than 10,000 students take part since the competition began in 2009 in Birmingham.
The BASE competition was supported by local firms with including Avid Pear, Barclays, BPP, Crowe Clark Whitehall, Dains, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, Kaplan, KPMG, Mazars, MHA MacIntyre Hudson, PwC, Reed Business School and RSM who provided professional ICAEW members or ACA students for the roles of 18 mentors and 6 judges.
