Students sail through to national business final

Business-savvy students from Plymouth College beat off competition from five other teams to win the West Yorkshire heat of the BASE National Business competition run by chartered accountancy body, ICAEW.

The Plymouth College pupils impressed the judges with their insight and teamwork when taking on the role of ICAEW Chartered Accountants for the regional heat on February 11, sending them sailing through to the national final in June. 

The students had less than two hours to analyse a business situation before presenting their ideas to a panel of business professionals including Matt Stroh, Deputy Head of Audit Technical at Grant Thornton and the current President of the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants.

This was one of 46 heats attracting over 3000 students in more than 500 competing teams nationwide. BASE brings schools, students and employers together to develop key employability skills in young people, and improves awareness of a career in chartered accountancy.

Matt Stroh said: “Everyone showed great energy, enthusiasm and commitment – they had a huge amount of information to master in a very short time. The winning team showed that they were on top of the material and worked well as a group, adding extra value to each other’s answers.”

Jonathan Shields, Director of Personalised Learning at Plymouth College said: “The team was disappointed that our local heat was fully booked, and really pushed for another chance. Travelling all the way to Yorkshire was hard work, but well worth the effort.”

The BASE competition was supported by local firms including Ainscough Dunlop, Baker Tilly, BDO, EY, Grant Thornton, Kaplan, KPMG and PWC whose representatives acted as professional mentors and judges.

Learn more about BASE and how to take part at icaew.com/base.