Press release: New apprenticeship for tax technicians launched

The Government has replaced the existing Apprenticeship scheme with a new employer-designed Trailblazer scheme. The ATT has been approved as an Apprenticeship Assessment Organisation.

The Professional Taxation Technician Apprenticeship is the only tax technician Trailblazer approved Standard in England and means apprentices can choose the ATT as their end-point assessor. The ATT examinations provide a route through the on-programme phase of the Apprenticeship which means that once an apprentice has passed their exams and has the two years practical tax experience they are eligible to apply for membership of the ATT as well as being eligible for a certificate issued by the Institute for Apprenticeships.

Under the new Professional Taxation Technician Apprenticeship, an apprentice will be required to detail the knowledge, skills and behaviours to prove competence in their role as a taxation technician as well as pass the ATT exams. The ATT will assess an apprentice’s Portfolio of Evidence, which will include a Reflective Statement, and also the second element of the end-point assessment, being the Role Simulation.

ATT President Graham Batty said:

“We hope the new apprenticeship will encourage students considering a tax career to blaze a path with their studies.

“The old apprenticeship framework worked well for many but there was a perception, rightly or wrongly, that the system was overly complex and not responsive enough to employers’ needs. The new Trailblazer Standards are employer led and are designed to equip apprentices with the skills and behaviours, as well as the knowledge, they need in the workplace.

“Tax apprentices can have confidence in an end-point assessment administered by an organisation, the ATT, whose central objective is to promote education and the study of tax administration and practice.”