March 2023
Chief executive Sarah Beale reveals how AAT aims to achieve greater global recognition of Accounting Technicians with its new strategy.
The world around us is changing exponentially and with it the role of the accounting technician. If we don’t adapt to these changes, then we will not survive. But at AAT we want to do more than that. We want to thrive, both as an organisation and through our community of accounting professionals in the UK and around the world. We want our members to be real world ready.
AAT’s new strategic plan, ‘Securing future relevance to 2030’, sets out our ambition to achieve greater global recognition for accounting technicians. Our aim is to ensure businesses and governments understand the value accounting technicians bring in supporting productivity, growth, and providing solutions to modern challenges. By 2030, our vision is for economies and societies around the world to benefit from the expertise of our community.
Our strategy builds on AAT’s core values and focuses on three complementary principles: keeping the profession relevant, driving up professional standards and building responsible business.
Keeping the profession relevant
We have a pivotal role to play in advocating for our profession. Innovating and enhancing our core qualifications and CPD is at the heart of our plan – anticipating emerging priority areas, such as digital skills, sustainability and analytics. We will define skills sets and then design accessible and affordable education solutions. And we’ll provide lifelong learning products and engage digitally to ensure resources and assistance are available.
Driving up professional standards
Central to our role, as both an awarding and professional body, is a commitment to raising standards and upholding professional ethics within the accountancy profession. This starts with ensuring that more accountants are members of professional bodies with recognised and appropriate accounting qualifications.
Ultimately, we want to see a renewed trust and confidence in the profession from the public.
Building responsible business
AAT has a clear remit to act in the public interest. As a professional membership organisation, we can enact and inspire societal change, both through our own business activity and by demonstrating leadership to our community. Sustainability and social mobility are central to this. We want to raise awareness and really engage positively in the global sustainability agenda. And social mobility has always been and remains a key priority for us. It sums up so much of what we’re about – ensuring increasing access to the profession for everyone.
To achieve these goals, we have four strategies to get us there: putting our community at the centre of decision-making; developing and growing effective partnerships; taking a digital-first approach to increase accessibility and efficiency; and using data to make evidence-based decisions shared with the profession.
This is just a flavour of what we’re setting out to achieve. For more detail on our plan visit our website at aat.org.uk