Azets, which specialises in corporate finance and debt advisory, is hoping to partner with hotel, pub and restaurant chains to offer placements for future recruits of its training programmes to help them build stronger people skills.
The hospitality firms participating in the initiative have not yet been confirmed.
Azets CEO Peter Gallanagh explained the move had been prompted by increased use of technology at accounting firms.
He said: “This is very early in its lifespan but we’re currently talking to some hospitality firms about partnering up so our trainees learn or build their front of house skills while they’re learning the technical aspects of accounting.
Building skills
“As a profession, we’re going to be more front-of-house – advising clients in real time about the best way to solve their business’s problems and achieve their ambitions, as technology is going to further revolutionise accounting – and we need to help people build the skills to do that."
Gallanagh added the scheme was inspired by his own personal experiences: “My dad managed grocery stores and I still use the skills I learnt working for him as a 15-year-old today.
“Interacting with customers in a shop [or pub] can be very similar to dealing with a client who is frantic with worry about their business.
“You have to learn how to read and respond to people’s moods, how to speak to them in a way they understand, and how to speak to them in a way that makes them realise you’re on their side and you’re trying to help them solve a problem.”
Futureproofing workforces
The CEO said introducing these skills would be essential to futureproofing accounting workforces.
He continued: “We need to bring people in at the front end – they’re the future of the business and if we don’t recruit them, we’re setting ourselves up for a skills crisis in the future.
“If we can teach them to manage people as well as they manage numbers, we’ll be onto a winner – as a business and as a profession.”
