Changes in the pattern of recruitment, regulation of training and examination of ICAEW students: For whom the pendulum swings

The patterns of ICAEW Education and Training (E&T) reforms are traced through the nineteen‐seventies, nineteen‐eighties and nineteen‐nineties. The three decades are explained respectively as periods of: uniform rises in entry and examination standards; greater regulation of training relationships and the introduction of a technician qualification with an initial second class status; and deregulation and attempts at specialization. Syllabus reforms are attributed to the changing needs of larger firms and are presented as favouring large firms’ students, often to the detriment of smaller firms’ students, while other E&T reforms are seen as favouring either firms or their students. The cumulative effects of past E&T reforms, that either small firms or their students are net losers, may be overcome by redistributing training costs from small firms to large firms when syllabus changes are made.