Audit, Tax & Consulting · Accounting & Audit

EY (Ernst & Young)

The UK arm of EY, one of the Big Four, headquartered in London. It recruits school leavers and graduates into assurance, consulting, strategy and tax.

About EY (Ernst & Young)

EY (formerly Ernst & Young) is one of the Big Four accounting firms. It provides assurance (audit, meaning checking that a company's accounts can be trusted), tax, consulting, and strategy and transactions advice through its EY-Parthenon team, supported by internal business enablement teams that run the firm. Its public purpose is "Building a better working world".

EY's oldest ancestor firm dates to 1849 in England. The current partnership formed in 1989 from a merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young, and it adopted the EY name in 2013. The EY organisation has its roots in London, which is the base for the UK firm, and Wikipedia reports about 395,000 employees worldwide. Wikipedia also says the UK firm sponsors the EY Foundation charity and the ITEM Club economic forecasting group. The UK school leaver pages list EY offices including Newcastle, Leeds, Cambridge, Reading, London, Bristol, Manchester, Luton and Glasgow.

EY's tagline "Building a better working world" is the closest it gets to a mission statement in the pages we read. EY's early careers pages list skills it looks for: being proactive, doing the right thing, curiosity, relationship building, agility, critical thinking, embracing technology and motivation.

Business areas are Assurance, Consulting, EY-Parthenon and Tax. In audit, an apprenticeship listing says apprentices analyse financial and non-financial data, test the controls a business uses to make sure its statements are accurate, and work across several clients. The finance apprenticeship listing says apprentices work on client projects, use technology and data to analyse business problems and get a career counsellor and an apprenticeship coach.

For young people, EY has a graduate programme and a "Work Experience and Apprenticeships" route for people considering alternatives to university. As at October 2026, 2027 applications are open, with a warning that they may close early once positions are filled. The process includes online assessments, then an EY Experience Day (November 2026 to April 2027), then sometimes a final interview two to three weeks later. A September 2027 audit apprenticeship listing says it lasts four years and leads to ICAEW or ICAS chartered accountancy, with office attendance of one or two days a week; the finance listing for Manchester says ICAEW. EY says apprentices earn a salary from day one, though 2026 listings say only "competitive". An older 2017 announcement of 200 apprenticeships gave a starting salary of up to £21,500, so that figure is dated. New joiners get a career counsellor, a buddy and an early careers network. Entry requirements were not stated on the pages we read.

What they do

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Website: www.ey.com/en_uk

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