Marvin OnumonuBDO has taken on more than 600 new trainees across its UK offices this week, adding to its 8,000-strong workforce.
The new starters are spread across audit, tax, deals and consulting, and risk and outsourcing.
The group includes school leaver apprentices, university graduates and industrial placement students.
The new trainees started with a two-day induction at Wembley Stadium.
Mark Shaw, managing partner at BDO UK, and Anna Draper, head of people, culture & purpose at BDO welcomed the new joiners.
Draper said: “Welcoming our new cohort of trainees to the firm is a huge privilege. Our success has always been built on people with ambition and curiosity.
“This new group of trainees brings all of that and more.
“I am excited to see the impact they’ll have on our firm, our clients and our communities.”
BDO is now in its fifth year of running programmes aimed at increasing diversity and social mobility in accountancy.
The firm’s Explore BDO programme, for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, had 56 students from years 12 to 13 take part this year, up 75% from last year.
Another 42 young people joined a Northern lower socio-economic insight programme in the Leeds office.
Numbers for the Black Heritage programme, for second year university students, more than doubled to 43 this year.
Draper added: “As our insight and work experience programmes continue to grow and evolve, we know they are having a tremendous impact in making the accountancy profession more accessible.
“Year on year, we’re seeing an increasing number of students from these programmes progressing onto the trainee pathway.
“Social mobility is a strategic area of focus at BDO. We are passionate about improving access to the profession and we have some brilliant online programmes to support this too.”
She said: “In the last year, we’ve seen 4,500 young people sign up to our virtual work experience site and a further 2,000 active users on our online engagement platform.
“These initiatives help us access a broader pool of people and improve social mobility, diversity and inclusion, both in the profession and in society generally.”
