Here at CT, we're committed to supporting our people gain various professional qualifications.
One of the qualifications our team can work towards is the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) qualification. Our Senior Audit Associate James Beattie underwent the ICAS qualification and became ICAS-qualified in January 2026.
Below, James shares his experience into becoming ICAS-qualified.
Could you tell us a bit about the ICAS qualification and why you decided to undergo this qualification?
The ICAS qualification is the route to becoming a Chartered Accountant in Scotland. It normally takes about 3 years to complete; however, they have introduced some leeway to allow you to extend this up to a maximum of 7 years.
How is this qualification structured?
The ICAS CA is split into components: knowledge, skills and integration.
Knowledge is the foundational level and contains 5 exams, all the content of which is essential to understanding what it means to be an accountant. Skills contains six exams that’s where they teach the technical skills that Chartered Accountants are most known for. Finally, integration where everything that you’ve learned up until that point is consolidated into an integrated case study. There is also an ethics component.
Alongside the exams, there’s also a workplace development component where you are continuously assessed over three years and you have to complete a logbook detailing all of your relevant practical experience and all of the competencies that you’ve completed as part of your employment.
What has been your favourite thing about undergoing the ICAS qualification?
My favourite thing about undergoing my ICAS CA qualification is seeing how relevant it is to my day-to-day and to my job. Everything contained within the qualification is directly related to the experience of a practicing accountant and there is no superfluous knowledge. Everything has been chosen directly with your practice in mind.
Have you been able to apply your learnings to your role at CT?
The content that I learned as part of my ICAS CA has been directly relevant to my day-to-day and my job. It has fundamentally influenced absolutely everything that I do, and this is important because I came to accounting from a non-accounting and finance background.
I studied Law at university and when I started, I didn’t know anything at all. It’s been good to gain that fundamental foundation knowledge and then the subsequential technical skills. It’s also worth noting that me coming from a non-accounting and finance background hasn’t been detrimental; it’s been good. It has allowed me to bring a different experience and viewpoint to the team which has been an added value.
How do you maintain a healthy work / study life balance?
The ICAS CA is equivalent to a master’s degree, so it should be noted that it can be challenging to maintain a work-life balance in the traditional sense. It’s important to note that ICAS is a really demanding and rigorous qualification and, as such, it’s something that trainees need to be aware of before they decide that they want to undertake it.
It is a really valuable qualification and people get a lot out of studying ICAS but it’s something to be aware of before you make the decision to start, because you might not have time to do everything that you want to do outside of your working hours as a trainee.
What benefits do you feel aspiring accountants can gain from undergoing their ICAS qualification?
There are so many benefits to studying your CA with ICAS. It’s something that you would consider a springboard into the rest of your career. There’s a lot of knowledge, skills and concepts that you learn about as part of the exams but then there’s a lot of soft skills that you’ll learn as well that make you desirable as an employee and as a working professional.
Across industries and sectors, there’s always going to be demand for a qualified CA or someone with the skills and knowledge of a qualified CA and that could be from listed companies like Tesco all the way down to smaller charities. It gives trainees and newly-qualified CAs the opportunity to work across almost any sector so they can plan a career around values and goals. I
t’s also worth noting that ICAS has several mutual recognition agreements with regulators across the world, so there are several countries that ICAS CAs can work in without having to sit any additional exams which is definitely a bonus.
How can CT support people studying for the ICAS qualification?
CT as an organisation has been incredibly supportive throughout my journey to becoming a CA. It’s become industry practice and standard, especially among larger firms, the trainees will only get so many attempts to sit an exam and often their contract of employment is tied to whether they pass their exams, so it could be the case that if you fail an exam, you could lose your job. That’s obviously something that’s quite stressful.
CT isn’t like that thankfully and they’re of the opinion that so long as you’re progressing and developing, there’s no reason that your contract should be tied to your exam progression. That’s allowed me job security to focus solely on passing my exams for my own benefit and my own development, which has been amazing. It’s something that I’ve been grateful for.
Additionally, unlike some larger firms, CT has also allowed me to opportunity to second within the business and to spend time in another department outside of audit and assurance. My experience was in our Personal Tax department, so I had the opportunity to prepare tax returns and look at some tax advice for private clients on top of the audit side of things. That's allowed me to develop an additional skill set and been really valuable to me.
Do you have any tips / advice for aspiring accountants looking to undergo their ICAS qualification themselves?
In terms of advice for prospective trainees, I think the best thing I could say is have an idea of what you want to get out of your training contract before you start. The reason I say that is because different firms will provide you with a different experience depending on what they focus on and what their size is.
The experience of a big four trainee will be different to a trainee that trains with a firm like CT, and so having your goals in mind ahead of time allows you to choose a firm that best fits you and what you want to achieve.