Our team at MHA has extensive and longstanding experience of working with Further Education colleges and has been providing assurance services to the sector for over 20 years.
This gives us valuable insight into the challenges and complexities of the sector, as well as the current views of the Department for Education and the Charity Commission. This includes Traineeships and Apprenticeships, plus areas such as commercial income, capital projects, Higher Education, partnerships and other projects.
We are currently act for a large number of Further Education Colleges throughout the country, including external and internal audit clients. We therefore have significant experience of providing Regularity Opinions, as well as audits of Learner Numbers, the Individualised Learner Records/ Management Information Systems, and Apprenticeship Funding.
Due to our close links with the DfE, we are regularly asked for informal advice regarding regulatory or systems developments, in recent years we have been on the working party that has scoped the College Financial Handbook.
Our sector knowledge and experience are utilised in all of our audits. This is because we adopt a risk assessed controls-based approach on all of our assignments. This means we spend significant resources ensuring that we understand the internal controls, procedures and overall environment for each of our clients.
This in-depth knowledge allows us to add value at each stage of the audit process as we can benchmark systems and processes against our other clients. This approach also ensures that we form a key part of the risk assurance framework and can contribute effectively to board assurance processes.
Understanding of charitable status and commercial imperatives
As we work across a wide spectrum of not for profit organisations, and are a top 10 provider in all constituent sectors including schools, colleges, training providers and charities, we are able to utilise this specialist expertise when working with our FE clients. As a major firm we also work with large commercial organisations worldwide, and understand the business requirements of our FE clients.
Our Further Education team provide business advisory and tax services, including:
Further Education Insight and Events
Why MHA?
- We have a strong and respected heritage across the further education sector.
- Our expert knowledge has helped to shape official guidance and legislation for education providers.
- We look at things differently to help our clients unlock their potential.
- We’re focused on helping our clients to achieve long-term growth and creating a sustainable future together.
- We build enduring relationships with our people, clients and communities.
- We are ambitious for our clients; we are not afraid to speak up when we see a better solution.
