Your Next Best Hire Has Never Had a Job

There is a hire you have been waiting for. Experienced, immediately productive, ready to hit the ground running. And they are getting harder and harder to find.
Meanwhile, 625,000 young people aged 16 to 24 are unemployed in the UK. Graduate unemployment is at its highest in over a decade. The AAT’s 2025 Filling the Gap report found that 34% of accounting and bookkeeping firms struggled to recruit in the last year, while 52% of practitioners lack the AI skills employers now say they need most. The profession has a shortage and a surplus at exactly the same time.
This session is about why this problem exists, what it means for small bookkeeping practices right now, and what the most forward thinking practice owners are doing about it.
The training that used to produce experienced bookkeepers is disappearing. AI is automating the entry level work that taught people the fundamentals. Entry level job postings are down 30% since ChatGPT launched. But we still have a system where you cannot get experience without a job and you cannot get a job without experience.
Your next best hire has never had a job. They are qualified and motivated, but can’t prove they can do the work. This session will discuss what we need to do in 2026 to develop trainees fast and turn that into your practice’s biggest competitive advantage.