Accountancy firm MHA’s sponsorship of a Liverpool Hope University award scheme leads to four graduates securing permanent roles. Tony McDonough reports

Accountancy firm MHA says four young people have secured permanent jobs following a link-up with Liverpool Hope University.

Until April 2024 the Liverpool office of MHA was part of the North West accountancy firm Moore and Smalley. It has since merged with national operator MHA which, in turn, is the UK member firm of the Baker Tilly International network.

MHA, whose Liverpool base is at Exchange Station in Tithebarn Street, has sponsored the Insight to Business Awards, organised annually by the university, on the past four occasions.

It sees second and third year students from the university’s Business School submit their CVs and take part in a professional interview to compete for a two-week work placement at the firm, with the winner revealed at the awards ceremony.

This link between MHA and the university’s students as a result of the awards have led to four participating graduates being offered permanent roles in the firm’s accountancy, audit and finance teams since 2022.

This year’s Business Awards took place in April at the university’s Hope Park Campus, with 2025’s winner Rory Cooper, a third year mathematics and accounting and finance student, set to undertake his two-week work placement with the firm this June.

Richard Tyler, senior professional tutor and subject lead for accounting and finance at the Business School, said: “The accountancy sector is always changing and modernising, making it vital that education institutions have strong links with the industry to give students the best possible chance to succeed after graduating.

“The Liverpool Hope Insight to Business Awards gives all our partners, including MHA, the opportunity to meet our talented students and it is inspiring to see that so many of these students have grasped this opportunity to thrive in their post-university careers.”

In 2023 student Jake May was a runner-up at the awards but was eventually offered a role as an audit assistant after graduating in summer 2023. The winner of the MHA category that year was Chloe Wetton.

She took part in the awards as a second year undergraduate, studying accounting and finance with psychology. She consequently joined the firm as an audit junior in September 2024.

READ MORE: Accountancy firm MHA more than trebles Liverpool space

READ MORE: Merseyrail ‘tap and go’ set for summer roll-out

“The awards confirmed for me that audit was a field that I wanted to develop my career in, and the placement I was awarded highlighted MHA as a brilliant place to start my career,” said Chloe.

The other participants in the awards who have subsequently taken up permanent roles with the firm are Ben Clark, winner of the 2024 award, and Andrew Nelson, runner up of the 2022 awards.