At KPMG, everyone brings a unique perspective, and we want to ensure that you have the best opportunity to demonstrate your potential. We’ve designed our application process to assess everyone’s potential in the context of their educational and personal circumstances to ensure that you have the skills to succeed at KPMG.

You’ll generally be expected to demonstrate or be on track for the following (*or equivalents). However, if you do not meet all the below, and are a few grades or points short, then we would still encourage you to apply, as you will be given the option to provide additional information that enables us to assess your application and potential in the context of your socio-economic background and/or any extenuating circumstances. Find out more about our recruitment process and general FAQs here.

• 5 GCSEs* at A* – C or at 4 – 9 (inc. English Language and Maths at Grade B or 5), or for Scotland 5 National 5 qualifications at Grades A – C (inc. English Language and Maths at Grade B or equivalent)
• 120 UCAS points* from your ‘top’ 3 grades, excluding General Studies under the 2017 tariff point system at A Level (300 UCAS points pre-2017) or at Higher/Advanced Higher Level for Scotland.

You will also need to meet the Access Accountancy criteria to make an application to the KPMG Discovery programme. You will need to:

• Attend state school or college, and
• The occupation of your main household earner when you were aged 14 is categorised as a lower socio-economic background*, or
• Be eligible (or have been eligible) for free school meals (or attend a school with ‘above regional average’ free school meals**), or
• Would be the first member of your immediate family to attend university.

*Parental occupation classification is a national standard and the Social Mobility Work’s toolkit (found here) provides details on the categorisations.

**Free School Meals are a statutory benefit available to school-aged children from families who receive other qualifying benefits and who have been through the relevant registration process. It does not include those who receive meals at school through other means e.g. boarding school.

Throughout the programme we will be looking for you to demonstrate and reflect on the strengths that we look for at KPMG.

To get the most out of Discovery you’ll need to be curious, ask questions, and be enthusiastic to learn and develop.

We are looking for individuals who can spot new opportunities and have the initiative and resilience to make the most of them.

At KPMG, everyone brings a unique perspective, and we want to ensure that you have the best opportunity to demonstrate your potential. We want to discover your individual strengths and attributes to help us to know whether you’ll enjoy working here and how you’ll thrive. That’s why we operate an open access policy and an application process that will assess both your qualifications and your qualities.

Generally, you’ll be expected to demonstrate the following grades (*or equivalents), to show that you’re able to successfully study for professional qualifications. If you are a few grades or points short, we would still encourage you to apply, as your application will be reviewed together with your performance in our assessments. You‘ll also have the opportunity to provide additional information for us to assess your application and potential in the context of your socio-economic background and/or any extenuating circumstances, which may have a positive uplift on your academic achievements through contextual recruitment.  You can find out more here. 

• 5 GCSEs* at A* – C or at 4 – 9 (inc. English Language and Maths at Grade B or 5), or for Scotland 5 National 5 qualifications at Grades A – C (inc. English Language and Maths at Grade B or equivalent)
• 120 UCAS points* from your ‘top’ 3 grades, excluding General Studies under the 2017 tariff point system at A Level (300 UCAS points pre-2017) or at Higher/Advanced Higher Level for Scotland.
• On track to achieve a 2:1 undergraduate degree in any discipline.

The programme will be offered to students who are in their penultimate year at university. Whilst on the programme, you’ll have the opportunity to take an assessment, and if successful, you could secure a position on one of our 2026 Audit graduate programmes.

Throughout the recruitment process we will be looking to learn more about your strengths.

To be successful on this programme, you will be required to demonstrate the strengths that we look for in our graduates at KPMG.

Learn more about what we look for and how to apply here.