Congratulations! You are now confirmed to compete in the following competition

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1 Congratulations! You are now confirmed to compete in the following competition APPRENTICE BUSINESS CHALLENGE 2013 You have been registered to complete at the following regional heat Date Thursday 23 May 2013, London Address & contact information PwC More London Office 7 More London Riverside London SE1 2RT Name Francesca Hayhoe Phone +44 (0) Mobile +44 (0) Francesca.Hayhoe@icaew.com Full joining instructions will be sent to you week commencing 22 April 2013 which will include travel details to the venue. In the meantime if you have any questions related to the competition please contact Francesca. Timings Start 09:00 Lunch 12:00 Finish 17:00 Heat Awards announced - 16:45-17:00 Please make sure you arrive in plenty of time as if you are late the competition will start without you. The timing of Awards may vary slightly depending on the number of teams competing. The joining instructions sent to you week commencing 22 April 2013 will provide more detailed information about the day s schedule.

2 Competition structure Stage one: Prepare yourself for the competition by reading the information provided below and making sure you make the appropriate travel arrangements to get to your heat in plenty of time. Stage two: Take part in your heat. Stage three: Top scoring teams from across the heats will be invited to compete in the UK Final at PwC s More Offices, London, on Friday 19 July Stage four: The winning team and top performing apprentice at the national Final will be invited to attend a Winners Day at Chartered Accountants Hall, London, on Friday 20 September The invitation will also be extended to an employer representative from the apprentices respective employers. Project brief The Apprentice Business Challenge is based around an interactive business game designed to test your knowledge, skills and creativity, and your approach to working as part of a team on a real business issue. It provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate and apply the technical and practical skills required to be successful in a business environment; and learn from other apprentices who work in different business areas and organisations. On arrival at the heat you will be informed which team you are in, and who you will be working with. As far as possible, teams will be made up of apprentices from different organisations and different apprenticeship frameworks (and/or pathways) to ensure a cross representation of skills and backgrounds. A mentor will be allocated to your team for the duration of the heat to provide support and guidance. They will also provide constructive feedback about the performance of your team at the end of the day as part of your competitor learning and development experience. The mentors will also complete a scorecard related to your individual performance, which will be handed over to the judges at the end of the day for selection of the top performing apprentice. Three judges will rotate around the teams throughout the competition and assess both your teams and your individual performance in relation to a specific set of pre-defined criteria, in line with the Higher Apprenticeships frameworks. In addition, the judging panel assess your team s presentation skills during the final presentation. The top performing apprentice, top performing team and the team runner up will be announced at the end of the day. Top scoring teams from across the three heats will be invited to take part in the UK Final in London on Friday 19 July 2013.

3 Schedule for the day: 09:30 09:45 Competition briefing 09:45 12:00 Orientation / Case Study 12:00 13:35 Lunch* 12:35 14:00 Case Study: Prepare recommendations/presentation 14:15 15:45 Presentations 15:45 16:00 Break 16:00 16:30 Mentor feedback 16: Competitor feedback 16:45 17:00 Awards announced 17:00 Close *You are allocated a 20 minute compulsory break during this timescale. Exact timings will be included in your joining details week commencing 22 April Marking and assessment The Apprentice Business Challenge will be judged by a panel of experts from employers and/or professional bodies. Input will also be provided by individual team mentors. The judges decisions will be independently moderated and quality assured before being confirmed. The competition will be judged using two criteria: Objective: this is applied to specific required tasks/deliverables where they are delivered or not; and where there is only one correct answer. Competitors will be judged on accuracy and timeliness. Subjective: this will be applied to working skills, such as team work, communication and professional behaviour. This area will be judged through observation of the tasks and individual/team behaviour. You and your team will be judged and scored on the following key areas throughout the competition: Team-working skills Communication skills Data analysis skills Commercial awareness Problem solving Decision making Time management Presentation skills Performance will be assessed and marked in accordance with the general and specific competition rules. Please note: The highest scoring teams across all heats who meet the required standards will be invited to participate in the UK Final. Winners from the heats may not necessarily go through to the final and those who have not gained a place at a heat may have gained a significantly high mark nationally to make it into the final.

4 Contact details Jo Wood Francesca Hayhoe Phone: +44 (0) Phone: +44 (0) Mobile: +44 (0) Mobile: +44 (0) Competition rules A competitor must have gained approval and support from their employer to enter and participate in the competition at the application stage. If competitor s employers are not able to approve their release from work to take part, the competitor must be able to commit their time to take part in the heat and Final through approved annual leave. In this instance, approval from their tuition provider should be sought. Teams will be made up of a minimum of four apprentices. Competitors will find out which team they are in on arrival at the heat. Where possible teams will be made up of apprentices from different organisations and different Higher Apprenticeship programmes to ensure a cross representation of skills and backgrounds. Competitors who arrive late for the competition may jeopardise the opportunity for themselves and their allocated team to compete. The team may have to be split up and dispersed across the other teams present if a minimum of four team members are not present at 09:30am for the competitor briefing. The competition will start promptly as advertised. Any competitor arriving late will only be able to take part at the judges discretion. Withdrawals and cancellations must be made at least 5 days prior to the regional heat/final to provide time for team members to be reallocated/informed as appropriate. If apprentices fail to show up for their heat, resulting in a team of less than four people, the number of teams may be reduced by one, and the apprentices redistributed across the other teams. In exceptional circumstances a team of three apprentices may be allowed to compete. This will be at the judges discretion, and with full agreement of the apprentices concerned. For example: If three teams of four apprentices are scheduled to compete at a regional heat, and one apprentice from one of the teams does not turn up on the day, the remaining team of three may be given the option to compete as a team rather than redistributing them across the other two teams. All team members would have to be in agreement, and would be informed that they would potentially be competing against larger teams if they made it through to the Final; If an apprentice drops out or is unable to attend the Final, the team will still be invited to take part if (i) they still have a minimum of four apprentices within the team or (ii) if all team members are in agreement that they would like to compete as a team of three. If however, by losing one or more team members the team is reduced to less than three, the team will automatically be disqualified from taking part in the Final.

5 At the heats and the Final, the dress code will be business smart. Each team will have a dedicated mentor throughout the competition. Mentors will not provide input to help teams in the competition, but will be on hand to provide support and guidance. The judging panel will not provide input to help teams in the competition. Competitors must start and finish work when instructed to do so by the judges or Nominated Competitions Agent. Competitors may not take any of the following into the competition area unless otherwise instructed: personal electronic devices including mobile phones, tablets, mp3 players, calculators, written notes, sketches, special aids or other information relevant to the project. All necessary stationary and materials will be provided. No material is allowed to be removed from the competition area unless specified. Unless otherwise stated there must be no communication between different teams, the audience, your representatives or competition staff during the competition itself. Competitors wishing to leave the competition area while the competition is in progress must obtain the permission of the judges or Nominated Competitions Agent. Should a Competitor feel unwell at any stage of the competition, he or she should make a judge or Nominated Competitions Agent aware immediately. Competitors must save their work as instructed by the judges and/or mentors. Competitors are to use only the software provided by the competition organisers. The Nominated Competitions Agent will ensure that marking is undertaken fairly and will calculate marks to establish placings and awards. Judges are not allowed to discuss marks or provide one to one feedback to competitors unless it has been built into the competition programme. This feedback should be consistent and follow the same format. Adhering to health and safety practices is the responsibility of each competitor. Failure to do so may result in disqualification from the competition, and being asked to leave the competition venue. First and second places are awarded at competition heats. The special ICAEW top performing apprentice award is also awarded at each heat. Competitors taking part in heats will receive their certificates of participation at the end of the competition.

6 The highest scoring teams across all heats who meet the required standards will be invited to participate in the UK Final. Winners from the heats may not necessarily go through to the final and those who have not gained a place at a heat may have gained a significantly high mark nationally to make it into the final. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Highly Commended medals are awarded at UK Finals. WorldSkills UK and ICAEW will not cover any costs for travel and/or accommodation incurred by competitors to take part in the heats and Final. Competition partners This competition is owned by ICAEW. The gold sponsor is PwC, and silver sponsors are BPP and Kaplan. The competition is also supported by the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), the Management Consultancy Association (MCA), Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and Skills CFA. Relevant links ICAEW s Apprentice Business Challenge pages: icaew.com/abc ICAEW s Apprentice Business Challenge Facebook page: WorldSkills UK Apprentice Business Challenge pages: Please note: ICAEW reserves the right to change the nature and elements of the Apprentice Business Challenge as it deems necessary, including amongst other things, its design, the event dates and location. Where ICAEW makes any such changes it will use reasonable endeavours to notify relevant stakeholders.