1. Welcome to the ICAEW BASE Competition
Presenter’s name
More than you’d imagine
icaew.com/base
© ICAEW 2018

2. Question: What is an accountant?
NB: 5 minute starter activity to set the scene. Encourage students to think about what an accountant actually does. Use this question to dispel the myths that accountants purely deal with number crunching and spreadsheets. An accountant tackles the most important challenges in business. They use their skills to help companies across every sector to innovate, grow and create ambitious strategies for the future. They assess finances for everything from premier league football clubs to huge multi-national companies.
They look how money flows in and out, measure the value of assets and analyse how an organisation is performing.
Accountants are often involved in the biggest strategic decisions. Companies turn to them when they want to launch a new product, buy another company, or improve the way they operate.
© ICAEW 2018

3. What will we be doing today?
BASE is ICAEW’s national business and accounting competition for year olds
A team business challenge that sharpens your employability skills for your next step
A unique opportunity for you to compete with schools across the country
You will be split into teams of four or less. As a team, you will participate in an online situational strengths game that guides you through the day to day life of four chartered accountants. The game requires you to watch a video, which will pause at various points at which you’ll be asked questions. These questions will either require you to analyse some information and select an answer from the options available, or decide how you would act in a certain situation, ranking your responses in order of most to least likely. Following this, you will be asked another question related to the challenge. Based on some information you are given and your own research you will need to prepare a 5 minute presentation to give your answer to the question and deliver this via video link. NB: All information regarding how to do this will be given to students once they log on to the online portal.
© ICAEW 2018

4. You will gain a greater understanding of…
The business environment and managing change
Critical analysis
Commercial awareness
Financial management, strategies and accounts
Team work
How to add value
Problem solving  
Time management  
Successful communication
Decision making
Presentation skills
What accountants do
Digital skills
NB: Please edit slide as appropriate. Taking part in BASE supports the development of a range of skills. These skills aren’t only useful for careers in accountancy. You’ll be able to put these to good use in any career you decide to pursue. Taking part in BASE will also help you in your day to day studies, enabling you to put what you’ve learned so far in the classroom into practice in true to life business scenarios.
© ICAEW 2018

5. The National Final
48 successful teams welcomed to the Hilton Metropole hotel in Birmingham to take part in one final challenge
A free overnight stay at the venue
Entertainment
A top guest speaker from the industry
The National final is a fantastic 2 day event taking place in Birmingham. If you reach the National Final, you’ll join 47 other teams to compete in one final challenge to be crowned BASE National Champions and win some incredible prizes. Aside from this, you’ll also receive a free overnight stay at the venue, along with some evening entertainment and food. You’ll be able to network with the biggest school leaver and graduate employers at the employer exhibition, to get their top tips for a successful career.
Awards ceremony
Amazing PRIZES!
© ICAEW 2018

6. Employability sessions
The prizes
Employability sessions
iPads
Champions’ Day
Champions’ Day – The winning team will be invited to Chartered Accountants’ Hall in London. Here, you’ll have the rare opportunity to interview ICAEW’s CEO, Michael Izza. You can ask him anything you like, whether that’s about the industry, or his tips for a successful career. After the interview, we’ll also take you out for a three course lunch to celebrate. Employability sessions – These are sessions hosted in school by an industry expert. The sessions will enable you to make yourself as employable as possible – an invaluable prize for any future professional. The winners will receive a full day, and the runners up will get half a day. The winners will also receive a MacBook each, and a suite of iPads for their school. The runners up will walk away with an iPad each. There are also a range of other prizes up for grabs to celebrate students performing well in the softer skills required on the journey to, and throughout employment. These prizes are sponsored by employers and include work experience, lunch with senior members of the team, and more.
And more…
MacBooks
© ICAEW 2018

7. The task: 2 Lessons Lesson 1 Lesson 2
Log on to the BASE platform and play the team game
Following this, you’ll receive a presentation task
Use the rest of lesson 1 to begin to prepare your presentation.
Lesson 2
Finish preparing your presentations
Practice
Deliver presentation via video link
NB: You do not have to follow this lesson plan, this can be amended as required, it is simply our recommendation. Students can also finish the online game and prepare their presentations as a homework task
© ICAEW 2018

8. Task 1: Team round Step 1 – Log on at icaew.com/base
Step 2 – Register team members
Step 3 – Click on team round and begin
Challenge can be accessed by clicking on the student portal then the Take the challenge button at the top of the page.
NB: The team round should take approx. 45 minutes, although students may take longer. It could be suggested that students who take longer than this time can complete this as a homework task.
To save time you may want students to register prior to the lesson.
Make sure team captains keep a note of their log-in and password. Students who finish early can proceed with preparing their presentations.

9. Well done!
In the next lesson, you’ll be delivering a presentation

10. Task 2: Presentation round
NB: Students will have received the following scenario (and instructions) via an to the team captain. Below is the they will receive, inc. the task. Please note, the students’ will also include the links required to film the presentation, they can access this by clicking the ‘Take the challenge’ button at the top of the student portal on the BASE website -
Alex Payne is referred to below, he is one of the characters they met during the online game.
Students will also be provided with a number of sources regarding the proposals which are available to download from the teacher portal. Following on from completing the first round of the BASE competition we’d like you invite you and your team to the video presentation, the second round of the BASE competition.
We’d like you and your team to imagine that you are now working in a business advisory team at JMC. Alex Payne, the Finance Director at the charity Growthful, has approached you for some advice on potential projects for the charity to invest in (you may recall these projects from the first round of the competition).
He would like you to evaluate which of the three projects you think it would be best for Alex to invest in. Alex believes the charity has the scope for you to invest in up to two projects but is aware that any money that is invested now will be unavailable for future projects in the area. Alex would like you to evaluate each of the investments based on their likelihood of repayment, as well as the overall good they will do for the community.
Your Task
Alex has asked that you and your team work together to present your thoughts and ideas in a 5-minute video call to him, to take place before 5 April He would like you, as a team, to answer the following questions in your 5-minute call:
“Which project(s) would you recommend Alex invest in, and why. What else would you do before making the investment?”
In your call he would also like you to talk about:
The different factors you have considered when coming up with your recommendation
AND
What additional research you would do before you make these investments, both desk research and on-the-ground investigation.
In order to complete the video presentation you will need the following:
Webcam
Audio
Good internet connection
Laptop or PC
Please note that if you would like to complete this using a mobile device, inform the ICAEW support team who will be able to arrange this for you. You can contact the team on: ICAEW Support
If you are successful in your video presentation, we will review your application with a view to inviting you to the National Final of the BASE competition. Please note that this will be held on June 2019, and if you are invited, you will be notified at the start of the summer term.  Best of luck in your presentation! Regards, ICAEW

11. Your presentation should include…
Which project(s) would you recommend Alex invest in and why?
What else would you do before making the investment?
The different factors you have considered when coming up with your recommendation.
What additional research you would do before you make these investments, both desk research and on- the-ground investigation.
NB: Please encourage students to practice their presentations as much as possible, and check they have mentioned the above points.
© ICAEW 2018

12. Next steps… Well done for taking part in BASE 2019
Your responses will now be assessed
You’ll be sent feedback on your strengths as a team
We’ll be in touch at the start of the summer term to let you know if you’ve been successful in gaining a place at the National Final!
Run through points
© ICAEW 2018

13. Further info
Individual round as an optional extra for personalised feedback
icaew.com/careers
NB: Students can complete an individual round by visiting icaew.com/base
For all those wishing to gain personal feedback, there is an individual game, similar to the team game, which you can complete by visiting icaew.com/base. This is great for your own personal development and can be used on UCAS and job applications.
For those wanting further information about careers in accountancy, visit icaew.com/careers

14. © ICAEW 2017