Heligan Group's graduate programme returns for a third year with its biggest intake yet.

Heligan has appointed six Analysts as it expands its sector-led teams in Birmingham.

Heligan Group continues to invest for growth by recruiting five graduates to its Corporate Finance Division, giving the new hires training and support to attain the ACA (Associate Chartered Accountant) qualification over the next three years. It is Heligan's third consecutive graduate scheme, which now totals 12 graduate analysts across the M&A team. 

Heligan has also take on its very first undergraduate student, on placement from the University of Exeter.

The appointments come shortly after Heligan was named Best Company for Training, Education and Apprenticeships at the inaugural Birmingham Business Magazine Best Places to Work Awards.

Simon Heath, COO and Partner at Heligan Corporate Finance, said: "Five graduates is our biggest intake yet. Across the market, graduate roles in finance have evaporated over the past couple of years, and that's meant more strong candidates than ever are coming to us. It's a great position to be in, and one we don't take for granted."

Generally, larger financial services firms have scaled back graduate recruitment, a trend put down partly to AI taking on more junior-level work but also weaker business sentiment. Heligan has taken a different approach, continuing to grow its graduate scheme across its core sectors of security technology, healthcare, infrastructure services and financial services, as it believes that graduates can maximise the utility of artificial intelligence, rather than being a victim of AI.

Heath added: "Beyond the ACA qualification, what makes the training different at Heligan, is that our graduates learn directly from specialists who've worked inside the respective sectors we cover, whether that's people with military and intelligence backgrounds on our security technology team or specialists who've led major wealth management businesses. This provides proven deep domain knowledge can’t be learned sitting in a classroom. 

“Ultimately, someone gave me a chance when I was starting out in the financial services sector and giving that same opportunity to the next group of graduate talent matters to me," concluded Heath.