According to the BBC, Deloitte is cancelling internships in the UK. In the UK these are called summer vacation schemes, and they are programs designed for students in their penultimate year of school.

Deloitte will pay the students 500 pounds in order to make up for their lost wages for not being able to participate in the summer scheme. This isn’t really that big of a loss for students because these summer programs only lasted for about 2 weeks to a couple months. I’m sure Deloitte won’t be the last big 4 firm to stop these types of programs in the UK and in Europe.

This decision will impact about 400 students in the UK. The amount of money that Deloitte is saving here isn’t that much, so I think this is just a decision on hiring and capacity. You don’t want to have 400 students come in during the summer with nothing to do. The logistics would also be hard since most people are working remotely. Why waste money coordinating distribution of laptops and work for interns over a 2 to 6 week period. It’s not worth the time or the money at this point for Deloitte.

I want to also remind people that Deloitte has announced that partner pay in the UK will be reduced by at least 20%. I’m sure this has potential to decline further. Nothing can be guaranteed at this point.

The article goes on to say that these students are guaranteed admission into a graduate program for the fall of 2021, but I’m not sure how that makes sense. Typically the summer vacation scheme leads into an offer for the graduate program.

I don’t really see Deloitte guaranteeing anything right now despite what this article says.

I want to provide a reminder that these are tough times and that the big 4 don’t have a ton of cash saved up based on information being reported. The economy is getting tougher and the bankruptcies are starting to roll in. I don’t see a way that the big 4 accounting firms avoid layoffs. They also can’t stop hiring because they need to have people complete essential work either. I do see them laying off people in key industries like oil & gas, real estate, retail and travel & leisure.