What if your next career move took you to a different country entirely? For early-career professionals across the ETL group, that's not a dream; it's already happening.
When you join an ETL member firm, you're not just joining a local practice. You're becoming part of one of the world's leading international professional services groups, and that opens doors that simply don't exist in smaller, standalone firms.
One of the most exciting examples of this? The ETL Future Stars Programme.
What is the Future Stars Programme?
The ETL Future Stars Programme is an international exchange-style initiative designed specifically for early-career professionals within the ETL group. It gives talented individuals under 30 the chance to work alongside colleagues at other ETL firms, often in entirely different countries.
In practice, this might mean spending a week embedded within a firm in Barcelona, Madrid, or Munich, working on real client work, learning how different regulatory environments operate, and experiencing first-hand how professional services firms function across borders. It's an international experience that most professionals spend years trying to access. Through ETL, it's built into the fabric of how the group develops its people.
Beyond the individual exchange, ETL has also launched the Future Stars Competition, a collaborative challenge where cross-border teams of tax advisers and lawyers work together to solve complex, multidisciplinary client scenarios. It's a showcase of talent, and a genuine opportunity to stand out across the group.
Why Does International Experience Matter at this Stage?
Early in your career, the instinct is often to keep your head down, build your technical skills, and wait for opportunities to come to you. But the professionals who develop fastest are usually the ones who seek out new environments; who put themselves in rooms where they're slightly out of their comfort zone and have to adapt.
International experience does exactly that. It builds cross-cultural perspective, expands your professional connections beyond your immediate team, and fast-tracks your development in ways that desk-based learning simply can't match. It also builds something harder to quantify but just as valuable: confidence.
A First-Hand Perspective
Dan Buttress is a 23-year-old accounts assistant at EK Williams, an ETL member firm based in the North West. He came through a Level 3 apprenticeship, progressed to Level 4, and is now working towards his Chartered Accountancy qualification with ICAEW, with one day per week of dedicated study time supported by his firm.
When asked about a career highlight so far, Dan didn't hesitate.
"One of my favourite parts of my career so far has been with ETL. We went to Barcelona for a week, another colleague and I, and we learned the different tax rules, how they handle processes there, and how it was different from how we work. That was really interesting."
For Dan, it wasn't just about the technical exposure. It was about being immersed in a completely different working culture.
"It's a very different culture in Barcelona, they had big lunches, so our breaks were going to a restaurant and getting a meal, and then they'd work a later afternoon. It was good. It was really nice to meet everyone."
That sense of connection, meeting peers from across the group, sharing approaches, and seeing the work from a completely new angle, is exactly what the programme is designed to create.
What Does This Mean for Your Career Trajectory?
Dan's wider story reflects what a career within the ETL group can realistically look like. He was drawn to EK Williams specifically because of the depth of opportunity on offer. "There's a clear progressive route," he explains. "Rather than just employee and director, there are supervisors and managers. I knew there was a path."
The ETL group amplifies that further. With member firms across multiple countries and disciplines, there's something rare on offer: the ability to build a career with real international reach, without having to start from scratch somewhere new. For Dan, if he ever wanted to move elsewhere in the UK, a transfer to an ETL-affiliated firm is a strong possibility, without losing the professional life he's established.
It's that kind of joined-up thinking that makes being part of a group like ETL different from simply working for a firm.
Could This Be For You?
The Future Stars Programme is open to professionals under 30 who haven't yet reached director or partner level. If you're early in your career, ambitious, and looking for an experience that most of your peers simply won't have access to, it's worth exploring.
As Dan puts it, if he had to describe ETL in one word:
"Connections, because there are just so many different aspects and so many different companies to work with."
That group is there for you, too. The question is whether you'll use it.
Find out more here.