Our History

Kaplan Professional Middle East is part of the Kaplan family, the world’s leading global provider of diverse education and training. Programs include leadership and professional development training, professional accountancy and financial training, vocational qualifications, apprenticeships, financial markets, postgraduate and undergraduate degrees.

Our mission is to help individuals achieve their educational and career goals. We build futures, one success story at a time. To help us do this, we make sure that we work and live by our core principles; conducting ourselves in an honest and ethical way, helping our learners grasp every opportunity, and drawing on our wealth of skills and experience to deliver excellence in everything we do.

1854

The Accountancy Revolution

In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution caused a sharp surge in trade, in turn increasing demand for better and more accurate financial information. This led to the creation of the world’s first professional body of accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), which received its Royal Charter in 1854.

Also around this time:

1854: start of the Crimean War

1859: publication of Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’

1880

The growth of Professional Bodies

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) was established by royal charter. It brought together five professional accountancy bodies: Incorporated Society of Liverpool Accountants, Institute of Accountants in London, Manchester Institute of Accountants, Sheffield Institute of Accountants and Society of Accountants in England. The ICAEW now develops and supports more than 147,000 members worldwide.

1884

The start of Accountancy Tuition in the UK – H Foulks Lynch Established

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) was established by royal charter. It brought together five professional accountancy bodies: Incorporated Society of Liverpool Accountants, Institute of Accountants in London, Manchester Institute of Accountants, Sheffield Institute of Accountants and Society of Accountants in England. The ICAEW now develops and supports more than 147,000 members worldwide.

1904

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) formed

ACCA traces its origin to 1904, when eight people formed the London Association of Accountants, the forerunner of ACCA, to allow more open access to the profession. In 1909, Ethel Ayres Purdie becomes a member, the first woman to belong to a professional accountancy body.

Also around this time:

1901: Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward VII
1903: The Women’s Social and Political Union is formed to campaign for women’s suffrage
1908: Olympic Games open at White City in London

1919

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) formed

CIMA was founded in 1919 as “The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants” (ICWA). It became the “Chartered Institute of Management Accountants” (CIMA) in 1986, after it was granted a Royal Charter. Today, CIMA support 150,000 Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMAs) across the globe.

Also around this time:

1914: Britain declares war on Germany in response to the invasion of Belgium
1918: Limited numbers of women are given the vote for the first time
1918: World War One ends when Germany signs an armistice

1929
1933

The hard life of a Trainee Accountant

During this time, Charles Kohler chronicled his time as a London chartered accountant’s articled clerk. Typical of this era, he received no pay for his five years’ of hard work, and studied mostly using a correspondence programme with H Foulks Lynch. He found this “Thorough but narrow, practical rather than theoretical”. The salary-less position required one to study in one’s own time, and gave limited support when attempting to pass a set of demanding examinations. There were no exemptions and failing one paper at a sitting meant that you had to retake them all (a practice that continued well into the 1980s). Pass rates were, therefore, relatively low, compared with modern expectations, despite it weighing down on the student’s personal finances.

1938

Stanley Kaplan starts tutoring students in the United States

On the other side of the Atlantic, Stanley Kaplan starts tutoring students in the basement of his parents’ Brooklyn home, New York. Many of his students were from immigrant families, eager to pursue higher education and achieve success in America.

1953

Residential courses begin with the purchase of Caer Rhun Hall

Face-to-face accountancy tuition is born when V.R. ‘Ronnie’ Anderson starts the first residential courses at Caer Rhun Hall in North Wales, a late Victorian pile of some 20 bedrooms in the Conwy Valley. In the 1950s, trainee accountants had to pay for their own training and even pay to work. This led to an exclusive profession, usually restricted to those who had wealthy families.

Anderson also introduced a unique personalised method of training. The whole process was based on an in-depth understanding of the concept of learning, backed up by tailored feedback. These are still the guiding principles that training providers, such as Kaplan, apply today.

1958

ATF: The early roots of The Financial Training Company

Two bright ex-students of Caer Rhun, Gerry Thomas and Mervyn Frankel, set up a London office and formed Anderson, Thomas, Frankel (ATF) – the forerunner of the Financial Training Company, the core of what is now Kaplan in the UK. ATF soon developed into a major force in the tuition business and in the late 1960s, Caer Rhun/ATF expanded to other cities including Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.

Also around this time:

1952: Elizabeth II succeeds her father George XI
1953: Watson and Crick publish their discovery of the structure of DNA
1957: The Casio Computer Company, in Japan, released the world’s first all-electric compact calculator

1967

A key decision that would change the face of accountancy

On 27th July 1967, HM Queen Elizabeth put quill to vellum and enacted the Companies Act 1967. Before 1967, no firm could have more than 20 partners. The Act of 1967 repealed this, resulting in a merger spree and allowing the growth of national and global accountancy firms. Also around this time, the ICAEW made firms responsible for their trainees’ contracts and also made a university degree an entry requirement

Also around this time:

1963: New universities open and students get state support
1965: Comprehensive education system is initiated
1966: England wins the Football World Cup

1971

Formation of The Financial Training Company – National classroom delivery

Due to the growth of national accountancy firms, national training companies also began to develop. One of the first training providers to grow in the wake of these shifts was the Financial Training Company (FTC), which opened offices across the country starting with Manchester and Leeds. FTC quickly became a very successful public company and in 1973 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

1971
1993

The expansion of Accountancy Training in the UK

Between the 70s and early 90s, accountancy tuition flourished with many new providers, mergers and acquisitions. Accountancy Tuition Centres (ATC) developed separately from the other major players out of publisher H Foulkes Lynch. In 1983, ATC and Caer Rhun Hall formed an alliance as a separate entity with tuition run under the ATC banner and in 1985 ATC was incorporated as a private limited company.

Also around this time:

1971: Decimalised currency replaces ‘pounds, shillings and pence’
1973: Britain joins the European Economic Community
1989: Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
1992: Channel Tunnel opens, linking London and Paris by rail

2001

Apprenticeship: the new pathway to accountancy qualification

Kaplan offers apprenticeships to school leavers as an alternative route to accountancy qualification. Nowadays, Kaplan is a leading apprenticeship training provider in both Accountancy and Financial Services, training over 3,000 apprentices each year across the country.

2008

Kaplan expands into Leadership and Professional Development

Kaplan widened its course offerings into leadership and professional development by purchasing Hawksmere Limited, a London-based management training provider. Now known as Kaplan Leadership & Professional Development, the division trains over 12,000 people a year, in the UK and globally. The training solutions offered by Kaplan Leadership & Professional Development help enhance the technical competence and behavioural confidence of employees from a wide array of companies.

Also around this time:

2003: Skype transforming communication
2007: Apple introduces the iPhone
2008: Beginning of the Global Financial Crisis

2010

Kaplan creates a Virtual Classroom

Kaplan further invested in learning technologies and explored new ways in which tuition could be delivered outside the traditional classroom. 2010 saw the launch of Live Online – a revolutionary interactive product that allows tutors to teach anywhere in the world, with students able to interact live via the use of a chat panel.

2013

Kaplan launches a new type of classroom

The traditional classroom was under pressure with many predicting online as the only way forward. Kaplan took a different view and built ”the 21st Century Classroom”. This enhanced teaching environment provides the tutors with the latest technology, enabling them to facilitate creative and compelling learning, showing content using multi-board displays and interactive content.

2014

Flexible learning for Malaysian accountancy students

Kaplan began to offer tailored Live Online and Distance Learning courses to accountancy students in Malaysia for CIMA, ACCA and ICAEW. This has helped hundreds of students get access to the quality of accountancy tuition they require without having to make a potentially arduous journey to a distant classroom.

2016

Kaplan launches its OnDemand study method

Recent years have seen a shift towards both online and on demand learning, with companies, professional accountancy bodies and students requesting more and more flexibility. Kaplan adapted to this changing environment by launching OnDemand, a tutor-led online course with the flexibility to start studying anytime. Initially launched for CIMA, Kaplan plans to expand this new of new way of learning to other qualifications in the near future.

2017

Kaplan announced significant improvements to MyKaplan

In 2017, Kaplan announced significant improvements to MyKaplan, the online learning environment for students.

With the Apprenticeship Levy coming into effect in April 2017, Kaplan, as a leading provider of financial apprenticeships, launched its “Fully Managed Levy Service”, supporting companies in managing the changes and making the most of their available training fund.

2019

Kaplan launches Middle East Organisation

To further expand Kaplan’s presence in the region, Kaplan Professional ME was launched as a leading provider of end-to-end training solutions for certification programs, leadership, and professional development.

Backed by a great team, and a global infrastructure of systems, talent, and passion, Kaplan has designed and offered personal and regional specific solutions.