Fees paid in link-up with financial giant KPMG

A-level pupil Manasa Ramesh will begin her training later this month as part of the course, which will be split between the firm’s Leeds office and Durham University.

At the end of the programme the 18-year-old from Gateways School in Harewood, near Leeds, will become a fully-qualified chartered accountant. During the six years she will receive a salary.

She will be based mostly at KPMG’s Leeds office and will attend Durham University for six weeks during the first three years of the programme.

The fourth year will be spent entirely at university, followed by another two years working at KPMG.

Elsewhere Fulneck School’s head boy, James Walker, has secured a fully sponsored place at an Ernst & Young’s accounting and auditing and finance degree course at Lancaster University.

The 18-year-old from the Pudsey school achieved two A*s and two As yesterday. He was one of only 20 successful students out of 500 applications for a place on the degree.

The model of big companies paying for students’ fees and employing them afterwards is expected to become more widespread as fees rise up to £9,000 next year.

However for one star student the prospect of higher fees has not put him off taking a gap year.

Grammar School at Leeds pupil George Longworth celebrated achieving four A*s yesterday in history, politics, economics and religious studies.

However the 18-year-old, from Harrogate, is setting his sights on living in a ranch in America rather than going straight to university.

This means he will be among the first wave of students to face £9,000 fees in 2012 but he is not deterred. He said: “The Government university fees policy is quite a good one to be honest. Although for many people the idea of debt is ominous, the payback is beneficial to all.”