Four graduates on the NHS Finance Management Training Scheme ranked among the highest in the world for their results in the CIMA examinations, the leading qualification for management accounting, the NHS Institute announced today.

All the NHS Finance trainees' pass rates were considerably higher than the national pass rate for the second year running, with four of the graduates coming within the top eight in the world for their strategic, managerial and certificate level papers. The strength of Jonathan Smith and Sunil Thaker's results also won them the CIMA NHS Student Excellence Award.

Jonathan, a trainee from the 2007 intake of the scheme who came second in the world and was the highest ranking NHS student, said: "I couldn't recommend the NHS Graduate Scheme more. The course has provided me with not only a great qualification, but also invaluable practical experience. It's given me an excellent foundation for the future and I'm excited to continue building my career in the NHS."

Alex Bush, National Programme Lead on the NHS Institute's Graduate Scheme, said: "We'd like to congratulate the efforts of all our trainees and in particular those who stood out globally as high achievers. Their efforts and results enable our scheme to remain one of the most respected examples of its type across the world".

The graduates will be recognised at a special award ceremony organised by the NHS Institute this week.

The finance training scheme is part of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme which aims to train future NHS managers. The scheme has been consistently listed in the top ten of The Times 'Top 100 Graduate Employers' and ranks as the third most attractive employer for university graduates.

1. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement supports the NHS to transform healthcare for patients and the public by rapidly developing and spreading new ways of working, new technology and world-class leadership.

Please visit http://www.institute.nhs.uk for further information on the NHS Institute and its work.

2. The NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme continues to deliver the managers and leaders who can lead transformation while maintaining the delicate balance of equitable access and affordability. We're delivering a comprehensive and innovative programme which consists of challenging work placements, foundation learning, specialism competencies, multi-disciplinary action-learning sets, experiential learning, a mentoring relationship and a talent management performance monitoring system - all aimed at developing new managers with the skills and confidence to become future leaders.

The Graduate Scheme consists of four specialisms:

- Finance Management
- General Management
- Human Resources Management
- Informatics Management
The outstanding results achieved by the NHS graduates highlight the Graduate Scheme's high-quality learning, and recognises their ability and commitment.

To find out more about the scheme, please visit: http://www.nhsleadtheway.co.uk

NHS Institute