Benefits of employing a Candidate with a Practice background

Depends entirely on the kind of industry role and, indeed, industry. Main benefit of a practice background should be a breadth of experience and an understanding of customer needs.

Recruiter

I've only really come across this in job vacancies - "would suit first move from practice", "with practice background", etc.

As Duncan mentions, it may depend on the role - if it's a PLC financial reporting role someone with good exposure to statutory reporting is going to be well suited. I think it might also depend on the recruiter, if the employer/manager is from a practice background then it could be that they just personally prefer an accountant who is practice trained.

depends

The thing  that I always found useful was having the 'big picture' when it comes to preparing financial statements (rather than getting hung up on a couple of process issues you think about the output) and understanding what it is an auditor is looking for (simple things such as an audit file in sections with lead schedules referencing the back up make the audit run much smoother).

As others have said also the recruiting manager may want a 'mini-me' as they think that they will have the same understanding of things.

Plus points and minus points

Not sure if there can ever be anything universal re experience via one route or the other, however I suspect the party with the general  practice background may near the start of their career, have the edge re:

1. Flexibility working with accounting records that have issues- industry tends (hopefully) to give one experience working in a controlled environment re accounting data flow, over time a system has developed and those employed within it slot in to the system, general practice tends, I believe, to give an edge making the best out of what you get given.

2. I believe practice possibly gave a stronger initial grounding in the debits and credits though here I am talking from a generation who prepared client accounts via a paper ETB- with today's accounts production packages not sure if such a differential really applies. Industry may well, in the early years, see more activity re routine data input where thinking about the bookkeeping does not feature heavily.

3. Audit and controls- Practice with audit experience gives hands on experience and exposure to considering system design and controls at an early stage. The first job I ever worked on (as the junior cog in a team- tea maker/ physical asset register checker outside in a blizzard etc) was an audit  and I thereafter went out on a string of audits in various sectors over the years. I think the experience of picking up the previous year's systems notes, reviewing/updating them, considering the controls inherent in the system, doing a walk through test and then testing the controls is a useful experience- audit textbooks tend to be a little abstract and I believe auditing is really one of these things you need to learn from doing rather than from a textbook . Whilst accountants in industry may have had some exposure to  systems controls/development during their early years I expect it is less than those who come from a practice background.  However I would caveat this by suggesting that as people get more senior within industry they may well have far more detailed exposure to system design/ control/implementation and of course more hands on experience implementing the changes- auditors are to a degree mere voyeurs.

When all is said and done it often appears the differential is a matter of  comparing breadth and depth, I am one of those who knows a little about a lot, a jack of all trades master of none.

On paper I cross the divide, working in both industry and practice at the same time, however my work in industry has tended to be akin to a one man accountancy department and does feel a little like a mini  practice; in my current role we have about eight entities within the "group" and I deal with everything for all of them  re accounting records/ vat/ paye/  tax/ final accounts/  financing/ HR/ admin/ junk. So my industry experience may be a misnomer, maybe I have always really been in practice but for periods just had one client.