Finance and Commercial Academy Student Review

The scheme moves through 4 6 month placements and 1 full year placement. I have so far had experience in a wide variety of business areas including Credit Control, Procurement and Risk and Internal Control. Daily tasks can include anything from preparing reports, using SAP and working with Excel Databases.

I have vastly improved upon my Excel skills, Siemens has provided multiple training courses ranging from Beginner to Macro Skills. I have also developed confidence in giving presentations and leading meetings.

I really enjoy my program as it provides the opportunity to interact with and socialise with the other students in my year group across the country, as well as the years above and below. I feel that this creates a great team atmosphere and a solid base to rely on even when moving through different and new areas of the company.

I feel that different placement businesses value students on different levels, I have worked in areas where I feel like a vital component to the team but I have also worked in areas where I have less responsibilities.

The program is structured fairly well, I felt that I had a solid induction with plenty of training in the beginning. Although as I have moved into the 2nd year of the program there has been less support and more independence required.

Support is easily accessed from BPP. I feel that I can email or call my tutor at any time and I will receive help where I need it. There can be a lot of time pressure to get assignments finished but I do feel like my tutor helps me out where they can.

Support is generally more informal with my employer, I can call my program manager if I have an issue but generally I am left to be quite independent. Academy meet-ups occur every 6 months and students from all years get the chance to attend training courses together and give feedback on their experience with the program.

Upon initially joining the program my salary made it tough to meet living costs while in the South East of England. However after the first year's salary progression I felt more comfortable and my salary now adequately meets my needs.

The office location I currently work for has strong ties with the local community and there are many opportunities to get involved with projects at local schools, museums and community centres. As there are many other students, graduates and interns there is a really active social life outside of the office, with many evening events being organised.

Yes

Siemens is a great company to work for as they are so diverse and offer so many business areas for an apprentice to experience working for. They put a great level of importance on recruiting and retaining young talent into the business and hence this means that there will always be a focus on training and improving your skills.

The Siemens values are 'Responsible, Innovative and Excellent' and hence it is good to be able to provide examples of how you fit in line with these values or how you think the company does. They put a great amount of importance on Science and future technologies and so an interest in these subjects would make for a good candidate.