Work Experience Programme Review

For the first part of the programme, it involved having to build up your skills, in terms of skills of leadership and management. We did this through completing a CMI accredited qualification. For the latter part of the week, it consisted of business work experience, at the EY branch in Canary Wharf. we were assigned a mentor and were given tasks to complete, along with many extra curricular activities such as networking coffees.

massively enhanced my organisation skills, after having to work and complete tasks to selected deadlines, as efficiently as possible. I have also improved my interpersonal skills, in that my job involved me regularly interacting with other team members to produce work and presentations. Leading on from this, i had the opportunity to build upon my public speaking skills, as i had to present my research to a large panel or professionals, who provided excellent feedback on ways to improve.

I extremely value the input from the staff and coordinators, who were present to talk to and provide valuable support regarding the programme. The mentors and buddys we were assigned were beneficial in self development, and followed us closely to ensure we were proceeding fine with the jobs we were give. I enjoyed the people culture at Ey where everyone there felt like a community. Overall the experience massively exceeded my expectations and i found it hugely enjoyable.

I feel as though Ey catered for each individual and ensured each member got the necessary attention and had their own unique experience. We were each assigned individual mentors who we worked very closely with to chart our self development during the business week.

Each day we were present at the programme consisted of a variety of different activities and innovative challenges. we were given different skills to progress and build upon, such as learning how a team leader can act as part of a team and how to interact well in the work place. we had the chance to build creativity through the Dragons den task.

The Work experience ensures continued support to all of the students who participated. We each can sustain contact with our mentors over a ten month span, and they are on hand to offer crucial advice with CV's and interview. Overall the support is really decent and i couldn't ask for more help and advice. I feel like i can speak to any member of staff if i need help and it's great.

The employer allowed us to see what each aspect of life is like at EY, as we were each assigned to varying departments and so were given a detailed insight into how each component off the services EY offers works and is conducted by professionals. We have been given information as to what we need to do if we have a problem and the different routes we can go down for any help/

The salary package is competitive and offers the necessary funding to make our efforts worthwhile, however since we are in the london programme, perhaps it should be increased somewhat from 6.80 per hour to about 7.50 as the cost of living in london and in general is a lot higher than the average for the UK so somewhere else in England the salary would be a lot decent.

There was a graduation ceremony in which our parents were invited to celebrate all of our achievements, and through networking we have developed contacts which will be highly useful in the future for any EY job offers or in general. During the time i was also involved in a few charity events too and helped out internally and externally for the business when i could

Yes

It is a fantastic experience in a real profesional environment in a top firm, and offers a closer insight than most other firms into how business works. the people at EY are warm and welcoming and are highly supportive to us all. I will definitely use the skills i have developed here in the future and other people can always do the same thing too if they apply and get in.

My advice would be to perhaps extend the duration of the programme to conduct an alumni programme for year 13 to offer us further experience, in a different department or organise experience with their partners, for those of us who were not already assigned to partner firms. Also look at other routed in EY such as scholarships and the apprenticeship schemes to, to find out what best suits you.