Finance & Commercial Academy Student Review

The role of a Finance & Commercial Academy Student involves doing 6-12 month placements in different areas of the business to gain a wide variety of experience. Whilst working, I am also studying towards the operational level of my CIMA qualification and also doing a Level 4 Apprenticeship in Management Accounting.

I have developed many skills whilst being on Siemens Finance & Commercial Academy - including my Excel skills, I have picked a lot up in my day to day training and have also been on an Excel course and a Business Influencing Skills course to help me in the early stages of my development.

I enjoy the programme because I think that Academy Students are given enough responsibility in the placements that we do, and we also have a lot of opportunity to move around to different sites for placements. I also enjoy the social side of our programme since there are about 25 of us on the scheme at a time, all of similar ages.

I feel valued by Siemens because in all of my placements I have been given responsibility to take on projects and monthly tasks and have always been treated as a proper full time employee - despite the placement only being 6 months. The businesses are also open to our thoughts and improvements that could be made on work they already do. We also get reviews at the end of each placement which gives you a sense of achievement when you look at how well you met your objectives and it also gives you future improvements.

I think that our programme is very well organised - we plan out our placements well in advance so it gives us the chance to think about what sort of route we would like to go down and also identify areas where we would like to develop our skills.

Our training provider is BPP and they have been very helpful throughout my studies. The tutors are always happy to answer any of your questions and make sure that you understand.

We receive a lot of support from our employer when looking for future placements and whenever we need advice. There is also a lot of financial support with our CIMA studies - the fees are all funded by Siemens and when we go to our classes in the week, we can claim our travel/meals on expenses. However, when you move placements to another location - I think that the relocation financial support is dependent on the business that you will be working with. The financial help when changing location is not very consistent and I think that there could be more clarity.

I think that for the level I am it is a competitive salary considering that I did not come in with a professional qualification and am still in training. The salary increases very well and is performance related - it takes into account the progression in your CIMA studies and your placement reviews.

I think that there are lots of opportunities to get involved in outside of work - we are often doing careers events to promote the Finance & Commercial Academy to local schools and colleges, sometimes there are also bigger events up in London. We also have our Christmas parties, and Academy days where everyone on the Academy gets together for training and we all go out in the evening - so I think that the scheme has a good social side to it too.

Yes

I would recommend Siemens to a friend because I think its a good company to work for in the long term as there is a lot of opportunity to progress and there are so many different sectors that you could go into - everyone here is really friendly and I settled in very quickly when I first started.

When applying to Siemens, I would make sure you are as prepared as you possibly can be for the interviews/assessment centres. The application process is fairly long - I had to do an online application, phone interview, online test and assessment day so it takes a while to get to the end stage!