Trainee Associate Review

I began in the tax consulting department within the R&D team. My role involved helping to prepare R&D claims for clients mainly with NI. On a day-to-day basis this included preparing cost information and project summaries to be included within R&D reports submitted to HMRC supporting the claim.

During my time in the R&D team, I developed report writing skills and my excel skills have greatly improved. However, due to the team being light on work I felt I wasn't learning as fast as I should. I have since moved to the compliance team and I feel my learning has been accelerated.

I do enjoy my programme in that the material I am studying is now directly related to my day to day role. Study leave could be improved so that so much of my own holiday time doesn't have to be used up revising for examinations. Kaplan provide good material and are quick to reply to any queries.

The programme is well organised and structured as I am generally keep well informed to when classes and exams are and extra material I can use. The revision course is well planned and at an appropriate time related to the exams. The first mock was extremely early on which I feel was a source of stress and meant I was unable to complete it properly.

The employer is very helpful in ensuring I get days off to complete the classes and approving holiday leave for study. It would be better if we were provided with more study leave and the employer was slightly more involved with the course so that if we had questions they could be answered in house.

The support provided by Kaplan is generally quite good, they are available to answers questions at any time and make sure we have the right materials, mocks are submitted and marked on time etc. More face to face training would be helpful I believe, sometimes online training can be difficult.

Since I have moved to the compliance department, I feel like the material is related to my role and it is helpful to be able to apply my studies to my every day work. It's important to be in the right department in order to get the most out of your studies.

The team are quite good at arranging socials every 1-2 months for the whole team to get together. I was a member of the social committee and enjoyed having a say in these and it was very useful to get to know other members of the team I wouldn't have previously got to.

Yes

In my first role I wouldn't have recommended it to a friend as I wasn't getting much work to get experience on the job. I have been lucky to be able to move department and the experience is much better. The social aspect of the firm is also very good.

Ensure you are applying for a job that you are interested in and are willing to give up some of your time outside of work if you are applying for a training course. The application process is quite rigorous but worth it to get an interview. It takes time to settle in to such a big firm so be patient.