Finance Graduate Scheme Review

The role varies depending on the placement you are on. Over 2 year you will complete 4 6-month rotations. These are all within finance departments and should get you exposure to all key area of finance. In one role you will be in a technical position, involved in accounting, month-end, quarter-end and year-end reporting. Elsewhere you could be involved in the budgetary process both monthly and medium-term and long-term forecasting. You have the opportunity to get involved in specialist areas such as Tax, Procurement or Asset Management. Having worked in accounting first, my role included reviewing journals, closing down the ledger at month-end, quarter-end and year-end, reporting, technical accounting advice and project work.

I have developed my existing competencies in technical finance that I have learnt from my studies. I have developed team-working and project skills through my involvement in a number of projects in accounting. Furthermore I have learnt better time-management skills as closing down the ledger at year-end and performing all of the other tasks required took a lot of careful planning.

I enjoy my programme very much. I enjoy studying CIMA and I love the opportunities I get at work. My colleagues and the wider scheme / programme team are very supportive and are always ensuring I am enjoying myself - that I am not just working and I am learning and developing, too.

Overall it is well organised. We had a few teething issues at the start, but this could be down to it being the first time that E.ON has approached a Level 7 apprenticeship with CIMA - but E.ON were very good at getting to work quickly and resolving any issues on my behalf.

My employer provides me with lots of support. Not only do I have a mentor who is a senior individual from finance in the business, I am also paired with a buddy, I have a scheme lead and a scheme manager. Outside this, the apprenticeships team Darren and Tammy have always been more than happy to spend time with me where I have had an issue or a question and have been very supportive. Widely, they have developed a very supportive community form apprentices and even hold an annual apprenticeship celebration day - endorsed and attended by board members.

Kaplan have been mixed. While my talent coach, Louise is very nice and helpful, there was a lot of time where I did not have one, and where it was unclear what was happening with the apprenticeship element of my scheme. Again, this could be due to the fact that it is new for us at my company. However, they have provided some brilliant development opportunities such as an apprenticeship development day in Nottingham with Boots apprentices which went down very well and which taught us all a lot.

It teaches a number of fundamental financial techniques and processes that are utilised every day. Further than that, CIMA provides me with new ideas and techniques that can be implemented in my role, team or even business unit - particularly from the E syllabus. Also, the leadership skills built in CIMA help me to perform better with my team.

Getting involved with extra-curricular is easy with work. There are opportunities to attend conferences, workshops and trainings. E.ON has a sports and social club at it's HQ in Coventry which organises fun events and Christmas parties. Networking with E.ON is easy as I am allowed to go out to the business and meet new people even if not directly through my work - furthermore they facilitate (to a certain extent) involvement with Energy UK Young Energy Professionals. Also professionally there are events such as the energy tech meet-ups and supplier innovation events that I have attended.

Yes

Because E.ON are a caring company who facilitate me to achieve my potential and drive me to perform better. The work is fulfilling, the training adds skills to my repertoire and my support network really care about my development. Pay and fringe benefits are second-to-none especially for an apprenticeship.

I would advise them to read up about the energy industry to get up to speed better. Get up to date with developments in the UK retail market, how it operates and why it does operate how it does. Furthermore read more widely about the energy transition and what is happening more widely in the New Energy World.