Smart furtures programme Review

The first week of experience involved group work, where we learned skills that would help us within the working environment such as presentation & group working skills. The second week we were made to portray the same skills we had learned within our own work, for example presenting in front of a boardroom of people and finally the last week involved working within the accounting sector within our chosen department of EY

I believe that i have developed my presentation skills during the course of this programme, from previously struggling to maintain eye contact and good body language, from the support from team leaders, i have been able to more confidently present in front of a good of people, which is something i was not able to do to well before this programme

I believe that overall this programme was great, every aspect of it was not only enjoyable but was very useful and was the most valuable work experience I have had to this day. I not only enjoyed meeting new likeminded people and bonding with team leaders who helped me with my struggles i really enjoyed working within a sector i have an Interest in

the programme was very well organised, we were talked through at the start of the programme what the whole programme involved, and on each individual day we were walked through what we would do on the day. The team leaders were very knowledgable on what the day involved and even days to come, they were very organised in general which added to the experience

The support we received from team leaders during the programme was faultless, everyone was so supportive and ensured that if anyone was struggling that they wouldn’t feel left out from the tasks, not only did they support us during the programme, they also told us we were more than welcome to contact them after the three week programme if we needed. During the programme we were assigned with mentors who overall did help during the programme however, they were assigned for approximately 10/11 months after the programme ended to help with any further education / apprenticeship interest that we may have, the support received from mentors who worked within EY wasn’t great as we soon lost contact because our emails weren’t replied back to or chased up, this was only 2 months after the programme had ended. During a reunion day for the programme the whole group agreed on this and also stated that the support from mentors wasn’t as expected. Other than this, the support from the team leaders who ran the programme was great.

The support we received whilst working towards our CMI qualifications was also faultless, the team were very supportive and were responsive to any questions or any confusions we had as a group. Despite the CMI qualification being from an external company, the staff were knowledgeable about the areas we were expected to talk about

I believe that my CMI qualification has helped me to perform better in my role as it has developed vital skills which are required in every single workforce. It has made me reflect on things I wasn’t doing so well before and now I am able to improve on this

Despite not having any extra curricular activities that applied to my specific programme, we were taught by the team leaders and mentors about the culture of the working force in EY itself, who do have shared social activities and professional networking events. It is clear that employees at EY have a range of extra curricular activities to choose from

Yes

I would recommend EY to a friend especially if they had an interest within the progressional services sector. EY is great firm to gain experience from as they are one of the top four firms, the programme itself is a great way to develop / gain skills as well as meeting new people and learning about a potential career path that may follow

Enthusiasm goes a long way! Work experience placements like this are extremely competitive, and there is a lot of funding required to have programmes like this, therefore EY want to know that they will have the best smart futures students there are, so make sure you are enthusiastic and know exactly why you want this work experience placement!