Audit Trainee Review

My role involves going to clients mainly, or working in the office, completing tests and working papers in order to complete an audit. I work within a team, that changes regularly with the client. The size of these teams will vary. The job involves going to lots of different places, as you visit client offices and working with different people in the firm. There is almost no difference in the work you complete to a starting graduate.

I have developed lots of skills during the apprenticeship. Coming from a non accounting background, I have learnt lots about this subject and audit methodology. From the job side I have improved my communication, particularly through dealing with clients so regularly. I also have improved my time management skills due to sometimes a larger workload.

Overall I enjoy the programme. There are lots of similar aged people around so an opportunity to make some friends. The exams can be tricky, and it is tricky to fit in study alongside a full time job but it is manageable. The apprenticeship aspect is fun, there is lots of team working days.

Overall the programme is well structured. You know when you are going to college in advance and the skills days are well organised. The internal training was very good and informative, however some methodology was given to us much after we started, this would be more useful at the beginning to help our day job. The external training was also strong however there were aspects to the apprenticeship that were time consuming, such as completing a portfolio, that we didn’t really use much towards the end.

The support from the department is very strong. Your line manager is always there to help with whatever queries you have and there are lots of other people around who you would feel comfortable talking to if you needed help. There is lots of support from the learning team available if you were struggling with exams.

Our training provider delivers a very supportive service. The class sizes are small, so you can ask questions as you go and you feel like the tutor really cares about your progression. The tutors give you many ways to contact them if you ever needed the extra support with exams and really feel like they would go out of there way to help.

The certificate in finance and business is the foundation part of the qualification to become a chartered accountant. These exams are the basis of the knowledge you need to complete the rest of the qualification and to become an accountant. The knowledge they teach you are required in the day job. Working in audit, accounting and assurance are 2 exams where the knowledge learnt is used everyday.

There are extra curricular activities to join in with. For example there are sports teams and team socials which can be fun. The team socials are very dependent on your team your in. This is very departmental and the socials with your cohort are arranged outside of work generally. However overall there is lots to get involved in.

Yes

Overall the experience has been a good one. The qualification makes it easier to progress onto the ACA to complete the qualification quicker then doing a degree and then doing the ACA. The work is tough sometimes but overall expectations of you are fair and there is plenty of support from the people around you. There are some aspects that could be improved but the programme is relatively new so inevitably it will improve in time.

Make sure you are a real team player. Particularly in audit the work you do is team and project based all the time. Therefore it is important that you prove you can work in a team. Furthermore just be yourself, it is important that you are a good fit to the culture of the place you work and the best way of knowing is by being yourself.