Trainee Accoutant Review

The KPMG360 Apprenticeship Programme is rotational around the business so my first 6 months was in Financial Services Audit and my second rotation is in National Markets. There is no specific structure to the day and each day is different to the next. Some days I will work from the office on a client or completing training and other times I am travelling around the country to different client sites. Most of the work I have looked at is ticking through samples or completing testing over balances.

I have developed a lot of time management skills from the job, given audit busy seasons the hours are often quite long and sometimes you will have exams scheduled in around the same time so a lot of skills involve trying to manage revision around work. I have also developed a lot of confidence and networking/communication skills during my apprenticeship as you are always working with different teams and speaking to the client

I do and I don't enjoy the programme. Audit personally isn't my kind of thing so completing 12 months within Audit isn't as fantastic, the hours during January to April are often very long so it can get very exhausting. It all depends on the people though, a lot of the time you will be working in a really good team and the people make it a lot better but sometimes the team won't be as good but it's all in swings and roundabouts but the best thing about it is if you are in a not so fab team then usually for apprentices it's only a few weeks before you move onto a different job.

The programme itself is quite organised and well structured, you are given college and exam dates well in advance. Some departments are not as well organised though. Sometimes you are booked to clients very last minute which is very annoying especially if it is an away job as you are not given much notice.

There is a lot of support that you can receive if you are willing to reach out for it and KPMG provide a lot of services which employees can take advantage of but on a team if it is very busy, it can be quite difficult to achieve a work life balance and sometimes managers are not as understanding if you have a problem

BPP are extremely helpful in providing support. They have all the college courses ran quite well and tutors will give you their contact details if you need to ask them anything but their online learning environment is really good and BPP schedule in quarterly review calls so they can check where you are and develop goals for the next 3 months. Before exams you also get emails about your progress and how you are feeling for your next exam

Some aspects of the qualification is useful such as learning about double entry bookkeeping and final accounts but other units aren't as relevant within my role as I am not based within the department that it is most applicable to. The knowledge certainly helps you understand more about what is going on which overall can increase performance

KPMG have a LOT of social activities which can get involved in. They have first Friday drinks and department socials which is great for networking. They have a lot of sports teams and religious societies you can get involved in. They also run a lot of professional networking events such as leadership breakfasts.

No

In reality, I think the programme looks a lot better than what it is in reality. Considering most of the apprentices from 2018 will have spent their first year in audit, it does not always look like there are many other departments which we can go in to in which case it's probably better to go into an audit specific programme where you can qualify a lot quicker.

for the 360 applications and assessment centres just try and contribute as much as you can and be yourself. Make sure you are clued up on general business knowledge as well as new maybe specific to KPMG. KPMG are lovely people so try not to be too nervous but even if you are they do their best to put you at ease.