KBS Apprentice Review

In my current role at KPMG I am involved in the quality risk management section of the firm. This entails reviewing internal risks at KPMG and I am currently helping to work on a review of the policies by which KPMG operates. I am currently working on a spreadsheet detailing every policy the business has set out and working to review them based on age, relevance, quality etc.

I believe that since joining I have been able to enhance a lot of skills I already had such as IT and computing skills. Since joining though I also believe that I have been able to improve my communication skills and confidence a lot as I am generally not the most confident person and don't particularly like talking to random people, since joining I have gotten more confident with this.

I enjoy working at KPMG and I'm very grateful that I was able to get this job, the day to day work is generally bearable and the people are all really nice. The only complaint I would have about enjoying the programme is that the outside firm who organise the apprenticeship - BPP are not the greatest and some of the classrooms sessions haven't been particularly engaging and some aspects of the coursework have been a bit weird and don't seem all that relevant.

We were given a plan showing exactly when everything related to off the job training would take place over the course of the apprenticeship by KPMG, this includes webinars, face to face sessions, coursework deadlines etc, we also have forums ran by KPMG at the office where everyone comes together to complete a task which are good as you get to see everyone. Only complaint about the structure is that when we have to resubmit our coursework once amendments have been made often the next set of coursework will be due at the same time, so we end up with not a lot to complete for a while, then loads of stuff to do.

Generally everyone that I have worked with on a day to day basis have been really supportive and able to accommodate any needs I have had regarding my study or when I have needed days off. Only complaint would be that at the start the apprenticeship management team's policy regarding coursework was two strikes and you're out which stressed everyone out as they were worried about losing their job over coursework which was still new to everyone. Since this though they seemed to have dropped this stance and are a bit more supportive.

At the start we were not receiving a great amount of support when submitting our coursework and this made submitting our first mission quite hard as no one really understood what changes we needed to make and this was quite a stressful experience, since this the feedback we received has greatly improved and we get proper feedback advise sheets which are a vast improvement over a load of red marks saying we hadn't met this criteria. Only other issue is that the only time you get to speak to your coach is over the phone which is a bit annoying.

For us we have to incorporate what we do to meet our coursework criteria into our daily work in order to meet them, this normally means when a new piece of coursework is set we have to meet with our manager in order to work out how I am going to complete tasks that will fit in with my coursework.

KPMG offers a range of extra curricular activities and clubs which people can participate in outside of work, I am not currently a member of any of these. However as part of the apprenticeship we have to go to forums where every apprentice in this years intake meets up to come together to complete a task.

Yes

Its a really great place to come and work, the people are all fantastic and helpful.

Be confident and be yourself, don't be shy