Finance Analyst Apprentice Review

My day to day role involves preparing internal reporting for senior management, for the purpose of planning and analysis of performance, on the income and costs of the business. These reporting cycles can be weekly, biweekly, monthly and quarterly. It is highly dependant on the entire team working together, including the offshore teams, in order to meet strict deadlines.

So far in my role I have learnt how to interpret the reporting numbers, in order to determine overall performance of the difference business areas. I have also learnt how to retrieve information from accounting systems and present that information in an excel format that can be used by stakeholders for further analysis.

I am fully enjoying my apprenticeship programme. Having been an employer of Barclays for 10 years prior to joining the finance apprenticeship, I am completely grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to further my education and build a better path for my future. They have been fully supportive so far in both my academic journey and my on the job training in finance, by providing me with buddies who I can go to if I need support, learning and development training to improve our soft skills and wider view of banking and various networking programmes to get to meet other apprentices and build relationships.

the Barclays apprentice structure is very well organised. There are representatives/contacts for every basis of our apprenticeship journey, including a representative for the academic part, buddies from the more senior apprentices to support us if needed, various leads who are responsible for putting together and managing our appraisals and feedback from managers, rotations of job roles etc. and our apprentice Director who has bimonthly meetings to keep us up to date on anything new on our journey and gain feedback on our progress thus far, either directly from us or from our function leads.

The company treats us like equals and ensure that we have everything at our disposal in order to make the most of the experience. They have incorporated the apprenticeship programme in the company website, where individuals looking to join the programme can get the information they need to make a confident decision and also welcome feedback from us which they put up on the site, so that potential apprentices can get the story direct from the source.

The AAT website is fully loaded with all the instruments we need to be successful in our academic training. There are live forums to participate in and ask questions, they provide us with weekly or fortnightly emails of encouragement and other ways in which we can make the most of our learning. What I particularly like is if you have not done well in an exam, they not only send you an encouraging email, but they also send you a little brochure which gives you further studying tips, quotes of encouragement and areas on their website which we can visit to help us be successful. We do our AAT exams through BPP who as well have a fully loaded website with everything mentioned above and also provide us with progress check emails to see how we are getting on with our studies, and always on hand to answer any questions we may have.

The qualification I am studying for directly contributes to my performance in my role. Finance and accounting is pretty precise, so you can almost guarantee that if you are working in a finance environment, you will be able to apply all your learnings directly to your role. For me it has helped me to be able to better interpret the financial statements of the bank at year end. I know what most of the account lines are and the part of the business they represent. I am able to understand through my learning what the tasks I am being given is contributing to and how I am making an impact in delivering that task.

We complete at least two citizenship events at work. Barclays has a citizenship website where we get to learn and discover the different business and charities in our working community and how they contribute and help their community. The website also gives us an opportunity to take part and help in any charity events, by listing the various events on offer. We also have various networking drinks events where we get to meet other more senior colleagues and broaden our network. Barclays also hosts various networks, such as the Working Families Network which we are able to join and benefit from each other's experiences and share tips for better wellbeing both in and out of work and managing a good balance of work and family life.

Yes

Because Barclays offers you everything you need to succeed as an individual. You just need to reach out and take it. Everyone is always willing to help in whatever way they can, senior management are very approachable and welcoming. You have every opportunity to adopt a mentor who can guide you throughout your career choices. Finally Barclays offers its employees a very good benefit and pension package. They don't just cater for your present needs, they ensure your future care as well and they are always looking for opportunities to improve their employees' wellbeing at work.

I would encourage you to do a bit of research and get to understand a bit about the company, to ensure that you are mostly if not fully confident that it is the right move for you. The next step is to commit yourself in taking the necessary steps needed to secure either a job or an apprenticeship with Barclays and finally, once given the opportunity to do so ensure that your project across that passion that you have for wanting to work in the company. If you are passionate about being a part of Barclays you are more than halfway there, as these are the people we are always looking for:)