Apprentice Review

I am a technology apprentice studying computer science at the university of birmingham. On a day to day basis i attend lectures and complete assignments set independently by the university. In the summer months I will begin working for PwC everyday in my home office of Birmingham where I will meet clients and work on projects given to me by the Assurance Team in technology.

Going to university has helped me gain many skills which will help me when I continue my career with PwC after university. These include, communication skills, team building skills, making only necessary notes and developed coding skills. Going to some of the events that PwC put on for us let me meet many new people in the business and gain connections.

I learnt about the programme when I went to the University of Birmingham open day, when i got a place on the program I did not know what to expect however as soon as I began I realised how great the next four years would be. So far I have loved going to university and meeting new people while still gaining business skills that will help me when I begin working in the summer.

PwC are very organised and always inform us on anything that we need to complete or research about. They give very clear instructions. However at university I have felt that sometimes the organisation could be better in terms of lecturers and giving information to us. For example, in the first month of the course we still never had a solid timetable so sometimes we did not know where to go or when to go.

We have been given a PwC buddy who is suppose to help us with any queries we have about the programme. I have nearly finished the first year of the programme and I have only met my buddy once, he did not give the impression that he wanted to give us a lot of help with our experience. We exchanged emails but do not keep in contact. On the other hand there are certain members of staff that have really helped me on the course and are always in contact with each and everyone of us.

For the exams that I do at university i only recieve support from the lecturers and the university itself. PwC have not got involved with our assignments or exams as they feel the university can deal with this- so in terms of support we do not get any. I think this will be different when completing training inside the company itself.

At the moment we haven’t recieved any company training, our only training is classed as university work and gaining skills there. The university work that I do has given me a lot of excellent experience that has helped me gain confidence and abilities that help me perform better in my role.

At university there are many societies to get involved in- there is not one society that I can think of that isn’t included. Within PwC we were offered the chance to join the sports teams which was a great opportunity that some people managed to gain the chance to take part. We were also given the chance to speak and help out at future assessment days.

Yes

Before I applied to the course I did not know a lot about PwC and what they did, however now I have experience there great community and diversity I can see why they have grown so big and made an amazing impact on society. I believe the opportunities that they provide to students going to university is out of this world!

When applying to PwC i would recommend to be yourself. I believe that my personality was the main quality that PwC saw in me which made them decide to accept me onto the programme. Make sure you know everything you can about PwC and their values and the most important thing is show off your passion!!