Data Science Apprenticeship Review

During the term time the day to day is the same as any other undergraduate, with the exception of monthly engagement sessions which tell you about some of the interesting projects that pwc is currently working on. This then changes in the summer holiday where a 10 week work placement occurs.

Have gained programming skills in multiple languages from the University side of the apprenticeship. Before the work experience a lots of applications of skills are shown which show what you could be working towards doing on the program. Such as robotics projects and artificial intelligence, and the types of problems that need to be solved. During the first placement we had an internal project which we learnt and used python for. Most of the business related work was not very technically challenging

The placement part of the program during the summer had parts that were enjoyable. But a lot of the placement got somewhat repetitive. The culture and people at pwc is amazing and everyone is very supportive, if you have any problems, you always have someone you can bring up your concerns to.

Since we were the first intake, our structure was not finalised until a few months before our placement. But after the structure was final, the program was quite well structured with an induction week training us, followed by a 10 week placement. We had many contacts to talk to throughout the placement including a mentor, buddy, business contact and career coach.

We received plenty of support throughout. We were each given 4 contacts. a buddy, who was in the data team. a mentor, who was outside of our business unit and we could talk to for general advice. a career coach, who will guide us through all of our placements at pwc career wise. and a business contact who was our main source of work.

During the University term times when we are studying, we have monthly 2 hour sessions with interesting topics on what pwc are doing internally. We are mainly left alone to study which I find ideal. We also have contacts at pwc who we could talk to about what work would be like at pwc.

On the first placement I feel that our qualification was mainly irrelevant to the business work we were performing, which did not involve any computing concepts or maths that we learnt in the first year of university. However we were also given an internal project where we were given more freedom and able to use skills such as programming or presenting.

During the time we are at university there are limited monthly events where we are given talks on technology within pwc. During our placement, there are end of month drinks at the office, with sometimes a quiz. There are also occasional lunches / drinks with our business units throughout the placement.

Yes

The program allows me to get a normal University degree which I was going to get anyways, while also allowing me to get work experience during the summers, where otherwise I would probably be struggling to get internships. The apprenticeship also allows me to not need to take out a student loan.

Make sure to read up on their assessment process and skills that they assess on their website beforehand and be prepared with answers for each skill in the "pwc professional". If you are given a group task, make sure you read all of the instructions and briefing carefully to ensure you understand what to do.