Technology Degree Apprentice Review

Most of the year is spent at university, but then over the summer break you have to complete a 10 week placement in your first and second summer, then work for the whole third year of university. Having come to the end of my first placement, I spent the summer creating a chatbot to find people within the company based on their skills, answer FAQs and also search documents to categorise the text within them.

Of all of the tools used over the course of the placement, I had only used one of them before (Python). Everything else I had never used, this includes a load of technical tools like Google Cloud Platform, SQL, and JavaScript. We also learned a lot of non-technical skills like Agile working, and how to create user stories prior to development.

It's been great! Being able to get the normal university experience, while getting paid and getting a free degree is fantastic! Being able to spend my placement in London for 10 weeks was also a great experience and makes for a nice change of scenery (being placed in a fantastic team helps too)!

Being the first year of the programme, there are obviously some teething issues. The structure of the programme has been well defined, we do the full year at university, then a summer placement in our first and second summers, before joining PwC for the full year in the third year of the programme. After this we go back to university for our final year before being given the option to join full time if we meet the grade criteria.

The Tax T&I team were always quick to help us with any issues we may have had, both related to our work or not. The support from the wider programme management team was less effective; with over 110 student to manage, there is obviously a lot to think about, but responses were often slow, and information was largely passed around by word of mouth rather than genuine communications.

We are integrated within all the people doing the straight Computer Science degree, so have all of the regular support. We have personal tutors who have mostly DA students as their tutees. Saying that, some are better than others, but I have been fortunate enough to have one of the best tutors.

I don't think that it really helps too much. Most of what was covered at university was not particularly beneficial on my first placement, with the exception of general programming skills. We did have some business modules in the first term, this did help with some general knowledge of finance and business related terms.

There were lunch and learn sessions while on placement. Being a regular university student at the same time we also got the change to take part in all of the available societies and activities. You get the full university experience, with all of the benefits of working for a big company!

Yes

Being part of PwC for almost a year means that I have met some great people. I have also been given the chance to work on one of the best projects available from what I have been hearing from the various other people who are also on the same programme.

Be prepared to work hard, and to give up your summer to work. But it is definitely worth it. You'll gain more experience than just through university, and be able to see how things work in the real world - rather than just through theory, programming and lectures at university.