Apprentice Finance Assistant Review

On a day-to-day basis I complete a variety of tasks. Those including: entering invoices onto the system, expense claims, receipting, filing, running Open PO Reports and Invoice on Hold reports, dealing with and chasing up queries / invoices / delivery notes, to name a few. I communicate with a range of people throughout the department regularly and I am involved in a lot of networking.

Throughout my apprenticeship so far, I have in particular developed my communication skills, both verbally and written. This is something I have always struggled with, but now I have more assurance and confidence to fulfil these tasks via both ways of communication. I have also become more assertive, independent and pay close attention to detail in everything that I do.

I enjoy my programme greatly as it has provided me an opportunity to gain qualifications and work experience without the cost of it all and without the need of going to university - which was always my initial plan. I enjoy completing my day-to-day tasks as I understand it is a working progression to wear I want to get to within the industry. But it has given me the foundations and confidence that I know I am going into the right sector for me as I enjoy it very much.

My training programme within work has been very well organised and structured with regular meetups to see where I'm at and where I am moving onto next. However, as for my training provider (Kaplan) their admin side of things is on the lacking minimal side. What you should be getting from them you don't always get so it is best to chase them otherwise you tend not to see results.

My employer provides me with a lot of support and confidence moving forward. We have regular catch ups and 1-on-1s to ensure I am happy with where I am at, review what I am doing and to stay in line with an organised training plan to keep me on track of completing everything that I should be.

The support I receive from my training provider is minimal, we have 6weekly review calls but if they don't go ahead for whatever reason, as the talent coaches are busy, you won't have a catch up review for at least another 4-6weeks. They are helpful when you contact them, but they don't go out your way to help you unless you ask them.

My qualification gives me the under lying foundations of accounting and how processes used to be before electronic systems came about. As it gives me this understanding, it puts more meaning into my role and gives me a better sense of fulfilment when completing my daily tasks within my role.

My work place has a wide range of extra-curricular activities from apprentice networking events, years apprentice awards events, particular group networking - for me this would be a finance network of fellow finance apprenticeships within the university. They also hold a series of events and social activities each year to get you involved.

Yes

University of Oxford is a very respectable employer, whom always look for your best interests and want to help with your personal development to help you achieve where you want to be and will always offer the support needed to get there. They are also very accommodating of everyone's needs.

Advice I would give to others applying to the University of Oxford, is to not get disheartened if you don't get the interview or the job first time round. But to make sure that once you have better interview experience from previous interviews or job applications that you will get where you want to be if you are willing to put the work in.