Flying Start Degree programme - Flying Start 1, Bristol Review

Over the 3 months, my role was acting as an auditor on behalf of PWC. This involved going to client sites with more senior PwC employees and performing various tests over the accounting performed by the client. This is done to ensure that their financial statements shows a true and fair representation of the performance of that company to provide comfort to the shareholders and any stakeholders. My job role included: having a good relationship with the client, using technical knowledge built from university to apply to my audit work and applying professional scepticism when doing these audit tests.

I have generally developed on the technical skills I had already learnt at university and well as learning and enhancing my knowledge around audit. I have also learnt many professional skills such as learning to build professional relationships not only internally within the teams we are working with at PwC but I have also learnt how to effectively maintain a good relationship with the client

I thoroughly enjoyed the programme and learnt so much from it. The vast majority of the first placement involves a lot of on-site training where more senior members from PwC will coach us around the different tests that we apply to the clients accounting treatments and we are taught where to apply professional scepticism. Everyone at PwC Bristol is very friendly and welcoming and there is a great fun community that has been built around the office. This is evident by the monthly socials which are always a lot of fun which have ranged from: bowling, escape rooms and Pizza!

The course has been well structured from the outset of starting university where we have always received information about what we can expect from PwC on placement and what they expect of us. We also had 2 weeks training before we started placement to help us gain additional technical knowledge. On placement we have a mid placement review with our career coach and an ambassador from the university to ensure the placement is what we were expecting.

We receive a lot of support from PwC. The majority of the support we get is from our day to day teams we are working with. However, we all have a career coach who is always readily available for questions or queries and similarly we have and a flying start champion who is also a point of contact for us. We receive a mid placement review meeting with our career coach and an ambassador from the university to ensure we are coping well. The expectation is that if we do need support we should seek it from the vast options that have been made available to us.

PwC also pays for all our books and works with the university to provide us with modules that help us with placement and carefully chooses the modules that get us accredited from the ICAEW exams. The content is taught to us by the university. However once we leave university with 12 accredited exams, PwC take sole responsibility in training us for the last 3 exams.

The modules the university choose for us are carefully chosen to provide us with the knowledge that is needed to be successful on our placement working as auditors. This is evident by taking modules such as: audit and assurance and introduction to accounting which definitely is invaluable and provides us with many transferable skills to take to placement.

PwC Bristol is known for being an extremely friendly and social office which provides many extra-curricular activities. Notably there are monthly office drinks and monthly socials which have included: bowling, escape rooms and there's even a boat party once busy season is over. The other extra-curricular activities include 5 a side football, yoga, hockey as well as many more.

Yes

Due to this course being a fast track to becoming a chartered accountant as well as the professional and technical skills that you learn while being on placement. We are expected to always maintain a level of professionalism and are chucked in the deep end when communicating and resolving issues with the client which are invaluable skills to have learned.

I would advise others applying to PwC to first ensure that they have prepared themselves for the interview process as it is not easy. For individuals who have been accepted to PwC, I would encourage them to take the opportunity and go to all the extra-curricular activities as these make working for PwC thoroughly enjoyable!