360 Apprenticeship Review

With the 360 apprenticeship, your daily role will change every 6 months as you move to a new department every 6 months. Currently, I am in IRM Audit. This means that each day includes internal and external meetings, independently working on completing the audit and networking with colleagues. No day is ever the same as you never know what work you are going to have to tackle or what challenges you are going to come across. With the qualifications that you achieve during the course of the apprenticeship, usually some studying will have to be done on a daily basis in order to keep up with the demanding nature of the qualifications.

Throughout my time in KPMG, I have learnt lots of new skills. My networking skills in particular have grown with meeting new colleagues and client daily. Also, my presentation skill have also massively improved with doing regular presentations to my colleagues or high schools, pushing me to be more confident and at ease while doing presentations. The way in which I articulate myself in a professional manner has also changed, especially when meeting clients, I now articulate myself better than I did before I started the experience.

I really enjoy the apprenticeship programme! Not only am I learning new skills and developing as a person, but I am also earning money and networking with new colleagues/clients at the same time. I have also felt very supported throughout my first months on the apprenticeship scheme. Whether it has been a personal or business issue, I have also felt that I have had someone to turn to, either my manager in my current department or someone in the apprenticeship team. Everyone at the firm has been so nice and welcoming since the offset which has made me really feel comfortable whilst being in the office.

The 360 programme is very structured. Each training date and exam date is planned well in advance, meaning you know when you have each exam and can easily plan holiday etc around these dates. We have both an apprenticeship team and a PQA (exam) team, which means that between each team, all of our requirements for the apprenticeship are organised.

I receive lots of support from KPMG. Each month I have a meeting with both my department manager and my apprenticeship manager to make sure that I am doing well and on track to achieving my goals. I also have a great team around me who also support me in my daily activities. The PAQ (exams) team also offer lots of support in case I am struggling with the training or if I have a personal issue then the PQA team are there to help.

I have a call every 3 months with my training provider, who make sure I am on track with my exams and other tasks that the training provider supply me with. They also provide support to anyone that has to resit their exams, with a supported resit. After training, they are also more than happy to be contacted and asked any extra questions.

The qualifications provided by training provider gives me a deeper understanding of the accounting basics. Depending on the department that I am in, depends on whether the qualification helps me perform better in my role. For example, Indirect Tax exam would only help me perform a lot better if I was in the tax department. However, generally, there are overlaps of each department which means that the knowledge I get from the qualifications does give me a good background knowledge that I can refer back to every now and again.

There are many extra-curriculum activities you can get involved in. I have helped organise and take part in both a peer 2 peer networking event and a gin festival. I am also part of the Leeds KPMG netball team, where we play weekly games at different sports venues across Leeds against other account and law firms. There is also a monthly department social event, which is a great opportunity to socialise with your team.

Yes

My first few months at KPMG haven't been a walk in the park. Going from being at college to starting a 9-5 job hasn't been easy - it does take a while to get used to the professional atmosphere. Also, getting used to the new exams, both the content and the structure of each computer-based exam has been a big change from a levels. However, I would not change it for the world! The new experiences I have gained, like traveling across the country to clients sites or making some amazing friends on the apprenticeship scheme, have been the best introduction I could have hoped for. This is a truly life changing experience and would recommend it to anybody that knows they want to go into finance.

When applying to the KPMG apprenticeships, make sure that you are yourself! Due to the fact that everyone has just left college, the only thing that is going to make you stand out is you personality. Make sure you are confident during interviews and have also read up about the firm before your interview. You need to know your stuff! Don't worry if you don't have an account background, I knew nothing about it, so just make sure that you make yourself stand out.