Finance Officer Review

by University of Oxford

Best Apprenticeship Employer

Rating

6/10

1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

Monitoring grants expenditure/income, creating reports for PIs, approving POs, ensuring all expenditure is charged to the correct grants/moving anything that isn't, supervising two finance assistants

9/10

2. Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

Excel

8/10

3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

I would say I only enjoy the studying side and find the Apprenticeship side to be largely irrelevant and a waste of time. This is not the fault of my employer, just the Apprenticeship programme as a whole.

2/10

4. How well organised/structured is your programme?

The actual studying side is great, structued well, the books are good, the lecturers are very knowledgeable. The admin side of the Apprenticeship, delivered by Kaplan, is poor.

3/10

5. How much support do you receive from your employer?

I receive all the support I need from my employer. I am allowed the 20% time off for studying and have not been out of pocket for anything.

10/10

6. How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

The support is there but it often takes a while to get a response from Kaplan. The admin side of things is extremely poor. I wasn't given any guidance on what I needed to do at the beginning and was just expected to know.

1/10

7. How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

I feel it gives me a broader understanding of the backgrounds of finance and why it is important that certain things are done. It has definitely improved my attention to detail.

9/10

8. Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

Not really - there may be in the wider University but not in my department.

6/10

9a. Would you recommend University of Oxford to a friend?

Yes

9b. Why?

They are a really good employer to work for. They are flexible, understanding, supportive, I wouldn't want to work anywhere else.

10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to University of Oxford?

Make sure you're happy with the nightmare that is getting in and out of Oxford city centre!