Flying Start Degree programme - Stage 1- Leeds Central Square Review

I was working as a stage one auditor working on various clients for the last 3 months. I completed EGAs under lots of FSLI's. I had meetings with clients to solve certain issues and asked any questions to my in-charge's who taught me a lot about the basics of how to complete an engagement.

I have developed my technical skills. I had never used technology such as Aura before and now can navigate around with ease. I also got comfortable communicating with clients directly and even set up meetings with them by the end of my placement. I think when next placement comes around i will have one on one conversations.

I really enjoyed placement. It was great to work with so many different teams. I also enjoyed that as a result of COVID and working from home i got to work with people from different offices. I enjoyed our 15 minute games which really helped me to get to know and get comfortable around my team.

It is very well organised generally. I would say that the first day was a slight blip as we turned our laptops on and had about 70 emails and no idea what we should be doing, also as a result of being new we didn't have any contacts to ask. After a few hours as a result of all starting together we realised that we had a call to welcome us and after that it was great as we knew our contacts to ask if we were confused by anything. Other than that it was good in that there is a clear structure of so many contacts that we can go to if we have any problems and they tended to get solved very quickly.

We receive a lot of support from PwC. We have a contact from PwC that we can contact while we are at university which is very helpful for any quick problems. When on placement we were treated as any other full time employee which i felt was over and above the support that i would expect.

I believe that our training provider is our university and so the training is great in that i feel the way our learning is structured so that we learn in a way that we can apply our knowledge to the workplace. I get the real sense that our lecturers really want us all to pass.

I think that they ensure that we understand the information and concepts instead of just teaching us to pass the exams which i think gives a massive help in order to help us to apply these concepts in the workplace. I can often solve more problems myself as opposed to having to ask my senior associate all of the time because of this.

I think this is massively reduced due to COVID as i have heard lots of stories of the usual socials which i think are very frequent. PwC have provided lots of entertainment online over the last few months such as dance classes, story times, bingo and even interviews with celebrities.

Yes

I think it is a great company with an extremely supportive atmosphere. Lots of importance is placed upon coaching and so i feel that i have received the very best coaching that i could have. I also like that they are changing working practices after the success of working from home in COVID.

I would say that PwC place lots of importance on employing the most all rounded individuals and it is definitely not the stereotypical accounting firm. I've met lots of really friendly and exciting people and think that for anyone interested in accounting it is a great company to work for!