Apprentice accountant Review

My role on a day to day basis involves processing invoices, taking phone calls from clients with queries they have, completing year end accounts for my clients i know who my clients are from using my client base. Within my job i also have to attend college lessons and exams in order to complete the AAT side of my job.

During my AAT apprenticeship i have learned lots of new skills such as how to use accounting software, how to use excel spreadsheet in a more defined way, i have also developed my people skills on how to speak to clients in the correct way and how to deal with them if they get stressed out or do not understand something i am telling them completely.

I really enjoy speaking to client i feel i have a real knack for it. However i do also enjoy the behind the scene work i love problem solving so working out if a bank feed doesn't work on the accounting software e.g. Xero this is the software we use .

I believe my programme is quite structured as i always receive updates from AAT and my tutor is available to help me most of the time however if she is not in i am not actually sure who to contact apart from when she is due to be off for a long period of time.

Quite a lot however i feel it is hard to complete some of the work in my own time e.g. the next exam has to be complete in my own time as it not actually needed to move onto level 4 however i need it to receive my AAT certificate.

We used to receive a lot more support and then this dropped in level 3 which we were warned about however when CVID-19 happened my tutor fell ill with it so they were under-staffed and even now she is back we are due 3 hours a week of college. However our online lessons are only 1 hour and the other two we now do independently however my tutor is not always available to ask for help unlike when we would be in a class room i feel if they had more staff this would be better

Somethings tie in really well to what i do however others do not!! some of the spreadsheet works really useful in work however a lot of it we do not actually need to know how to use it as w have a help button if we get stuck which i know isn't ideal but in exams it is extremely stressful having to remember everything you have already learnt and apply this as well as everything to do on a spreadsheet

Sometimes we do days where we have a celebration for someone's birthday at the moment all social distanced and only allowed in the office at our desks we just order food but we used to have office games which was fun and hoping they can come back when COVID-19 is eased more

Yes

AAT is great as you learn on the job it is hard work as you have a full time job as well as learning but i believe it isn't as boring as University, the exams are hard and there is still a portfolio side of it but i just never liked the thought of lectures at uni and this worked much better for me especially in the current situation.

Ensure you have a good attitude to learning be prepared to work hard as it isn't easy but try and enjoy it as much as possible do your back ground reading before you start getting ahead f the4 class and be eager don't be scared o ask questions and always be confident in your self