Flying Start Degree programme - FS1 - Newcastle Review

by PwC

Best Apprenticeship Employer

Rating

9.2/10

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

I worked as part of the Centre of Excellence which is a specialist team working on Pensions, Share based payments and Tax. I worked as part of the Pensions team performing work around the audit of pensions day to day on many different clients mainly on the Defined Benefit obligations.

9/10

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

Coming into my placement, I had little to no experience of pensions so I have learnt a lot over the placement. This includes learning numerous new EGAs which I had never seen before and once I had initially learnt them, I could then develop my skills in order to further my knowledge on each section.

9/10

3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

I really enjoyed the programme as I got to learn a lot of new skills and meet a lot of new people. Working with people in the office was very helpful as it was easy to find help whenever I needed it and helped me learn a lot quicker and gain more experience

10/10

4. How well organised/structured is your programme?

The programme is very well organised and works very well in my opinion. The placement is over busy season so there is always work available and we are eased into it and not chucked straight into the deep end as well, meaning there isn't too much work but there is also enough work to keep you well occupied.

9/10

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

I received a lot of support from my employer as being in the office there were always people on hand to help whenever you had a problem. There was also a network of people easy to message and always happy to help. This involved team group chats with many associates happy to help

10/10

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

There was always support available from the training provider if needed. This was in the form of lecturers, our personal tutor and also our peer mentor who was another student there to help with any problems. I didn't make use of this over placement but it was clear it was always available if needed.

8/10

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

I feel like the qualification through the training provider helps me perform better as it directly relates to auditing which was very useful for the placement I was on. As I was on pensions this was still very new to me but the overall audit made more sense thanks to the qualification

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.)

There is a football group chat with many people at work and they play seven a side games every tuesday which was very fun to be involved in. There are also many socials among the office which you could go along to and this made it much easier to get to know people

10/10

9a. Would you recommend PwC to a friend?

Yes

9b. Why?

I would recommend PwC to a friend as I have had a great three months on placement and have gained a lot of experience and skills over the last three months. It is a great place to work with a nice working environment and evryone working there is nice and welcoming.

10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to PwC?

Tips and advice I would give to other people applying to PwC would be not worrying about the process as even if it may seem like a long haul at first, it all runs very smoothly and there are many support networks around to help whenever you need help with anything. These are very useful and I would recommend they are used if anyone is worrying.