Flying Start Degree Programme - Flying Start 2 (Manchester Office) Review

My role is working in the assurance department of the PwC Manchester Office. This involves the auditing of financial statements of private and public limited companies through the performance of audit procedures to ascertain that the financial statements are free from any material fraud or error. My daily tasks have involved working on different financial statement items (e.g., cash, inventory, receivables, payables) and doing audit tests, such as matching invoices to third party documents, recalculating their accounting estimates, and performing year-on-year analysis of their TB items. I have had the opportunity to work both individually and in teams to perform this audit work, and as this is my second placement at the firm, have had the opportunity of coaching new starters.

Before the beginning of my placement, I had a week of training, which involved both interactive learning on a video call, as well as doing online e-learns. This gave me a great opportunity to refresh my skills and knowledge I have acquired through completing my ACA auditing exams, as well as learning new things. As this is my second placement at the firm, I was given the opportunity on one of my jobs to be involved in a coaching role. This involved explaining the tasks to a more junior member of the team and being first call for any questions or issues she had. This helped improve my communication and team bonding skills, as well as helping develop my own knowledge through this coaching.

I really enjoy the PwC Flying Start programme. It gives the opportunity to get the 'university experience' and get a degree qualification, as well as gain the practical skills and experiences through the placements. Through my two placements so far, I can't emphasise enough the professional and personal skills I've developed. I've became much more independent and self-motivated, built my team working and communication skills through working on audits in big teams, improved my business acumen and awareness through exposure to a financial and economic environment, as well as many other areas.

There is a varied amount of support available to us as new starters. We get a 'buddy' who is a Flying Start student in their final placement, who we can ask any queries or concerns we have throughout the placement. We also get a career coach who we work with on our goals and aspirations, who we have meetings with at the start, middle and end of the placement to assess our progress. There are also 'Flying Start Champions' who are alumni of the Flying Start course, who are another source of help if we need it. On the jobs I have worked on there is a clear hierarchy from engagement leader down to associate. This is beneficial as it makes it clear who to go to with any issues or problems we have with the work that we are working on. From a university perspective, I always felt well supported on placement as the degree programme director of the course made it clear that she was always available for any issues we had whilst on placement. One area I found a lack of organisation was with the Flying Start team who are in-charge of organising our placements. For example, in our year there was a lot of confusion over whether we would have accommodation provided to us for this placement. We'd been informed that there was a possibility of us getting accommodation from the 23rd of January but we were never formally told that we would definitely be in accommodation until the Thursday beforehand, which was only 3-4 days before we were expected to move into the accommodation. Also, I remember particularly on last placement, which was both our first placement at the company and completely online working from home. I would have expected an email the week prior from one of the Flying Start team informing us of what we were expected to do on our first few days, who to contact, etc. however we never received this and only received correspondence from our respective offices on the Monday morning. Both of these issues created a lot of confusion and stress amongst myself and my fellow Flying Start students, so a bit more correspondence from the Flying Start team in these areas would be much appreciated.

There is a lot of opportunity for support at PwC. On our jobs, we have a more senior member of the teams that we report to, ask questions too. We then also have managers who we can go to with more serious and important issues. Away from the job there is a variety of support for us, 'buddies', career coaches, and Flying Start champions are all options available to us to support us with non-job related problems we have.

We receive learning manuals and questions banks from the training provider, ICAEW, which help us learn the content and practice questions for the ACA exams. From a university perspective, we get a personal tutor who we can go to with any worries or concerns that we are having, as well as module leaders for each of our modules at university.

The ACA modules 'Assurance', 'Audit and Assurance' and 'Accounting', 'Financial Management', and 'Financial Accounting and Reporting' are all fundamental modules that help us learn the core principles and knowledge for these topics, which we then learn real-life examples through question practice for exams, which gives us an insight into realistic scenarios. Obviously what we learn as part of our qualification can never compare to the real thing, and I do feel a lot of what I learnt in the role I learnt through practical work experience whilst on placement, rather than through my training qualification.

There are both Flying Start only and whole office social activities organised. For the last two placements, we have had 1-2 Flying Start socials, which have given us the opportunity to meet Flying Students within the other year groups and from Flying Start courses from different universities. We've also had the chance to go on a whole office social, which is organised at the end of every quarter, which again gives us the chance to meet new people. In the Manchester office in particular, there is a very social environment; everyone in the office is split into one of three teams: Diamond, Sapphire, or Emerald. There is then games and activities sent round on mailing lists each week which can earn points towards our team. Although I have not had the chance to go to one due to the timing of my placements, I know there is a sports day, as well as an office ball each year too.

Yes

There is a great work environment at PwC, both from a professional and social perspective. We are empowered to work hard to progress through the company, but also provided the support and help if we face any issues through the various support network. There is a great office culture, which is very sociable.

My biggest advice would be not to underestimate the amount of work you have to put in. Due to the placements, there is naturally less time spent at university completing those modules, so I'd recommend for those applying that they need to be driven and self-motivated to work hard.