Audit Apprentice Review

Most days, I am working rather than studying. You are working as part of a team and for me there is a strong split between working and learning. We are given days when we have college to go and learn the course so that we can achieve our professional qualifications and this all counts as off the job learning, which is about 20% of your time allocation. Most days, it's like a regular job.

Working in a professional environment has given me so many skills, not least communication, teamwork, and professionalism. This is all on the job things that you pick up along the way, benefitting from the expertise of your colleagues. I have also of course learnt a lot from my days in college and studying for my professional qualification exams.

I think the programme is well structured to ensure you are supported in your learning as well as doing a good job for your team and learning how to perform your role well. The company ensures you are given good time off in order to study, revise and pass your exams, as well as a day a month for training on areas around your day-to-day job.

The introduction to life at the company is structured very well, having been given an induction week to introduce us to programmes the company uses, lifestyle and expectations, etc. We are then given lots of training and support especially throughout the first few months where we may still be finding our feet. There's also ample time to study on top of this.

The firm uses progress managers who will be assigned to you despite the team you are put on and sticks with you when you change teams, this helps to give continuous support and guidance if it is needed. We are also given a buddy and everyone is really friendly and happy to support you.

The training provider is extremely good, in my opinion. There is a mixture of face-to-face and video-call learning when studying for our exams. We are given paper resources no matter what which really helps and keeps us organised. They ensure tutors answer questions on forums / provide their emails if you are stuck for whatever reason. They also have an outstanding Virtual Learning Environment to aid learning.

The qualifications that we gain whilst in this role are outstanding and extremely valuable. With more basic exams taking place first, we are given a good background into the field which helps with settling in and building a good base. More complex exams set to take place in future will help make us more specialised when we complete accounting aspects of our day-to-day job.

There is a social committee dedicated to ensuring that, especially post-covid, we get a chance to interact with each other and go out after work. There is also lots of sports clubs and volunteering opportunities for us to take advantage of. We are also encouraged to go into the office whenever we can as this of course helps build that involvement in extra-curricular life.

Yes

The firm has been really supportive and helped to provide a great first step into the professional world, in addition to providing excellent qualifications that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. Everyone at the firm is really friendly and there's a great environment all around. I'm very happy here.

Make sure you do research around the company, what they do and what they stand for. Make sure you yourself are happy with what you read. Make sure you are passionate about what your job role will be. Don't be nervous for any assessment days / interviews as everyone is friendly and remember everyone has been through what you are going through so they understand how you're feeling.