PWC Flying start Business management higher level apprenticeship Review

In my apprenticeship I have been selected to work within the financial crime service tower, on project my role was to perform CDDR on businesses that banked with the client we were working with. This involved me doing right ups of the ownership of these businesses, the criminal history of the owners, the trading activity of the business and transactions of the business. I reviewed this and checked to see if it was plausible for their business (plausible meaning having no evidence of financial crime). If I found evidence of financial crime (such as payments to a country with sanctions) then I would have to escalate it to a different team for further investigation.

I definitely have, presentations skills are one of the skills I learnt as we had to present on a team huddle what are plan was for the day. Communication was another skill, this is because if I didn't know what to do I had to go to a more experienced staff member and talk through the problem I had and we worked together to solve it.

I enjoy my programme to a high extent. This is because it gives me the opportunity to earn a very high salary as I also acquire experience that will be highly valuable for employers in the future. I enjoy working with others my age, this helped with the jump from school to full time work.

It is very well organised and structured. In my programme we work monday to Thursday and attend University on Friday, I feel that a 4 day work week is perfect for productivity and balance, university allows a nice change at the end of the week to partake in different activities.

I receive a high level of support as I am given a career coach who checks in on my regularly and ensures that I am not overworked in my job or in University. I also have a team lead who ensures that I am not overworked when working in a project.

I receive a large degree of support from my training provider as I have a lecturer for each module that I do in university, they are more than happy to answer any questions that i ask of them and to take on any feedback that I would give to them.

I feel that my qualification does help me to perform better in my role, this is because in my role I need to know the ins-and-outs of business, this includes terminology about shareholders, customers, suppliers, etc. The content I am taught in university gives me a good understanding of business.

There are many extra-curricular activities that gives me the opportunities to get involved with more people and groups at work. For example I have been looking to get back into mixed martial arts/ boxing, in work there is a google group chat of people in the local area looking to get involved too. In this we support each other and give each other advice and information.

Yes

There are many reasons I would recommend PWC to a friend, this first reason being there focus on wellbeing. They have a dedicated wellbeing area on the 5th floor of their belfast building. They also have 'The deal', this allows flexible working, therefore taking away from stress. PWC care about their employees.

I would tell them to just be themselves during the interview process. This is because PWC places a strong value on individuality, they genuinely want people to bring their own specific strengths to the table and work together to solve important problems for society. Don't pretend to be someone you don't want to be.