Audit Apprenticeship Review

The job involves learning how to audit businesses within a specific sector (you get allocated a sector when you first start). You learn to use new technology such as Clara and the role also heavily involves the use of excel to write up work papers to write up your results. When starting the role heavily involves ticking in invoices to prove their expenditure agrees to what they are saying it is.

I have learnt about new technologies that I would have never have know if I wasn't to start this job. You will learn many shortcuts within excel as well to improve the effectiveness of writing up work papers. You also learn skills within being in a corporate environment- adapting how you write emails dependent on who it is and how to structure it well, which is an extension on what most people are taught in school.

I am really enjoying my programme at the moment. I have only had one exam so far which is good as I can get some work experience instead of constantly being at college for a lot of the time within my first few months at KPMG. Learning new skills while working is good as it is a more practical way of becoming more confident in what you are doing a lot quicker than if it was all written.

It is organised well in terms of the timings of things. When you first start you will go to college for the first few weeks which in my opinion is essential to learnt the basics of accounting. Then after your first exam is over you get quite a while to just be assigned to jobs without the worry of exams for a little while, allowing you to settle into the job better.

Receive a lot of support from people on your team. They generally have a wide range of people at different stages within their career at KPMG, so you have the chance to ask whoever you feel most comfortable questions, whether that is someone who is quite new, so they are at a similar stage to you, or if it is someone more senior, who can answer more questions.

You have access to an online hub which has lots of revision tools to help in-between learning the content and your exam. It is very useful to have everything you need in one space. There is also an online tutor you have access to so if you have any questions you can ask them, who are well trained and very helpful.

The qualifications give you the knowledge you need to perform the job most effectively. Before I joined KPMG I came straight from sixth form so had no knowledge of accountancy so going straight into working would have been difficult. By doing the level 3 bookkeeping qualification first, it gave me basic knowledge that I could use when booked onto jobs.

There are always socials booked usually on Friday after work. This allows all work colleagues to get to know each other more outside or a working environment, which is especially good when new and don't know anyone. There are also networking events which allow different offices to get to know each other which allows people to expand their network within a bigger environment.

Yes

In my opinion going down the apprenticeship route rather than Uni is a much better option as you are getting paid to learn a qualification that you would have to pay for over x amount of years if you went to Uni. By working while studying for your qualification, your knowledge improves quicker as you are getting more experience. KPMG offers apprenticeships with a good salary as well, most apprenticeships only offer a small pay as they are paying for your qualification. Because it is such a large company, there are many people in the same shoes as you, so you don't ever feel alone.

Be yourself, KPMG is a very inclusive company so acting the same as you think other people would doesn't show off your personality. Read into the job role, it is a 5 year apprenticeship, you want to be sure enough you are going to enjoy before accepting the job.