Audit Apprentice Review

On a day to day basis, dependent on what audit discipline you are in, you will working on the same client. In my experience, the amount and complexity of the work depends on the resources allocated to the job and the size of the client. KPMG like many firms has adopted a hybrid working pattern and I generally find myself in the office 2-3 days a week.

I have learnt a handful of new skills at KPMG however, the ethos of 'high challenge, high support' more often than not, doesn't come into fruition on jobs. With myself and others often feeling flawed by the expectation of some more senior colleagues, that we should 'just know how to do this' - to me this doesn't create a supportive community and in fact isolates individuals afraid to ask for help when developing new skills.

In terms of the teaching for the programme, its a highly pressured environment, with no more than 7 days dedicated to teaching for exams (my last exam was 1 day of teaching, where we covered half of the course content and was asked to cover the remainder using online materials before the exam). The exams usually follow 2-3 weeks after the teaching. I appreciate this minimalizes the time apprentices have to spend out of the office, however believe the current set up could use some work to relieve some of the pressure presented to students in the build up to exams.

The structure of the programme, especially when we first joined, felt like a test in its self, with many apprentices feeling cut off from colleagues, with no instruction of who to contact in regards to what job they were being assigned to. I know in a few cases, individuals who joined in the September were still unassigned to an engagement in the January despite speaking to resourcing and as a result felt as though they were falling behind the rest of their cohort though no fault of their own.

As mentioned in a previous response, the ethos of 'high challenge, high support' is often left incomplete with just the high challenge portion being met. more often than not the rationale for not offering support or guidance is along the lines of: 'you are clever enough to be here so you should be just fine'. In the real world just being perceived as 'clever enough' doesn't always cut it.

BPP are generally very good and providing in-depth resources for study and making sure you receive all the correct text books and question books before teaching starts, even when completing a course remotely. They also provide after teaching steps which help to guide you through each section of the exam.

I feel like the AAT exams give a good accountancy knowledge base to build on and help with real life instances when working for clients. Although the work completed for clients is generally on a much larger scale, work can still be related back to topics and exams completed at college to help grasp an understanding of what might be going on.

yes, there are often socials to take part in as an apprentice as well as team drinks and various charity events. KPMG also offers insights into different fields within the company, although there is little to no point in going to there as an apprentice as they actively discourage movement between areas such as audit and consultancy, despite their old 360 apprentice programme focusing on people being able move between the two and experience both areas as an apprentice.

No

I would say so far my experience has been some what negative. This isn't my first job in a professional working environment, and as someone who spent time managing a small team before this job, I strongly disagree with some of the 'tactics' employed by senior colleagues to 'motivate' their teams, as more often than not it sends them the other way - in a couple of cases leading to formal complaints.

1 - research the area you are applying to and make sure it is 100% what you want to do. 2 - be prepared to manage your time well and demonstrate this as skill in the interview process. 3 - when being asked questions / asked to give an opinion, form a balanced argument and consider all sides, but go with what you genuinely believe to be correct (this will be far more convincing than going with what you think the right answer is).