L7 Finance Graduate Review

While being on the graduate scheme, I’ve also been working towards a L7 apprenticeship. The nature of the grad scheme means rotating through three 12 month placements within different financial roles and teams. Roles are varied but mainly involve balance sheet and P&L reporting along with commercial finance too.

The apprenticeship scheme is built around a specific list of knowledge, skills and behaviours. Therefore across the apprenticeship as a whole I have built and developed many skills that have contributed to the apprenticeship logged hours. As part of this, the apprenticeship has challenged me to take part and volunteer for various events to further develop myself.

I really enjoy the programme I’m on, as it supports me completing my CIMA qualification alongside the grad scheme and Level 7 apprenticeship. There’s lots of support available regarding CIMA and professional development as part of the apprenticeship scheme, along with internal programmes at Nestle for further development.

The apprenticeship scheme is organised well with regular catch-ups with your apprenticeship learning coach. They provide a lot of support and guidance and are always available to answer questions and provide a contact email for further information. Internally at Nestle there are lots of grad and apprenticeship weeks/events to support development that contributes to the apprenticeship hours.

Many people within the business have also completed CIMA so they can relate to the struggles of studying whilst working. If I have any questions, there’s a large support network of other graduates studying CIMA too or other finance colleagues within the team. However externally, I can reach out to my leaning coach or the Kaplan support team/lecturers.

As previously mentioned, the apprenticeship scheme is organised well with regular catch-ups with your apprenticeship learning coach. They provide a lot of support and guidance and are always available to answer questions and provide a contact email for further information. Previously I’ve reached out to the Kaplan student support team too.

I have found that the CIMA qualification as part of the apprenticeship provides a significant basis and building block to working within finance. It has allowed me to feel confident within my abilities when starting a new role, as I have an initial understanding of the topic area so it has been very useful.

There’s a lot of professional networking events within Finance and the broader departments. However the main area of networking and activities is within your current team or cohort with the other graduates in different departments. As part of graduate weeks, group events are organised for every evening whilst the event is running.

Yes

Nestle has an amazing culture and really cares about its people. Everyone is friendly and their opinion is appreciated and considered. I’ve experienced that there’s a lot of support available regardless of what team you’re working in and individuals higher up in the business are happy to set time aside for discussion. Nestle also pays well and has a huge number of other perks.

The application to Nestle involves the following at the time I applied: - initial application - psychometric tests - recorded video interview with recorded answers to questions that popped up on screen - Assessment centre My advice would be to showcase yourself in the best light by being yourself throughout the application, but also research a bit about Nestle too.