Corporate Assistant Review

I work for an accountancy / audit firm as a corporate assistant in the Financial Services team. This means that I work in Audit. In particular, I work in the insurance department. A day working as an auditor is never the same, but in general as an auditor I am monitoring an insurance companies accounts.

I have learnt lots of new skills. From sitting the first 6 exams of my ACA I have gained valuable finance and accounting knowledge. Through work I have developed my excel skills as well as many other skills such as teamwork and communication. I also now have a strong understanding of the insurance sector.

Overall I enjoy the programme. I like how there are many different clients to work on which means that you work in lots of different teams. This enables you to make lots of new friends and socialise. There is also a good amount of graduates so the socials are always good fun.

The programme is quite structured. There was some lack of understanding at the start of the apprenticeship however this has now been cleared as we have worked at the company for longer. We know that we use BPP to study towards our ACA exams and Mazars as our job provider and funding for the exams.

Overall there is good support from the employer. They provide us with 5 study leave days as well as the compulsory days of for learning in college. They are quite flexible of when you get your exams done as long as you dont fall behind schedule. Your line manager will also regularly check in on you.

BPP keep us informed of where we are with our studies. In person teaching has been extremely useful and module leaders have been very supportive. BPP also phone us every 3 months to check in on ourselves and to ensure that we are complying with the skills and behaviours to acheieve the ACA qualification

The qualification definitely helps to improve my finance and accounting knowledge. The more exams I complete the easier my work becomes. However, some modules that we do learn are not too relevant to the role. However, I guess that they may be relevant to other people who also study for the ACA

Yes, Mazars has a very good social insurance commitee that often host social events such as bowling or breakfasts club. There was alos a very good Christmas do in December. There are also many societies at Mazars that you can get involved in such as badminton or chess. They also often enter London running races as a team.

Yes

Mazars is a great company to work for, everybody is extremely friendly and helpful and there are many different areas of the company which you can work. There is a good balance between work and social lives and the size of the team is something that I find to be perfect

To be yourself in the interviewing process. To so lots of research on the company and how the ACA qualification works. How BPP provide the training for the ACA and also which area of the firm you think that you will be best suited towards, whether this is Financial Services or I&S.