Accountancy apprenticeships

[rasto]

Bit of a long shot, but probably worth me asking here. My eldest daughter has just finished her A levels (Accountancy, Maths and Photography) and is looking into apprenticeship schemes. I will also cross post this in jobs & employment, but as she is hoping to find somewhere local to us (Woking) I thought it might be worth asking in here.

So, does anyone work at an accountancy firm or business offering apprenticeship schemes?

Cheers
Rob

[rasto]

Sigh

I had hoped to leave this thread in TV&S so that the locals would see it, I already had a thread in here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Thanks for the input Jack, Kris & Eric, she has a 2nd interview at another place next week that we are keeping our fingers crossed for. I just want to get her to cover all the bases by applying elsewhere.

[rasto]

Time for an update

Has anyone heard of this company?

http://www.taxassist.co.uk

She has just been offered an apprenticeship with them so I'm doing a bit of a background check.

[rasto]

L4CON said:

TaxAssist is focused on a high volume of low complexity work, so it doesn't really seem like to the best place to start off in my opinion.

I'd certainly recommend looking at bigger firms where she would get exposed to bigger clients and be more likely to have a structured development pathway. Obviously I'm not speaking from experience, but an apprenticeship at a TaxAssist franchise seems like it may just be cheap labour for them to churn out very simple tax returns.

Out of interst, what qualification/s are being offered in the apprenticeship? And would your daughter be given paid study leave to attend college, or expected to do all study in her own time?

Thanks for that, you confirmed what I was thinking. She would be studying for an AAT level 3 as part of the scheme, we are trying to find out if the study time is included in the hours she has been quoted.

[rasto]

Thanks for all the comments

She's been looking for an apprenticeship since finishing her A levels and hasn't had much luck, this is the first offer in 3 months.

Ideally she would get a position in a proper accountancy firm, however roles like this don't seem to exist. Another problem is that for junior roles a lot of places want the candidate to have previous experience. Yes, this role will probably not be ideal and has very low pay but she will get the chance to obtain an AAT qualification and get the all important work experience at the same time. If she treats it as a first step on the career ladder then that can't be a bad thing.

[rasto]

She has now accepted the role with them, fingers crossed time

[rasto]

We haven't received the paperwork yet, but she will be studying 1 day a week at a company that handles the apprenticeship side of the job. As far as I can tell, they are essentially a recruitment agency that also have training/education facilities and they handle the education side of the apprenticeship. They found her the job at TaxAssist.

Edit: I think it's an AAT level 3 that she will be studying for - she's away this weekend so I can't find out for sure.

[rasto]

Time for an update. She spent a year doing an apprenticeship (on a shockingly low salary) with long hours mainly due to the commute and has just qualified AAT level 3. Even better news is that she is about to start a new job at McLaren on a vastly increased salary (£1k a month better off!) with almost no commute as we live about 3 miles from them. It's taken a while, but her hard work has paid off and she has a great opportunity to take her career forward

Special thanks to Krisdelta for letting us know about the McLaren job

[rasto]

Plus the two years she did at 6th form

The accountancy A level was probably a mistake really as the AAT level 3 covered the same ground however when she started 6th form accountancy was her backup plan and it only kicked in as her way forward when she decided that marine biology and university wasn't what she wanted.

[rasto]

eyebeebe said:

Congratulations to her. Will she now move on to doing a Charter (CIMA or ACCA)? AAT is really only the beginning of a career and a gateway qualification to start with CIMA or ACCA (or ACA if she went into practice, but that seems unlikely now). I would expect her career to advance further and faster with a charter behind her. Most reputable companies are more than happy to provide a study package including tuition and study leave in return for a commitment to staying for a few years.

McLaren are very keen for her to keep up her studies and will be supporting her once her probation period has finished. Looking at everything they have sent her, it looks like they like to look after their staff.