Finance Apprentice Review

by L'Oreal

Best Apprenticeship Employer

Rating

7.5/10

1. Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:

PPD Commercial finance focuses on ensuring the P&L and balance sheet accurately reflect the ongoing commercial agreements by taking the relevant accruals and releasing used accruals for several reasons (audit, ethics, financial management). The priority is the day-to-day management of accruals, commercial agreements, and customers’ ledger.

9/10

2. Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?

Having just come out of school before my apprenticeship, I had to learn a lot of new things: teamwork, professional skills, accounting, excel, influencing, presentation skills. It was all so new to me. Luckily, I have the support around to learn these and many more skills.

8/10

3. To what extent do you enjoy your programme?

I will admit, moving to a 9-5 after just finishing school was a shock to me. It took some getting used to, especially with juggling a degree at the same time. Overall it has been really enjoyable despite some teething problems of getting used to a new routine/job.

7/10

4. How well organised/structured is your programme?

Work Mon-Thurs, University lectures on Fridays. Work is very respectful of my time at university so it makes it easy to compartmentalise both. I am also given half a day of study leave for each of my assignments, which enables me to have a clear structure for when to work on what.

8/10

5. How much support do you receive from your employer?

Weekly meetings with my line manager as well as a very supportive team which helps a lot. I receive a good level (and good quality) of feedback from my manager and the necessary support to act on this feedback as well.

9/10

6. How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?

Support is available, but in my experience it is hard to find.

6/10

7. How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?

I find that the most learning I do is through my job. My training provider provides me with knowledge on things which my job is not quite related to. This is beneficial as I receive a large scope of knowledge through both. My qualification helps my knowledge, but I personally struggle to see if it directly affects my job performance.

5/10

8. Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)

8/10

9a. Would you recommend L'Oreal to a friend?

Yes

9b. Why?

It is a great company to learn from. People instantly recognise it and (although scary at first) it can be very fruitful to work in such a big company. It also has good benefits and great streams for development and growth in your career.

10. What tips or advice would you give to others applying to L'Oreal?

Be open to anything that comes up!