Finance Apprentice Review

I work in the Projects Team in Finance, I support two PME's within the team. My role involves me posting revenue accruals into OPA at month end and reconciling and reversing them, reconciling balance sheets and highlighting any fixed balances, supporting PME's with their accounts, Updating ledgers and making judgements on accounting adjustments being made, continuous improvement.

I have learnt lots of new excel skills, I only had the basic skills before joining. I have been on presentation courses and time management and prioritisation courses too. I feel I am a lot more organised since joining Fujitsu. Since joining in the 14 month's I have been here I have completed my CIMA certificate and the 4 assignments for the Business and Management diploma that go along side it in the apprenticeship.

I think this programme is really good, I like that we have two different roles in the scheme and have found both team's enjoyable and welcoming. The work I am given now challenges me and develops me. I enjoy working in the team that I am in, everyone has been very welcoming and some tasks I am given are high profile tasks and therefore shows the trust between the team although I am only an apprentice.

I have been very lucky with both the team's I have worked in, they have all made me feel very valuable to them and I am always told how I am appreciated by my PME's for the support I give them. I have received two STARS awards since being at Fujitsu, which highlights I am valued by my team. We are always given the same opportunities as PME's to get involved in projects and tasks. I am involved in a continuous improvement project of testing a data loader called Budget Wizard, that we have to decide after our testing in a month whether to pitch this tool to the rest of the business.

The programme is only in its 3rd year here at Fujitsu so I was the 2nd intake of Finance Apprentices. I think the induction we had was really good, and we had quarterly events with the other apprentices to learn new skills and support one another with training which is good. Our Apprentice managers will always pop round to us once a month to see if everything is ok and if we have any query's we know we are free to email them. We have monthly meetings with our team managers and a 6 month review with the apprentice managers too. They are always keen to know where we are at and any support they can give to help us progress.

BPP Support us as much as they can. The training we get in college when we sit our courses is good and teachers are always happy to spend time outside class to help you understand something. If I have a query I can always email my BPP advisor who will point me in the right direction to solving my query whether it be assignment or exam help or reimbursement of exams. We have monthly progress review calls too which is there way of seeing where we are at.

Our managers are very understanding as they recognise it wasn't long ago they were doing exams, they support us with both exams and our workload, if we don't understand a task, they will take time out to support us. The PME's we support always take time to go through accounting terms we may not understand and give us support with the tasks they set. I personally do not have a mentor, but I know other apprentices who do and they think it is valuable to have someone other than your manager to discuss issues and progression with.

For an Apprentice I think our salary is a fair wage and because I am still living at home and this job is within 15 minute drive for me it is fine. But as I start to look at living costs of buying a place, I know this salary would not be sufficient to do so, but at 20 I think it is fine compared to the other option of uni and debt.

There are many charity events throughout the year, we recently had a CSR day painting a charity home as a team which was a good opportunity and fun. There are always events, quizzes, exercise classes, it's just about going there. When I wasn't working I was at school and had a part time job, this job gives me more opportunities than just a work role.

Yes

Fujitsu is a great company and I have enjoyed my two years here, everyone is so welcoming and appreciative of you and your work which is nice to see as an apprentice. It is not like a job you would expect, I think we are trusted with more responsibilities than I imagined at our age which is good.

Be confident, know the company well as you will be asked what you know and they will be impressed if you have done some background research. In the interview they like you to have a conversation rather than just question and answer, it is important to see you have social skills as well as academic abilities. Any experience even sports or hobbies is worth mentioning as they like to know about what you do in your spare time. You just have to make sure you stand out.