software engineering degree apprentice Review

The course is a superior option to university as I have already learn so much about the technology industry alongside my studies. I feel I am 'ahead of the curve' and my career is accelerating at a rate which would not have even started yet if I were to just have went to uni. Accenture provide all the support I could ask for; from training programmes, to a network of people such as a career counsellor, an apprentice ambassador, people advisor and line managers. I am proud to be apart of Accenture and what it represents, and feel that I have already had a brilliant start to my career. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into technology.

I have learnt technical skills in DevOps, teamcentre, AWS, as well as fundamentally being exposed to great teamwork and communication throughout projects. I feel like I'm a different person to nearly two years ago since starting Accenture due to how much I've learnt. I've developed management skills which I'd never done before Accenture leading a workstream which brought all new kinds of skills out of me.

I enjoy the programme as it leaves a lot to apprentices to make their own choices. How involved you want to be in events and participating can be down to the apprentices and they are able to choose what technology area they can flourish in. Flexibility is key in Accenture- there's always a course you can do to get you to where you want to be.

The course is well organised now after having several years of apprentices doing it. University side can be a little unstructured, not knowing what modules we will be taking next year and some exam dates. The Accenture side is well structured and the years have consisted of what they said it would be like at the start.

I receive support in all different forms, from the network of people that I can reach out to including buddies, career counsellors, people advisors, ambassadors, line managers and other apprentices. All in all, theres a person specific to whatever your question is, and they will usually be happy to answer it.

The university could be a bit better, the lab work we do is often stressful in a set amount of time of an hour to complete a tutorial and quite complicated. The practicals happen immediately after lectures, not giving you much time to learn what you need to do and contributes to your coursework which adds to the pressure. Different coursework style would be better for apprentices.

I do not find to be much overlap but I can see how it might help in the future. It has been good building a foundation level of knowledge but feel it can go into too much detail on computer science and do not find much about the exciting different areas of technology other than coding.

There are lots of clubs and societies that you can join, some of them are more active than others. There are a lot of networking events although not too many just for apprentices. It would be good to encourage apprentices to begin societies of their own and perhaps create a closer community.

Yes

Its a great company to begin your career with, you can do so many different training courses so if you're passionate about a particular type of technology, you can certainly find something to get into. You will be on a variety of roles which will expose you to all sorts of industries.

I would advise them to show a passion for technology, and know that Accenture look for personable, characteristic people, not necessarily the most experienced and qualified! They look for leaders, team players, inventors, motivators and creatives, so being articulate and curious is something they will appreciate. Just do your research and be yourself, and if you fit in than that will be enough!