Finance Degree Apprentice Review

Throughout the Apprenticeship with JLR you move through a variety of Finance based roles. From Accounts Payable to Special Vehicle Operations; you could be recharging inter company costs or managing a full programme or model year. This involves you interacting with a range of key stakeholders, such as other Finance teams, Purchasing, Engineering and Marketing

In each different role you are placed in, you discover a different range of skills. An example has been in depth accounting knowledge, along with inventory management. Additionally, the wide range of social and business events allow you to develop your team working, leadership and communication skills. As you move through your apprenticeship, these skills are built upon.

Working at Jaguar Land Rover has been exciting, but also eye opening at the same time. I enjoy my programme at Jaguar Land Rover, as it allows me to build a wide network of colleagues across different functions, and is flexible in allowing me to move to roles which I feel will benefit me, and which I will enjoy.

The organisation of the programme has been one of very few down sides to the programme. On application, it can take weeks/months for a reply. Additionally, on interview, it can take weeks for an offer. This lack of communication is mirrored in the introduction to the Apprenticeship - it lacks structure and clear guidance.

Jaguar Land Rover provides support where necessary. In each role you are placed in, you are given a handover by the previous apprentice in the role or the team in which you are placed. Additionally, they allow you study days to go to CIMA. The only downside is that if you fail, you could be left behind with little support.

The training provider, BPP, run sessions for each course. It also has an online portal whereby it issues the lectures, notes and pass cards to assist with revision. After the first year, you can choose to do home study or Online live, this is where the support could be seen to drop in effect.

In more transactional, technical roles, the accounting modules at BPP could be seen to directly relate to the work you do in your role - and therefore should be able to help you perform better. However, in most cases this isn't really the case as accounting techincalities are rarely used in everyday roles.

Yes - there are a few extra curricular activities I have been involved in at jaguar land rover. The Finance People Initiative arrange events usually every quarter - one of these is Sports Day. Additionally, a company wide event called JLR challenge is run annually - which involves a weekend of camping and activities.

Yes

They are a well paying, prestigious company which provide good employee benefits. Jaguar Land Rover opens the door to a wide network and vast opportunities which will aid with development and progression in your career. Overall, I would recommend due to my positive performance of my time at JLR so far.

Be yourself - whether that's really quiet, or really loud. It is really important to let your personality shine through in your interview and group assessment. At the end of the day, you will have to work in this environment for atleast 5 years so this will come through anyway.