Flying Start Degree Programme, FS1, Reading Review

I got involved in a wide range of activities during my placement. These activities included helping with the admin side of audit as well as actively testing and completing some of the tasks required as part of the audit. I also visited client sites a couple of times during my placement.

I have learnt many new skills whilst on placement due to never having done audit before there were lots of parts to learn as to what is required from the basics to actually completing some of the audit tasks. I also have developed my confidence and interpersonal skills by speaking with new people and teams regularly.

I enjoyed getting to know the people on my teams and learning new areas of audit during my placement. There is a lot of content and knowledge required so it keeps me constantly learning new things which I enjoy. However, I appreciate that Covid played a part in my ability to interact fully with some teams due to working from home guidance from the government etc so I feel I did not connect to some teams as much as I had hoped but there were measures in place and we could arrange virtual meetings and get to know our teams. I am looking forward to my next placement as I am hoping things will go back to some normality and more office base interaction.

There is a clear structure for the flying start degree programme so we know when we are at university and when we are on placement as well as when the exams will be taken. The dates are given to us in advance so we know when we are on placements and when to return back to teaching as we start back early at university.

There are multiple streams of support from PwC, we were assigned buddies and career coaches early on in our placement who we can ask questions on anything we are stuck on or just for a catch up. We were also introduced to others from the flying start programme as well as those connected to our university to make our support network larger.

We have a personal tutor at university who we have meetings with to check how we are getting on and can ask questions should we have any. There are also multiple streams of support should it be needed through the university pastoral care but other lecturers are also happy to help you develop too.

I think the training has helped as I was aware of some of the basics required within audit before starting and understood some of the basic accounting principles so when I was faced with a new task there was something familiar or I understood why it was needed. As I progress through the programme I hope that the training will continue to reflect what is needed for when I am on placement.

There have been a few social activities to get involved in and network with others within the office and I believe there may be some sports teams to join however, due to covid I am not sure how these are currently working as I have not had the chance to get involved yet.

Yes

Everyday you learn something new and are usually very busy within your audit team so there are lots of tasks to complete. The people who I have spoken to are friendly and want to help if you are ever stuck and there is an overall good moral in the office.

I would advise that you research PwC and understand their core values as a company, as well as have an understanding of what career path you may wish to take and if working in a corporate environment may be for you. There is a lot of content and hard work to do so as long as you enjoy learning new things it is a great place to be.