Tech Degree Apprentice Review

I am a regular student at the University of Birmingham and do summer placements with PwC, alongside a Year in Industry with them. I have worked in their Tech Risk team under Assurance and in their Tax team in the Quality Assurance team. Both were great experiences and left me wanting to dive in deeper with the company.

I have definitely been looked upon well from my time at the company, being viewed as almost an internal "tech consultant", providing advice to the internal teams as to how they could better use technology. My degree has helped me to offer this advice. I have pushed solutions like the cloud and other automation tools to help speed up day to day tasks. This has helped me to develop my soft skills when it comes to consultancy.

I thoroughly enjoy my Degree Apprenticeship, PwC really gives you the best of both worlds, giving you hands on experience during the summers whilst being able to study like a regular student at the University of Birmingham. The culture at PwC is second to none, with every single person being encouraging and offering plenty of support.

The structure has been really good, allowing me to spend my full year at the University and instead of having to look for a job during the summers, I am spending it in a company I know well and can actually help make a difference with. The organisation of placements hasnt been the smoothest though and I know of a lot of people who have been disappointed. Also from the University side there have definitely been some hiccups but I do believe them all to be teething problems as we are the first cohort to go through this.

There is plenty of support from PwC, a lot of perks such as mental health support, private health care and pension are some of the benefits. But on a smaller scale, it is as simple as it being really easy to speak to people and everyone being incredibly approachable makes a big difference.

The University have been good, but they can definitely do better when it comes to feedback and sharing marks and improvements with us. This process has not been timely and will quite often not get marks back before our next assignment. We could have better association to tutors and people we can go directly to when we need support, this could be improved.

I feel as though the degree will serve me better throughout my life, however the direct association with the content and PwC is not great. The content we are learning about does not directly correlate with the work PwC are doing, however I believe it to be more useful when technology in the firm really starts to take off.

We often have socials and networking events where everyone makes a real effort to speak to all the new "Tech Degree Apprentices" as they call us the "Future of the Firm", suggesting that we will be the next wave of specialists in the field and help push the firms technology practices further.

Yes

It is an incredible place to work, lots of fun and they make you feel like you are truly making a difference. I have had a great experience with them, have enjoyed all the perks and the job itself can be really rewarding after they give you the ownership and responsibility of tasks.

Just be yourself! PwC invests in its people, we are their assets, so just be yourself and enjoy taking about yourself during interviews. PwC want to check that you are right for them but also that they are right for you, they truly want the best for people, so just come as yourself and share your passion for this sector!