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We Caught Up with Aisha to Discuss the Application Process of a Degree Apprenticeship, Her RMS Journey, and Advice for Future Applicants
I’ve been boarding at RMS for 6 years, and I truly believe that it has shaped both my personal and academic journey: I’ve learned to be more independent, organised, and proactive, skills that have prepared me well for life beyond school.
The route of a degree apprenticeship has always been plan A for me since the start of year 12. I understand the value of education as well as experience, therefore the idea of having the opportunity to complete both at the same time was incredibly appealing. It not only ensures that I’m continuously challenged, but helps me develop practical skills, and receive an income while studying – something that a traditional university path doesn’t offer.
Can you give us an overview of what your degree apprenticeship entails and how you’re feeling after receiving the news?
After receiving the offer, I was relieved and excited that all the effort I put into preparing for this opportunity had finally paid off. I received an offer under the commercial audit team at Grant Thornton : this will consist of working at client sites to provide them with insights, advice, and expertise to help their businesses grow. This means not only building trusting relationships with clients but also understanding how their operations work. My responsibilities will include examining financial records, attending stock takes, carrying out audit tests, and completing audit files. The projects I’ll be involved with can range from short, two-day assignments to longer, in-depth projects lasting up to eight weeks. Alongside this, I will be completing many exams in order to complete the CFAB as well as the ACA.
Can you tell us about your journey towards securing a degree apprenticeship at Grant Thornton Accounting?
For my application, I applied through the ignite work experience programme, which was essentially a ‘fast track’ to applying. This consisted of many online assessments, which included activities like timed case studies, to which the recruitment team would go through and select individuals who performed successfully to attend the work experience. The 4 day experience at their firm in Finsbury square was extremely informative and immersive as we had workshops and lots of networking activities with previous apprentices and employees at Grant Thornton. Throughout this, the recruitment team were keeping an eye out on us and were noting how well we worked in a team and integrated with other peers in the programme. This experience ultimately led to an interview: I found this part of the process particularly nice as it was a very relaxed environment and the manager who had interviewed me was very kind and understanding. Then, a week later I had received and accepted an offer from the firm!
What inspired you to pursue this opportunity?
A former student at RMS, Joana, who I followed on social media inspired me to pursue an apprenticeship after contacting her during the beginning of year 11. I had asked her about her experience at Google and she gave me a lot of encouragement and advice on how to apply. Alongside this was personal curiosity and passion – at this point apprenticeships were rising in popularity and as I developed my understanding and knowledge of them, I became more keen on this route.
What role did RMS play in supporting you throughout your application process or in your career aspirations in general?
RMS supported me significantly as an individual, which I believe has shaped my application process as a whole. Opportunities such as Young enterprise, being in school productions, attending clubs, and being a prefect have all shaped and enhanced my resilience, confidence, communication and ability to work well in a team.
More specifically, Miss Pickfords’ help has been invaluable: She sets up apprenticeship sessions aspiring apprentices at RMS can attend. This provided me with application tracking sheets, advice, sheets with apprenticeship opportunities whilst also helping me with preparing for interviews, writing cover letters and reading through offer contracts.
What skills or experiences do you think set you apart during the application and interview stages?
Growing up, I’ve learnt opportunities will never come to me just by doing nothing, but come by being proactive and putting myself out there, even if I feel out of my comfort zone. With that, I have developed and experienced many scenarios and have a large variety of examples I implemented throughout my interview. During group activities I made sure I supported my peers as well as contributing to the work. Throughout the entire process, I was authentic, which is something the interviewer said he valued.
What are you most excited about as you embark on this apprenticeship journey with Grant Thornton?
I’m most excited about working with clients from Grant Thornton and understanding how they operate and how I can learn from these companies. I am also excited to meet and work with the commercial audit apprentice team as well as working on projects, throughout the programme.
Can you share any advice or tips for students who may be interested in pursuing similar opportunities in the future?
First, I’d advise students to be proactive and seek opportunities for work experience whether it is virtual or in person. Although it isn’t extremely vital to have, it does show employers you have passion and desire for development of understanding within the sector in which you’d like to pursue. Work experience was valuable for me as it helped me develop an understanding of what I valued in a company: It could also make you realise you don’t/do enjoy a certain sector, which is much better to find out earlier in a work experience than being stuck in a job for an extensive amount of time.
I’d also advise to keep a lookout on when apprenticeships open and note this down – I did this in year 12 and it provided me more guidance on timings and what I should expect.
Join whatsapp groups with aspiring apprenticeships – it makes you feel less alone and you learn from each other – these can be found on Linkedln.
Make a spreadsheet to organise all of your applications as it will definitely feel overwhelming if you don’t – you can get these ready made by Miss Pickford so utilise this as they are very useful!
For interviews, remember It is normal to feel scared and nervous before and maybe even during the interview, but just remember this is an opportunity to show your hard work off to the interviewer. Advice from my form tutor, which helped me calm my nerves before the interview, was to remind myself the interviewer is a human too, they laugh, cry and feel scared, which made me feel less nervous entering the interview room. Use the STAR method Situation Task Action Result if you feel nervous to give you more guidance. For virtual interviews make sure you do preparation, there are many useful sites online to prepare!
I would advise submitting UCAS applications by early October: I did this and it allowed me to focus more on my applications for apprenticeships, whilst also giving me the comfort of having my plan B. I had already applied to 11 different companies before I had received my offer at Grant Thornton, ultimately being rejected by 4.
Finally, more personal advice to students who are applying to apprenticeship is not to be too disheartened by rejections, you are not alone and many other aspiring apprentices will be feeling the same. The application processes can get extremely time consuming especially when balancing A level revision . However, I am a firm believer that hard work will always be recognised and pay off, whether it is in your first few applications or your very last, or much further in the future, you will always learn something from your experience – just because it doesn’t work now doesn’t mean it won’t work in the future!
Congratulations to Aisha on her incredible achievement, and thank you for inspiring us with your story!