Tom Achieves ‘Big Four’ Apprenticeship

Former Sixth Former (2018), Tom Foster, has been accepted onto the Ernst & Young (EY) 5-year Apprenticeship School-Leaver programme as an ACA trainee to become an accountant.  

ACA is an Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and internationally recognised qualification.

Below, Tom talks about his journey from initially deciding on a career in finance, making the choice between university or an apprenticeship, and how he persevered in the pursuit of his chosen career.

"In February 2017 I decided that long term I wanted to train to become an accountant as a future career and so I started to look for suitable work experience in this field. I applied to the ‘Big Four’ financial services firms, PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG, for a place on the week-long paid work experience programmes offered during the summer holidays.  However, I was unsuccessful at this time but learnt a great deal about the process and where I could improve. 

At the same time, I was considering whether an apprenticeship or university would work best work for me. Initially I had ambitions to study economics and finance at university, either UCL, LSE or Warwick.  Taking the university route would mean a 4-year university course followed by a further 3 years at an accountancy firm to qualify.  

The apprenticeship route is quicker to reach the end goal and you are paid whilst you learn, rather than accumulating debt.  I considered the experience of friends and family and the combination of everything gave me a view on what I thought would suit me best.

My unsuccessful applications to the work experience programmes had shown me that preparation and timeliness were very important to successfully securing a place on competitive apprenticeship programmes.   With this in mind, I prepared thoroughly and when the Ernst & Young apprenticeship applications opened in summer 2017, I applied straight away submitting my CV from my holiday in Cornwall.

My application was accepted and I was quickly sent a set of online aptitude tests to complete, including maths and verbal reasoning tests. Once I had passed these tests I was then onto the third stage, an online situational judgement test which included a set of multiple choice questions on real life business scenarios. I researched the best approach and applied my learning to the answers.  Success at this stage resulted in being invited to the 4th stage of selection, a day at an assessment centre in one of the EY London offices.   After successfully completing this final step, I was finally offered a place on the programme.

Now, instead of attending university I will be moving to London to joining Ernst & Young and studying for 5 years towards my ACA qualification which has the potential to open up opportunities worldwide.

I will not only have no student debt but will also be earning a respectable salary throughout my studies. It has been a tough entry process but if I had the choice between university and an apprenticeship again, I would make the same choice."

We wish Tom all the best as he starts on the first step of what is sure to be a rewarding and exciting career!

Ernst & Young offers a comprehensive range of careers advice and opportunities. Read more about this on their website here.