Meet our first cohort of Level 2 Finance Apprentices

Article summary: Read more about our first cohort of Finance Apprentices and find out how they’re getting on with their course so far.

Our first cohort of Level 2 Finance Apprentices started their course in September with our finance instructor Karen Nicholls and took their first AAT exam last month. We are so pleased that the class passed with 2 distinctions and 2 merit grades!

Read more about our first cohort below and find out how they’re getting on with the course so far:

Tyler Herron
Cura Homecare
Accountant Apprentice

“It’s going really well so far. I really liked the idea of earning money whilst learning, being at college for 5 days a week just didn’t appeal to me. I liked the idea of earning and working at the same time, so I found the apprenticeship on Indeed when I was looking for jobs. I didn’t have a particular interest in finance beforehand, I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I just applied and found myself successful! At work, I do general bookkeeping, invoicing and organising of hours and holiday.

“So far I’ve found that doing the learning here helps me to understand my job role better and I’m able to apply the knowledge I learn here at work. In the future I want to have my own company at some point and become a fully qualified chartered accountant.”

Aidan Jones
SMR Automotives UK
Finance Costing Apprentice

“It’s going good so far, really enjoyable. I was looking for an apprenticeship anyway as I didn’t want to go to uni and continue with school stuff, I’d much rather be working. I found this apprenticeship on the gov website, it was one of three finance-related apprenticeships. I did maths and further maths at A-Level so I enjoyed working with numbers. In my job I mostly work with Excel to create costs of parts and cost breakdowns, I work closely with the sales department to build quotes for parts and investigate any changes that occur in the system. Being in the centre of the costing process is a big part of the company and I enjoy the responsibility.

“So far, the course has helped to increase my wider industry knowledge and helps me with smaller tasks in my job, and as I learn more in my job I’ll be able to apply my knowledge more. The learning experience has been really enjoyable and much less intense than uni. I’m planning to go up to the Level 4 but I’m unsure whether I’ll go any further at the moment, I’ll just see what happens.”

James Lawson
Mipa Paints
Finance Assistant Apprentice

“It’s good, I’m enjoying it so far. I like the structure of learning in the morning and then practicing the questions in the afternoon as it helps to consolidate the knowledge. In my job I work across all departments; I’m responsible for invoicing, creating sales reports around profit and loss, I get all the data and pass it onto managers to support them. Once I started at Mips they then suggested the apprenticeship for me, I thought it was a good idea as I can learn on the job and earn money whilst getting the apprenticeship – so it works well for both me and them. I tried uni but didn’t like it, so now I like how I’m getting paid whilst getting my qualification.

“The course has definitely helped me in my role so far to understand more about what I’m doing at work, and the impact that my work has on the business. It’s been relevant so far as we did the VAT learning then the following week I went into work and did our VAT report so it’s linking really nicely with my role. I also really enjoyed when we used the VR in class, it was a fun way to learn and I’d enjoy doing more in the future. After this apprenticeship I’ll probably do my Level 3, but I’m not too sure after that.”

Harvey Aston
Matrix IT
Financial Administrator Apprentice

“I’m finding it very good, work is good and the office environment is good. I was at uni but I dropped out so I went to Matrix for work experience in May and have just started the apprenticeship in September. At work I deal with invoicing, mainly from suppliers, running different reports for different areas of the business across account managers or operations. I manage expenses, payments going in and out, and general management of accounts and finances.

“The apprenticeship has been good so far, I really enjoy learning and it’s been good progressive learning. I like how we learn and answer questions then the following week we revise the previous content, so we have the chance to understand which parts we know best and which areas to improve on, it means when we come to the exam we should be in a really strong position. It’s different to school because we’re getting much more involved in our learning, whether presenting, answering questions or collaborating with others.

“I’ve been able to apply my learning at work because I now better understand what the reports that I’m running actually mean, I’m learning the ‘why’ behind what I’m doing which makes the job more interesting, because I understand the value and benefit my role has to the business. I haven’t thought about my future plans just yet – but ideally it would involve sport in some way, maybe sports business in football.”

We have our next cohort of Level 2 Finance Apprentices and our first ever Level 3 cohort starting next March, click here for more information or get in touch below.