Molly Williams, Tax Associate
Why I chose the apprenticeship route
After 4 years doing an Accounting and Taxation degree and a year of industry placement experience, the thought of doing an apprenticeship felt slightly odd considering how many years of my life I’d dedicated to education so far. I also had a preconceived idea that being an apprentice meant that I was taking a step backwards.
However, I was wrong. Apprenticeships are increasingly used for graduate roles in the accounting industry as you are studying towards an additional qualification (be that ACA / ACA CTA), doing high quality technical work, and learning soft skills along the way. Deciding to go with the Level 7 apprenticeship route at Bishop Fleming has opened up various opportunities for me outside of a standard job role: incredible support during my qualification studies, opportunities to develop my critical thinking / analysis skills on commercially-based monthly tasks, and a yearly residential professional development week.
The Level 7 Accountancy Apprenticeship is the equivalent of a Masters Degree. Since I decided to take the tax route, I am working towards ACA CTA, which is a 4-year joint qualification that results in me being both a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax advisor. Having a deep knowledge of both the financial statements and tax legislation for our jurisdiction will help me become a well-rounded business advisor as I get further into my career.
It is also worth mentioning that Bishop Fleming is an ICAEW ‘Partner in Learning’ and an accredited apprenticeship provider with ‘Platinum’ approval for training and development; one of very few accountancy firms with that status. This enables Bishop Fleming to provide bespoke learning and apprenticeship development tasks.
My apprenticeship journey so far
My first week at Bishop Fleming was exciting and insightful. After the first 2 days of meeting team members, setting up IT and doing some ethics and anti-money laundering training, the rest of the week was spent with new apprentices from the same intake. All of the apprentices (graduates and school leavers) from each office and each department come together for the first residential professional development week. There are business tasks, soft skills training, department overviews and much more!
Following on from this week, I attended college to begin learning the content for ACA Accounting certificate level in order to pass the exam. I was quite lucky, as I had exemptions for all of the certificate level exams due to my degree course, but we were all asked to retake Accounting. This was welcome from me, as a refresher into accounting rules is very valuable for any department you join.
Due to having exemptions for the rest of the certificate level exams, I had a long break before my ACA professional level exams. During this time I deepened by understanding of corporation tax, prepared tax computations for some really interesting clients, whilst becoming more confident on the various pieces of software we use.
I’ve now completed more of my professional level ACA exams, but the real value I’ve gained is through the exposure I have to various fascinating clients, and the trust that managers have in my abilities. Due to the size of our clients, I get to develop broader corporation tax skills before picking a specialism further along my career, rather than getting shoehorned so early on.
What I have learnt that has surprised me
We recently had a Business Development Week at our Bristol office, which taught me about the value of business development at different levels of my career. I learned more about each of the service lines here at Bishop Fleming, personal branding, networking and ‘finding the value beyond’ / active listening. The thought of networking used to terrify me, but it’s not about the hard sell; it’s about making a connection.
After attending a young professionals networking event held by Bishop Fleming, I can happily say that networking is a skill that isn’t so scary, and one that I’d like to develop further throughout my career.
What I've got out of my apprenticeship so far
On reflection, I am so surprised with how much I have learned during my 1.5 years at Bishop Fleming! I have much more confidence in my corporation tax compliance skills, confidence in the software we use, and have continued to develop my soft skills. Many of the skills are not just specific to this role, but will serve me well throughout my career: networking, communicating with clients and colleagues, and critical thinking (to name a few).
The tax team are really helpful and supportive, and continue to give me opportunities to expand my knowledge, learn new tax rules and develop interpersonal skills.
Joining a practice rather than industry also results in there being dozens of other graduates at my level going through a similar process, so exam periods are less daunting. Having a couple of other tax graduates in my intake therefore means that I have a great supportive network during stressful exam periods.
Overall, the apprenticeship route was perfect for my goals: valuable experience from a job where I am pushed but supported from the team, receive chartered qualification/s after passing the exams at the end, and have opportunities to develop skills for life.