• What does a Finance Apprentice do?

A finance apprentice can do a range of things, for me I link products we buy to suppliers so that the sites which need the product can put orders in as I put the price in too, I also work on documents for our customers such as inflation and other excel workbooks. A Finance Apprentice also has 4 exams before having 2 end point assessments so there is a lot to learn, but also a lot of support along the way.

• How did you end up in this job?

I ended up in this job as I had always liked numbers and during my business A level I particularly liked the finance side and topics. I knew around my area Bakkavor was a good business to start your career with as an apprentice due to the different Apprenticeship offered and support. Once I applied I got to the assessment day where we did a group task and an interview.

• What advice would you give to someone thinking of pursuing this career?

Some advice I would give to someone thinking of pursuing this career would be that there are many different aspects within Finance and there are many different roles you could be doing so do not think it is one route through in finance, there are many different routes.

• What’s the best thing about your job?

I would say the best part about my job is being able to interact with the procurement (buying) team and finance, my role sits in finance and procurement so having exposure to both areas leads to having a wider understanding of the business and different departments others may not have. Also creating Power BI dashboard for projects which gets used across all of Bakkavor

• If you could give your 16 year old self some career advice, what would it be?

My advice to my 16 year old self would be to go straight to an apprenticeship and don’t worry about sixth form as the work experience is invaluable and no amount of A levels will get you prepared for the workplace, also being able to work and study at the same time is such a good opportunity.