What is World Youth Skills Day?
In 2014 The United Nations declared the 15th July as World youth skills day in order to celebrate the importance in equipping young people with skills for employment, work and entrepreneurship. We spoke to two of our apprentices to find out about their experience with the Hillier Hopkins apprenticeship scheme so far and how it is helping equip them for the future.
Jessica Deacy (Apprentice)
Jessica knew from the start that the university route was not the one she wanted to go down. She wanted to dive straight into work and earning and wanted a more hands on role. She found Hillier Hopkins through a family friend and wanted to work and study somewhere where all employees knew one another and where she can work with client’s hands on.
Jessica has always had accountancy in mind when applying and joined the firm as an apprentice in 2019. She preferred this route as exams were more spread out. She attended several apprentice fairs which helped her to make her decision to take the apprenticeship route. It also made her aware that you can do a qualification whilst working. She found this was a better route for her overall and could still achieve the same amount as someone who chose the university route.
Her favourite part of working for Hillier Hopkins is that she has made good friends who have helped her with work and studies along the way. She found that during lockdown and not being able to go and see clients she missed that one-to-one interaction as it is more personal, and you get to know the clients on a better basis. Jessica quoted “Seeing clients has given me more confidence with my speaking. Also, the apprenticeship is a great chance to study while gaining the practical experience at the same time, it’s an opportunity to progress quickly within the job role and is a great alternative to the degree route.”. She hopes to use her accounting qualification once completing her apprenticeship and is excited for the future.
to find out more about opportunities at our firm visit our careers page.