Anyone else's DC waiting to hear about next stage of PWC technology degree apprenticeship University of Birmingham

[JuneOsborne]

My DC has applied for the tda offered by pwc at Birmingham.

He's done the game based assessment and the video interview. Next stage is a group assessment and the first ones take place on 27th Feb.

We know a couple of other people who have applied and nobody has heard whether they've made it through to the group assessment, so I was wondering if anyone here has kids who've applied and whether they've heard yet?

Ds did the video interview a couple of weeks ago now, well before the deadline. One of the other applicants did their video in November and still hasn't heard.

Also interested to hear from anyone who has applied for the other courses offered by pwc, I don't know if the timeline is the same.

This is from the university of Birmingham!’s website:

Important information for prospective applicants for September 2023 entry

There is currently a review underway of Degree Apprenticeships in England being conducted by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Depending on the outcome of this review, the University of Birmingham may have to make some changes to the Degree Apprenticeship programme.

In this instance, successful applicants would still be offered a place on the BSc in Computer Science with Year in Industry. The University of Birmingham is also working with PwC to develop an alternative programme, but the fundamental model of the programme would differ and students would fund their own tuition fees.

While it is our intention and hope that we can continue our Degree Apprenticeship programme under the current arrangements for 2023 and beyond, this is entirely dependent on the outcome of the external review.
We expect an outcome of the review in early 2023, and if any changes are made that would impact the course, we will contact you. Otherwise, the programme will remain the same as planned (and we will not update you).

Thanks for the reply. The website has had this up for a long time! Ds is in the thick of the application process, so it seems as though, in whatever iteration, this is happening.

The deal was always that of you're unsuccessful, your UCAS choice reverts automatically to the self funded CS degree programme. We always knew that.

Just wondered if anyone else's DC was waiting for news on the next stage like mine is. He's got through the first two stages, but we were getting a bit concerned that the date for the first set of group assessments (third stage) is looming and he's not heard anything.

Could be worth him contacting recruitment.

Panic over, he has heard from them! I knew it would have to be soon.

Glad to hear that! What was his response?

He's got through to last round. Huge relief all round, given that it's a lot of pressure to get through these corporate selection processes at 17, and I have wondered if it was wise with the A level stuff really ramping up at the same time. So it's been worth it.

Even if he doesn't get selected now, he's given it a great shot and got pretty far through the process, so I'm dead chuffed for him. Great experience for the future too.

Thanks for asking!

Ah, well done him. Best of luck for the next stage. Hopefully the others you know going for it will be fortunate too.

One of the other kids has heard and is also through. My Ds hasn't heard about the other one. Tense times.

I thought there may be a couple of people on here with d'c' going through it, but maybe not.

Bump just to see of there is anyone else with d'c' applying for this!

My eldest DD started the PwC apprenticeship in 2021 so she’s in her 2nd yr now. Not the tech one though. PwC seem to be a great company to work for. She applied to quite a few, got a lot of rejections, but final interview with JPMorgan and obviously PwC. The selection process is pretty rigorous! I thought the same as you about the whole experience whether she got in or not. It was probs a bit much across exam time though. She also applied to universities as a back up (economics). Good luck to your DS!!

Ah, @NotDonna thanks for sharing that. It's difficult because he has his heart set on Birmingham and applying for the apprenticeship was a no brainer really. But it's a lot of pressure.

He's done so much research into pwc, and it does seem to be a great place to work, from what we've seen. Nice to hear that your daughter's experience is positive.

Has she found the additional apprenticeship work ok?

Hers is quite different to the tech one. She is full time at PwC then has blocks of a week here and there for lectures with Kaplan for the Chartered Accountancy exams. There’s no university attachment, it’s a training contract with PwC only. She’s now doing the same exams as the graduates. So she’s like a full time employee, 5 weeks hols, pension scheme etc. It’s tough going though, no doubt about it. The exams in themselves are hard and there’s very little time to study. The next batch of exams they take two at a time! Over January / Feb she’s been leaving home at 0640 and returns close to midnight. It’s an hour commute, which doesn’t help plus during busy season she’s doing work on the weekend as opposed to studying. At the moment she has zero work life balance. Which is a bit sad at 19.
PwC has ceased this accountancy apprenticeship and now just offer the Flying Start programme at five universities for their ‘would be’ accountants. They do a degree in accountancy, work experience during semester time, full university holidays and then a final year of working. Still hard work but I expect there’s some balance!