Empowering Futures: Anthony's Journey as an Apprentice at BDO

As National Apprenticeship Week 2024 unfolds, we delve into the transformative journey of Anthony. He’s a senior manager at in our Birmingham office hub, recently celebrating the big 10-year mark at BDO. How did it all start? Well, Anthony stumbled upon this apprenticeship gig after checking out some accountancy firms and doing an insight day. Choosing this path over university made total sense to him – it meant a mix of real work know-how, no uni fees, and diving deep into the professional world, all while developing a bunch of skills. Anthony’s story is proof that apprenticeships aren’t just about jobs – they’re about building skills that stick with you for life.?

How did you find out about apprenticeships at BDO and when did you start???

I found the apprenticeship after doing an insight day and then looking into accountancy firms and the programmes that they offered. I started BDO in September 2013 and have just celebrated by 10-year anniversary.?

What made you choose an apprenticeship???

I was considering my options and the potential careers that these would lead to, I had offers from universities but decided that getting a mix between work experience and study would be a good fit for me with the added bonus of no university fees and significantly more on the job experience than I would obtain through other methods. I also believed that it was a good opportunity for me to embark on an interesting career and get to learn and interact with business and develop a range of skills.?

What is the most challenging aspect of an apprenticeship programme??

I think the first area is the change in environment as you move from an educational setting to a workplace, at 18 I didn’t realise how big of a change this would be. The other area is time management as you have to balance working full time with studying for a professional qualification, the studying is also a significant step up in level from A-levels and a completely different style of learning, this therefore also requires an adjustment.?

One piece of advice I would give to others is to ensure you have a way to switch off after a busy day or busy week, this is something that you can lose sight of as you try and juggle a busy workload especially alongside study.?

What #SkillsForLife have you developed during your apprenticeship and time at BDO so far? ?

There are far to many to list, the one thing I would say is that there has never been a shortage of opportunities to build and develop new skills. My skill set coming in to BDO and now are very, very different and that is one of the key reasons I have continued to develop my career at BDO as there is always new things to learn and new skills to develop.?

What do you enjoy the most about your role now and plans for the future???

The area I enjoy most about my role now are people whether that be being a people manager to a number of people or mentoring others through different parts of their careers. This is a challenging but really rewarding element. The other elements I really enjoy is developing our business by supporting the partner group to run the midlands group as chair of managers meeting to pitching for new work to grow / change the shape of our business.??

Plans for the future, I want to continue to develop my career and one day look to move to a director or partner role, to become a leader of the business that I started out in.?

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