Last week saw the start of the first Get Work Ready programme, in which eight Wickersley Sixth Form students started a short-term work placement within different departments across Wickersley Partnership Trust.
Over the next few weeks, three of the students – Alisa Ali, Millie Rose and Ria Rajesh – will continue working in the Finance Department with a team that operates across eight primary schools and five secondary schools. By half term, the students will have accumulated between 12 and 15 hours worth of work experience to put on their CV and personal statements.
The range of work carried out by the students in the Finance Department will be vast and will include:
- Order invoice processing and authorisation
- Processing and reconciliation of income
- Raising, processing and authorising BACs payments
- Running of VAT126 reclaims and processing within the finance system
- Processing of RBS credit card purchases within the finance system
- Brief overview of pensions and payroll processing
- Insight into budgets
- Review of the final year end management accounts
Steve Clayton, Senior Finance Manager at Wickersley Partnership Trust said: “We’re excited to give the Wickersley Sixth Form placement students an insight into the WPT Finance Department over the coming weeks. Millie, Alisa and Ria are doing really well so far and have been great additions to the team.”
Meet the students!
Alisa Ali
Alisa is an aspiring accounting, who is currently studying Economics, Politics and Geography at Wickersley Sixth Form. She hopes that her next steps into Accounting and Finance will be through a Degree Apprenticeship, so has joined the Finance Team at WPT to get some work experience under her belt to aid her application.
She wanted to get some experience in different areas of Finance and is intrigued by how everything works in Finance in the education sector.
Alisa commented: “The Get Work Ready programme has been really interesting so far as it’s given me an idea and some top tips for the future on how to become more employable. Before the placement, I really enjoyed the careers lessons and learning about how to act in a professional environment.”
Millie Rose
Head Girl, Millie is currently studying Maths, Economics and Double Applied Sport at Wickersley Sixth Form and is thinking about which route to take – either University or a Degree Apprenticeship – after Sixth Form.
She has chosen the WPT Finance Department to test the waters of the working world of Accounting and Finance to see if it is something that she could do and enjoy as a career.
Millie said: “Whilst careers lessons and workshops are useful, it doesn’t compare to real-life office experience. I’m finding the placement really useful so far for many reasons and I’m excited to work with adults who are passionate about what they do.”
Ria Rajesh – an aspiring Actuary – is a Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry student at Wickersley Sixth Form. As she is unsure which path to take to become an Actuary, she is going to take a gap year after Sixth Form to think about whether she would prefer a university or apprenticeship route.
She jumped at the opportunity to join WPT’s Finance Team as the job market is quite bleak and competitive at the minute due to Covid so thought it would be a good chance to get some work experience.
Ria said: “The Get Work Ready programme has been really organised – all of the mentors seem on top of everything. I’m enjoying working in real-life situations in the Finance Department, which is a lot more practical and useful than just learning about it in a lesson.”