Trainee Accountant Review
at Old Mill
Degree Apprenticeship
Accounting
Yeovil
Review Submitted: May 2025
Overall Rating
3.5 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
2.5/5
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Overview of Role
3/5
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Skills Development
3.4/5
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Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
3/5
My role is a trainee accountant, this mainly involves preparing accounts and tax return for clients and dealing with some additional work such as corresponding with HMRC.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
2/5
I enjoy the learning aspect of the program as I enjoy learning the content for exams and then being able to apply this to my role. However, I don't particularly enjoy the additional admin and extra-curricular part that comes with he apprenticeship as it is a lot to manage when working full time and also sitting exams, and a lot of this additional work doesn't feel necessary for my role which highlights this even more.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
3/5
I have learnt lots of new skills since working in my team as this was my first role in an accounting practice. Examples of this would be time management of my work, working within a team, and my communication with lots of different people.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
4/5
The programme is well organised, I have a skills coach at First Intuition and we have catch ups every 10 weeks. They also provide a learning plan which details all the dates that I'm studying which I find really helpful when I know far in advance as I can plan for this time a lot easier.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
3/5
Old Mill does offer support for the programme as it is made clear who we can go to if we have any issues. One thing I think that lacks is support for doing on-the-job training, particularly when you have been there after a certain amount of time, as once you have been there for a year or so the number of new things you can records gets less and less. This isn't helped as trainees aren't invited to attend internal training sessions for more complex area's, which I believe would really help out with keeping up the on-job hours further into the program.
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
4/5
I receive a lot of support form the training provider, the lecturers are very helpful on the tuition and revision weeks and always make themselves available. First Intuition also provides a lot of resources to help with exams which definitely helps with my revision.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
3/5
I think the qualification is helpful in certain aspects for giving me the knowledge to understand more difficult tasks I might get in my role. However in my team a lot of what I learnt in the professional level exams is not really relevant to what I do in my day to day, i.e there is an audit module but in my team we don't have any clients that require an audit.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
3/5
Yes there are plenty of social events within my team and the office as a whole which I try to take part in. I believe there have been some networking events mentioned to us as an option to attend, but I've not really wanted to go to these.
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Old Mill to a friend?
No
Why?
I don't think I would for someone looking to go into my current role. I think there's quite a lot of pressure coming into this with doing the exams and apprenticeship alongside a full-time role, and I know other trainees who have left and gone to another company and gotten on better with the apprenticeship at their new workplace. So I'd probably recommend them to go somewhere where they don't require the apprenticeship or to go somewhere else as it currently stands.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Old Mill?
My main advice would be that for a trainee role, it's much more about who you are rather than what you know to begin with, so as long as you're being yourself and showing your best qualities, Old Mill will be able to find a team that suits you.
