PwC's Birmingham office in Chamberlain Square hosted the event, which was attended by 28 students from the Aston and Kings Heath areas. Attendees included students from Aston Manor Academy and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls.
PwC's Sarmad Javaid, Valuations Manager, Hannah Coggins, Deals Senior Associate and Urban Synergy's Head of Programmes, Dianne Johnson, co-hosted the event and welcomed the students with Leila Thomas, CEO of Urban Synergy.
Hannah and Sarmad, provided an introduction to PwC and also quizzed the students afterwards to test their knowledge.
Keynote speaker
Becky Clayton, UK Valuations Leader/Partner at PwC, shared her career journey. From initially considering a career as a General Practice doctor then eventually becoming a doctor in Biochemistry. Becky talked about changing her trajectory to the finance world to utilise her analytical skills at PwC during a career that has spanned over 24 years. Becky explained that part of the attraction of why she has remained at PwC is the people that she works with in the business, which makes coming to work something she looks forward to. She also shared some top tips with the students.
Role Model Panel
Urban Synergy's Dianne Johnson, Head of Programmes, interviewed the PwC Early Career’s panel featuring;
- Rahul Mall (Senior Associate, Deals - Corporate Finance Mergers & Acquisitions)
- Catherine Golby (Senior Associate - Sustainability)
- Rafaela Monteiro (Senior Associate, Deals - Restructuring & Insolvency)
- Harnek Randhawa (Senior Associate - Audit)
The panellists shared their career journeys and top tips with the students. Aligning their interests with the work that they do e.g. Catherine studied Geography and works in Sustainability. Rafaela, also an alumni of King Edward Camp Hill School for Girls, talked about the benefit of apprenticeships. Rahul mentioned how useful his placement year was in building his skill sets and Harnek spoke about wanting to be an auditor and how his work experiences helped to solidify his aspirations.
Speed Mentoring
PwC employees from different parts of the business joined the students and early careers panellists to share career insights and to provide some information on working at PwC. Students had the opportunity to ask lot of questions about life at PwC and career paths.
Student recruitment
Karolina Krol, Student Recruitment Officer delivered a session on PwC recruitment. Karolina talked about pathways to PwC and various programmes featuring apprenticeships for professional qualifications, degree apprenticeships, graduate programmes. Karolina also talked about the recruitment process and shared some tips on what PwC look for in candidates.
Student feedback
Our programmes are aligned to the Gatsby Benchmarks, a framework designed to define good career guidance for young people in schools and colleges.
- 100% rated the 4 or 5 star
- 100% of the students said they learned about a career they were not aware of before
- 100% Learned what skills valued in workplace
- 100% feel more confident about their future
- 20% were not aware of PwC before attending the event
“I enjoyed how engaging all the speakers were and the opportunity to speak to people, part of the PwC team and ask questions was very beneficial. It enabled me to find out about other careers offered within the company as I was only aware of audit and now I have developed an interest in corporate finance. Finding out about the different routes was also very helpful rather than traditional routes." Aliza, Year 12.
“I enjoyed hearing about lots of different pathways to joining the company and also how degrees aren’t as limiting as I thought they were and you can join the company with other degrees not just accounting.” Eva, Year 12
“I enjoyed the presentation from the partner as they showed their pathway through the company and job - I found this inspiring and received useful advice. The whole day was very enjoyable, I learnt a lot about the companies and field in general. It was a wonderful opportunity.” Clara, Year 12
“I liked hearing from people who work in different sectors, which enabled me to explore different options within the field of accounting. I now have a deeper understanding of what options are available to me” Jaya, Year 12
If you would to partner with Urban Synergy, please use the Contact Us page to get in touch.
