Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards 2022: Jai Sikka (QM 2012-2019) - Highly Commended Apprentice in Accounting and Finance

I attended QMGS from 2012 – 2019 and genuinely loved my time there, and have some of my best memories at the school. Unfortunately, 7 years at any school would not have been enough for me to figure out what I wanted to do for a career! Keeping this in mind, I couldn’t really justify committing to a degree (and the associated costs that came with it) when I wasn’t even sure it would remain relevant to my future career. This is one of the reasons why I decided to take an Apprenticeship.

Through QM, I was able to get work experience at Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for a week, where I learnt all about the inner workings of ‘the tax man’. Whilst this was an insightful experience, it wasn’t what I wanted to do. In Year 12, my friend told me about the Big 4 accounting firms, and how I could apply for work experience there. The same night I searched for Big 4 work experience and EY came up first, so I applied. I was able to get through the application process, and when they asked me which service line I wanted to be in, I said ‘Tax’ because that’s what I learnt at HMRC. Following the work experience, I was offered a final interview with a partner at the firm which took place in September of Year 13, and by October, I had a job offer to join EY on a Level 7 Apprenticeship, where I’d achieve my Chartered Accountancy Qualification (ICAEW ACA) and Chartered Tax Advisory Qualification (CTA). There was a also a strong sense of relief that I finally had clarity on my post-18 pathway :D

QMGS has a strong multicultural community, and coming from this background, breaking away from the typical university route wasn’t plain sailing at first. Learning from this experience, I have engaged in charity work for the EY Foundation (EYF), an independent charity supporting the pathways of young people from low-income backgrounds into the workplace. The majority of students are from similar minority ethnic backgrounds to myself. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to organise and run workshops/work experience for students from years 7-13, deliver school assemblies, run a Mud-Run and much more all in the name of the EYF!

In addition to facilitating students’ routes into the workplace, I’ve become an advocate for apprenticeships, and have taken part in a podcast for National Apprenticeship Week, assisted our Brand Teams with various marketing campaigns, attended Student Webcasts, Teacher Conference’s, University Open Days, Apprenticeship Exhibitions, and more recently, we’ve even been looking at how we can use TikTok, the social media channel which has taken the Gen-Z/Millennial marketing world by storm. All of these experiences lead to me getting nominated by EY for Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards, where I was named a Highly Commended Apprentice earlier this month.

I’m really pleased that apprenticeships are garnering more awareness these days. I didn’t know anyone who had taken the Apprenticeship route before me, nor anyone in my year, so it really was unchartered territory for me, but apprenticeships are a great alternative to university, and something that should be taught in every school.

Jai Sikka