With increasing numbers of young people entering university, a degree is no longer enough to guarantee entry into your chosen career, especially into a demanding profession such as accountancy. If you need an edge when it comes to career development, one way is to complete an internship. Not only can it boost your CV, but it’s also an opportunity to gain structured, focused work experience within a busy accountancy department.

Starting early

Internships often take place during the summer vacation, but they can last longer (up to a year) if part of a degree course. Competition for the best internships can be fierce so plan ahead; start by updating and refining your CV, and then prepare for the recruitment process. This can be intensive, so get ready to answer questions about yourself, your course of study, your academic and personal skills, and your longer-term ambitions.

You then need to identify internship opportunities that match your career plans. Visit your university careers office for more information, research specialist internship websites, or contact companies directly. Kim Browne, an intern at Unisys Insurance Services Ltd, has some good advice: ‘I found my internship through general research, but I know I was lucky. It really pays off to listen to your lecturers and career advisers, send out speculative letters to as many companies as possible, and then follow up by phone and e-mail.’

The right skills

Sara Reading, graduate recruitment manager at KPMG UK, gives an employer’s perspective on what’s required: ‘Competition for our internship placements is high and awarded on a first-come first-served basis, so students should apply as early as possible. Applicants in the UK need to be in their penultimate year of study, on target for a 2.1 degree at least, and have good scores in maths and English exams at school. But we also look for skills such as problem-solving, relationship-building and business awareness, and we assess these during the interview process.’

So what should an intern expect of their placement?

Although there will be plenty of low-level tasks, interns should also have the chance to learn more about the management of the organisation, perhaps by shadowing or assisting a senior member of staff, or by taking on a specific role within a project.

Sara Reading describes what’s on offer with KPMG: ‘Interns are with us for up to eight weeks. They work in different business areas in order to gain a positive and realistic experience of working life, and of the range of services we offer our clients – we also assign a mentor and senior manager to provide coaching and guidance, especially in terms of longer-term career development. We want to stretch and challenge our interns during their time with us, and so we give them the opportunity to take on real responsibility right from day one.’

For Kim Browne at Unisys, the level of responsibility she was given came as a surprise: ‘After a period of intense training I was put straight onto a major project which involved transferring the bulk of our work from one site to another – as a result, I worked away from home, Monday to Friday, for three months.

Improved prospects

An internship should give you a real opportunity to find out more about the industry in which you hope to work and, hopefully, improve your chances of getting your ideal job. KPMG, for example, sees its internship programme as a means of spotting the highest fliers. Sara Reading again: ‘We see our programme as a fantastic way of tapping into an elite talent pool, and a means of identifying high calibre undergraduates who could join the firm. The internship process is very similar to the graduate recruitment process. If the internship is successful, and the feedback positive, then the student is offered a final round interview with a partner which can lead to the offer of a graduate placement’.

An internship could also contribute towards an ACCA student’s practical experience requirement (PER) – and essential part of the process of becoming an ACCA member. Crucially, any work undertaken during the internship must be relevant and supervised (contact ACCA for specific advice on what’s required).

Emma Fullwood plans to use her internship in this way: ‘In my final year at university I wrote directly to the firm where I now work (A P Robinson and Co – a small practice in Lincolnshire, England). I explained my degree, the ACCA exemptions it provided, and that I was looking for a postgraduate internship so that I could gain practical experience while completing my ACCA qualification. I’m still working as a trainee but when I finish my ACCA qualification I hope to become a permanent member of the team.’

To find out more about the ACCA Qualification visit www.accaglobal.com/theview.