School & College leaver careers

The future of work looks a lot like you.

You’re studying at college or sixth form, but there’s also a lot of focus on what’s next. But do you decide to start your career or go to university? You may be thinking more broadly about your options after you finish. There are now many professional opportunities available to you straight out of school and you don’t need a degree to launch a successful career in the business world.

We understand how challenging these decisions can be and we’ve got opportunities for those that want to learn, adapt, be challenged and grow. No matter what your background.

Apply for a trainee opportunity

Your development journey

Our School & College Leaver programmes are designed to help you develop your business skills through real client work, while also completing formal training and studying towards internationally respected professional qualifications to give you a head start in your career. You will gain a range of transferable business, personal and technical skills that help you grow, including excellent communication, project management, business awareness and coaching skills.

Alongside this, you will enjoy competitive pay and benefits, including our excellent support network and opportunities to continually progress your career. Just like our graduate joiners, you’ll work on varied and challenging client and internal projects, which make a real difference to the world of business.

You’ll be coached by our people, who are experienced in their field, and at the same time, thanks to our study support, you won’t need to worry about paying for course and exam fees, textbooks or revision materials.

What work will I do? We have opportunities to...

Work in Audit
Work in Actuarial
Work in Tax

Work in Audit

In audit, we get to the heart of business providing decision makers with information they can trust and give investors confidence. In this evolving environment, audit offers you a diverse career working with wide-ranging businesses and industries. This provides the opportunity to develop broad business skills.

As a Trainee Auditor, you’ll have hands-on work straightaway. It’s investigative work that often involves one-to-one meetings with financial controllers and finance directors, and you’ll need to be tenacious and resilient to do it well. It's investigative work where you’ll regularly speak with key contacts such as financial controllers or finance directors, checking that data is accurate and highlighting and questioning any inaccuracies. And as finance is at the centre of every organisation, you'll learn constantly about how different businesses operate. You'll be looking through records and also help to put together reports on the controls and systems you have seen at our clients covering a wide range of industries and audit areas including customers, suppliers and bank statement reconciliations. If you’re an individual with intellectual agility, drive and resilience, you will most likely excel in our business.

The more experience you get, the more responsibility you’ll take on – from planning and carrying out your own audits as well as for coaching junior colleagues.

You'll study for a professional accountancy qualification, either with the ACA* (three years) or the ACCA** (four years) depending on your initial results. You'll have a lot of support from your team, career counsellor and buddy to help you achieve this.

We want to hear from the most talented all-round students. We would like to hear from those that have outstanding academic achievements, gaining at least a Grade C in Maths and English at GCSE, securing or are on track for a minimum of 112 UCAS points (excluding General Studies), or a minimum of 32 International Baccalaureate points.

* Associate Chartered Accountant qualification delivered by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

** The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants qualification.

Work in Actuarial

Our actuaries work with uncertainty and as a Trainee Actuary, you'll help our clients analyse how future events could affect them. As the largest actuarial practice on the Isle of Man, we provide insights and solutions for all businesses that face significant and complex risks - the traditional insurance industries and non-insurance industries like banking and pensions. Using our risk and analytical skills and predictive insights, we calculate the impact of changing demographics or legislation on pension schemes or the effects that changes in financial markets have on different organisations.

You’ll learn how to use complex financial and statistical theories to weigh up the risks and estimate the odds of what might happen. Just as importantly, you’ll develop a flair for presenting your findings in a simple and easy to understand language.

You'll work collaboratively with a diverse range of clients, using innovative technologies to provide insights, whilst studying for a professional qualification with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Your team will be your support network and will help you achieve this.

We want to hear from the most talented all-round students. We would like to hear from those that have outstanding academic achievements, gaining at least a Grade B in Maths and English at GCSE, securing or are on track for a minimum of 112 UCAS points (excluding General Studies), or a minimum of 32 International Baccalaureate points.

Work in Tax

You’ll work with a range of clients from day one to understand their business affairs and discuss how tax rules apply to them. This could be with entrepreneurs or individual employees; advising on complex personal tax issues and implications of international assignments. Or with large multinationals; from local and overseas corporate tax compliance to the tax implications of business decisions and how they reward their people.

We’ll support you to apply your knowledge, to develop your network and understand the breadth of the tax services we provide to our clients. You’ll also develop key professional and transferable skills right from the start, giving you the foundation to develop your career as an agile and client-focused tax professional.

Your initial training will give you a solid grounding in all areas of Isle of Man, UK and international tax with sponsored study towards a highly regarded professional qualification; typically with the Association of Tax Technicians and then going on to become a Chartered Tax Advisor. Your team will support you and will be familiar with your studies as they’ll have also completed professional qualifications.

What skills do I need?

As well as talent and academic achievement, during the recruitment process we're looking for people who demonstrate:

Flexibility - to handle changing priorities and workloads positively
Courage and integrity - you are always up for a challenge and do the right thing by clients and colleagues
Curiosity - to help you learn, share and innovate
Team working skills - to take on your fair share and work with others to get results
Commercial awareness - you are up to date with the latest business thinking and trends
Great communication skills - to listen, persuade and put your point across

Find out more about the skills we look for and the PwC Professional.

Submit your application early

Applying for a trainee opportunity is straightforward. We accept direct online applications only via our website, so please do not send us your CV (we don't accept applications from agencies for this opportunity either).

We recruit on a rolling basis, so you can send us your application throughout the year but as we have limited spaces on our programme, we recommend that you submit your application form to us as soon as possible. We review applications as they are submitted.

Typically applications for our trainee positions are open to apply to all year round with a start date in August.

Search our trainee opportunities

If you are invited to attend an interview, be prepared

Our assessment process involves two interviews. If you are invited to a first stage interview, this will be competency-based so be ready to talk about your experiences, demonstrate your understanding of our business and show you have the attributes detailed in the PwC Professional.

After the first round of interviews are conducted, successful candidates will be invited to a second stage interview. This is a chance for us to get to know you better and an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have.

Discover The PwC Professional

Have you been successful?

We know waiting is the hard part, and we will let you know whether or not you've been successful as soon as possible after your interview.

Meet our people

We're powered by our people. To help understand what it means to work here our people have shared their stories in their own words.

Charlotte Kenyon - Audit
Emily Gaylor - Audit

Charlotte Kenyon - Audit

School leaver

“I joined PwC Isle of Man as a school leaver and at first I was concerned about my transition into the workplace from a school environment, however everyone was extremely welcoming and went out of their way to make sure I felt comfortable. I joined PwC because the training programme and exam structure appealed to me, I also liked the idea of the global mobility which PwC offers and the opportunities that would be available to me after my training. I would definitely recommend this path as an alternative to anyone who is considering studying accounting at university.”

Emily Gaylor - Audit

School leaver

“My experience so far at PwC Isle of Man has been like a rollercoaster. At times it's been very challenging, but the experience and rewards you get in return are worth it. I applied for the student training programme as I knew I wanted to kick start my career in the finance industry, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The structure of the training programme and exam pathway appealed to me, as well as the fact you can earn whilst you learn. You need to be motivated and willing to take on new challenges, but also have the ability to work well in a team and form relationships with both your colleagues and clients.”