Apprenticeships uncovered: a former CIMA apprentice speaks out

• Title: CIMA Apprenticeships Videos: Discover the power of opportunity CIMA Apprenticeships
• Number of Speakers: 1
• Speaker Name: Alex Sanderson
• Speaker Designations: ACMA, CGMA
• Speaker Title: Group Equity and Reporting Manager, Experian
• Video Duration: 2 minutes 22 seconds

[Background music: upbeat and welcoming electronic jingle. Purple welcome page divided into 4 unequally sized sections by white lines, with the text “Discover the power of opportunity CIMA Apprenticeships” in a large pane top left, and the CIMA logo in a small pane bottom right]

[The welcome page disappears and is replaced with the speaker, a young man with brown hair standing facing the camera. He is wearing a pale blue shirt with its collar open and is wearing headphones. He is standing in front of an off-white background. The upbeat electronic music continues to play in the background. The speaker starts talking and the music reduces in volume]

"Hi, I'm Alex Sanderson and I'm a CGMA. I work at Experian group at TNA reporting manager. I was part of the CIMA apprenticeship programme back in 2013. "

[As the speaker begins to talk a purple title panel appears showing his name, ‘Alex Sanderson’, his designations, ‘ACMA, CGMA’, his position ‘Group Equity and Reporting Manager’ and the company he works for, ‘Experian’.]

"My role at the moment currently works across reporting to our PLC board as well as our group operating committee. And also part of the role involves Investor Relations. I work quite closely with our equity and bond analysts. And also with potential investors across both personal individuals and hedge funds as well."

"I chose an apprenticeship and stead of a kind of more conventional degree route. Mainly because I had a good idea of what I wanted to go into as a career path. I knew I wanted to go into finance, I knew to be a qualified financial individual, I would have to go away and do a CIMA or an equivalent accounting qualification. And I was kind of researching the best pathways to go down and it didn't really make sense for me to go and do a degree when I would have to come out of university and go away and do the professional qualification on top of that. This route felt like a way of kind of skipping the degree element out. I also said to myself that I would only go down this route, if I could get in with a company that I've believed in that kind of culture what they were trying to do when I felt like there was room for growth within that company. It was a company that was large enough to to have a kind of variety of exposure to different experiences. At the time I found Experian I found this apprenticeship programme and it's worked quite well for me. There are obviously pros and cons with either route. So I waited for the time and arguably took a risk, but it's something that I think I feel positive about now and I'm definitely glad I did."

 [The upbeat electronic background music grows louder as the speakers voice fades into the background. A black end slide appears displaying the CIMA logo in the centre of the screen. Shown below it in smaller lettering is Copyright 2021 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. All rights reserved.]