Trainee auditor's blogs

Study leave, planning, buddies and parties

15 December 2009

I'm just back at work after nearly 2 weeks off on study leave, so having to get myself out of the house, through the traffic and into the office every morning is a most unwelcome change in this cold weather! This was the second set of exams I've sat since joining the Commission, and they were much tougher this time round. I think I've passed both modules – the Commission has a really high pass rate compared to the CIPFA average, which we think it probably due in part to the generous study leave. Thankfully the results aren't out until the end of January, so we can all get Christmas and New Year celebrations out of the way in blissful ignorance.

This week is a bit unusual as I haven't got much proper auditing to do. I spent most of today planning for the new trainees who are starting in the office later this week. This varies from office to office, on my patch it involves an introduction to things like timesheets and the computer software we use to record our work and, importantly, talks on the different clients we audit within the main sectors of health, local government, police and fire. I found this really helpful when I joined the Commission – I had no idea what the difference was between district and county councils, or what kind of budget it took to run a large foundation trust.

Each of the new trainees has a buddy to look after them during the first few months at work. When I joined I found it reassuring that I had someone who I could ask all the really daft questions – he even saw the funny side when I had to ring him on his day off to find out how to reset the office alarm after accidentally setting it off. This year I have become a buddy to a new trainee – it only seems a few months ago that I was in his shoes so hopefully he'll feel less nervous about asking me plenty of questions – I remember what it's like to be working out your first audit or interview a client for the first time.

I've also been busy trying to organise the Christmas party- trying to get 25 auditors to agree on a date and location and sort out their menu choices has been a nightmare! We're quite a sociable office – we've been out several times in the past year, doing everything from pub lunches to bowling, and even a night out at a comedy club. I'm looking forward to having more trainees in the office so they can take over some of the organising, and hopefully come up with some new ideas for social events.

Posted by: NB