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Trainee Program

Earn while you learn with us.

Create your career at PwC

Combine your university studies with work experience to build the perfect foundation for your career, all while receiving professional and financial support in a paid role.

Our Trainee program is a unique three-year opportunity that combines mentoring, training and networking opportunities with real career experience. You will work alongside industry leaders who are truly experts in their field and passionate about their work. With the wide array of projects, clients and practices at our firm, there is an opportunity to learn and grow in any area you choose.

Applications open 26 July
Applications close 22 August
Program length 3 years

Applications Closed - Check back in early 2022

Learn from our recruitment team about the trainee application process

PwC Trainee Program Deep Dive - August 4, 2021

 

When you join our firm as a Trainee, you may have limited experience in your chosen field from University. We will help you  build upon that experience in environments you may not have access to in your studies in technical and practical areas that are rapidly evolving in a global environment.

Due to our firm’s collaborative and business-led nature, you can work with several teams such as tax, projects, banking, deals and more. And each team is there to help you in this journey in a supportive and growth-oriented environment. 

You can join us and learn in an environment that is accessible and open, and we will provide work that will help you grow into your ideal career. You will be exposed to a wide range of challenging, rewarding and practical work with clients in a variety of industries including:

  • Pharmaceutical
  • Retail
  • Digital and technology
  • Energy and resources
  • Automobile and airline
  • Food and beverage
  • And more

Our core purpose is to solve important problems and we tackle this by serving our clients, our people and Australia by providing solutions to interesting and complex challenges. 

You can help us to solve these problems by learning and engaging with us. You may work on contracts in market transactions, litigation matters or you may work in mergers, acquisitions and restructuring. Or you could work within a team helping guide the future of end-to-end employment services.

Whatever role you take on, your team will help you in your career success. Many of our trainees receive a full-time offer to join our Graduate program following their traineeship, so you can graduate university and already have a job lined up.

Trainees will also have access to various social groups and events at PwC as well as  get togethers with your team and the broader trainee teams. (Events are dependant on Covid-19 regulations and restrictions).

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PwC's Trainee Program

PwC's Trainee Program

PwC's Trainee Program

Hear from some of our very own trainees who participated in the program and learn what they gained.

How do I start?

Find where your skills fit

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Hear from a recruiter what skills they look for as well as handy tips to give you a headstart.

Prepare to apply

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Learn about what you need to research, how to reflect on your experience, or how to track your applications.

How we hire

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Learn how to submit a successful application form, and all the steps you will need to complete.

Take an online assessment

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Our online assessment gives you a chance to learn about your strengths and where they might work best with our team.

Participate in a digital interview

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Our digital interview is an opportunity to meet one-on-one and learn more about you. We share some handy recruiter tips to prepare.

 

Take a final assessment

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We do this through a group assessment and one-on-one interview. Listen to some of our tips to get started.

Explore where your skills can take you

Infrastructure & Project Management
Are you detail oriented and good at multitasking? Do you enjoy managing projects from start to finish?
Technology
Do you like to improve things with technology? Are you passionate about creating our digital future?
Analytics
Do you have an inquisitive, analytical mind? Are you keen to unlock the power of numbers and data to predict outcomes?
Law
Are you passionate about the law? Do you want to see how legal can be done differently?
Accounting, Tax & Finance
Do you like to consider all approaches to a scenario? Can you assess potential risks in order to help others succeed?

Technology

Technology Risk

Using your skills in tech and problem-solving, within Trust and Risk you’ll help our teams to provide clients with opportunities to harness new technologies while managing risk. You’ll undertake independent reviews to give them the confidence in their tech decisions, applications and the platforms they operate. You’ll also manage any emerging tech risks tied to their systems, security, data, reporting and programs, thereby empowering our clients to create a more digitally integrated environment.

Accounting, Tax & Finance

External Audit

Using your skills in accounting and finance, and a passion for problem-solving, critical thinking, and building strong relationships, in Assurance you’ll help build trust in the Australian capital markets system. Through analysis of a client’s financial reports you’ll form a view on whether the information presented, taken as a whole, reflects the financial position of the organisation at a given date. 

The work you do will positively impact the lives of everyday Australians, such as ensuring Australian national budgets are being spent wisely. Being a part of the External Audit team Assurance team means you'll ask questions, test assumptions and support our clients to accurately report information that investors and others can rely on building trust and confidence. Each project is an exciting opportunity to learn, grow and better understand how businesses operate, taking a holistic approach as you assess risk to help businesses succeed. You’ll work across Asset Management, Real Estate, Banking & Insurance, Healthcare, Retail & Consumer, Pharmaceuticals, Construction, Transport & Logistics.

Internal Audit (Trust and Risk)

Using your skills in accounting and finance and your ability to gather and analyse meaningful, holistic information, as part of the Internal Audit team within Trust and Risk in  Assurance, you’ll help evaluate how effective our clients are at governance and managing risks in relation to  their organisational goals. With your conceptual and analytical thinking, you’ll help strengthen their governance and risk management frameworks, as well as control processes to identify growth opportunities for our clients. 

Private clients - Audit

Using your skills in accounting, finance and relationship management, in Private Clients you’ll provide fully integrated assurance and advisory services to leading private businesses, entrepreneurs and high-net wealth individuals. Our team are trusted advisors to our clients, providing strong assurance frameworks to allow their business to raise the necessary capital and funds to thrive, and providing commercially viable business solutions. You’ll be a part of a team that delivers advice on risk and governance, reducing the risk of fraud, managing and identifying inefficiencies in business processes and controls. You will provide external audits to allow our clients to make better decisions, and build trust within their company - whether this is for their lenders, investors, suppliers, employees or other stakeholders.

Optimise (Outsourced Chief Financial Officer)

Using your skills in accounting, finance and relationship management, in Optimise (Outsourced CFO) (Optimise) you’ll be driving the finance function for our clients that don’t have a finance team in Australia. Typically our clients will be foreign investors who acquire passive assets (eg. real estate, interest in mining joint ventures or infrastructure assets) or might set up a trading business here. You’ll be a part of a team that ensures the finance function progresses seamlessly within an organisation. This can mean looking after all their day-to-day bookkeeping, payroll, GST compliance, income tax compliance, helping to manage cash transactions and bank accounts, and assisting with budgeting and forecasting. We align ourselves to the priorities of the business to deliver a great client experience, and whether it be tax structuring on new acquisitions, due diligence on potential assets or people and culture consulting, at all times we bring the best of PwC to our clients.

Corporate Tax

Using your skills in accounting, finance, law or broader commerce, as a part of our Corporate Tax team you’ll assist large, multinational and publicly listed clients from a variety of industries with managing their Australian and international tax affairs.

In the Corporate Tax team, you’ll be part of our clients’ core tax advisory team of passionate and innovative people. We are trusted by our clients to help them navigate the ever-changing world of tax, providing them with advice on complex Australian income tax and foreign tax matters. This is an opportunity to build your soft skills as you form strong client relationships.

Each day is different as we advise our clients on a range of issues, whether that’s managing and executing market transactions, building and implementing structures for their commercial arrangements, working through engagements with the Australian Taxation Office, or helping them to meet their annual tax compliance obligations and other reporting requirements. You’ll also have the opportunity to work cross-functionally within the broader Tax team and/or with our Legal, Deals and Accounting Advisory teams.

Global Tax and Trade

Using your skills in accounting, finance, law or broader commerce or economics, as a part of our Global Tax & Trade team you’ll assist multinational clients from a variety of industries to manage their international tax affairs.

In the Global tax team you’ll navigate the ever-changing global business world in international tax, international trade services and transfer pricing arrangements. You’ll be a part of a team that assists our clients to ensure their organisation meets their tax objectives, efficiently managing their international trade and financial position and carefully assessing any risks. For our clients establishing operations in Australia or overseas, you’ll help structure their cross border tax and transfer pricing arrangements. Our team also manages client transfer pricing compliance, including advance pricing arrangements with the Australian Taxation Office, as well as global trade compliance requirements (such as customs duties,global regulatory/trade barriers and opportunities to create more effective global supply chains).

Global Mobility

Using your skills in accounting, tax or broader commerce/economics (including HR and data analytics), as a part of our Global Mobility team you will help organisations to manage the complexities associated with their globally mobile workforce. This ranges from advising on multi-jurisdictional tax planning and best practice HR policy approaches through to meeting one on one with an individual about to embark on their international assignment, to brief them on their personal tax obligations and assisting with their annual tax return.

In the Global Mobility team you will be part of a team of passionate individuals, who build deep and trusted relationships with their clients. We are focussed on innovation and technology and using this to provide leading edge solutions for our clients. You will have the opportunity to build client relationships early in your career, use your analytical skills to undertake research to provide written technical advice and use your creativity to reimagine the way we deliver solutions to our clients.

Employment Services

Using your skills in accounting and finance, in Employment Services you’ll combine specialist tax skills with a focus on people matters. You'll be working with clients to ensure they are meeting their employment obligations while liaising with the ATO and state revenue offices and Fair Work Australia. By following an end-to-end approach across design, implementation and ongoing support, you'll help companies manage the tax risks and on-costs associated with paying their employees. Our team works across various areas including: fringe benefit tax (FBT), payroll tax, employee share schemes (ESS), payroll compliance and reward strategies.

Private Clients - Tax Advisory

Using your skills in accounting, finance and relationship management, in Private Clients you’ll provide fully integrated tax and advisory services to leading private businesses, entrepreneurs and high-net wealth individuals. Our specialists inspire confidence and client loyalty by demonstrating a deep understanding of their business and commercial objectives. You’ll be a part of a team that delivers end-to-end services across a variety of objectives including tax and/or family disputes, offering equity to key stakeholders, purchases of new acquisitions, planning for a liquidity event and/or concerns around succession and estate planning.

Deals, valuations and transactions

Using your skills in financial analysis, strategy, project management, and engineering, you will have an interest in all things related to deals, business and asset development and work closely and effectively to guide our global client network. You’ll have the opportunity to measure, evaluate and advise on value and operational objectives in a broad spectrum of inventory, brand and customer assets. Additionally, you will build financial and commercial confidence for clients utilising a medley of  commercial, operational, and financial services. Clients will rely on you for restructuring advice, debt strategy, financial advice relating to deals and you will work closely with engineers and financial personnel while conducting plant inspections. There is potential for you in this role to affect real and positive change in our clients lives and grow your skills.

CFO Advisory

CFO Advisory helps CFOs solve their most important current and emerging problems. In CFO Advisory each day is different. You will work with a broad sector of clients to:

  • Evaluate, design and implement robust control frameworks.
  • Transform their finance functions. This includes helping them meet their objectives by streamlining and automating finance processes, enabling effective business partnering and optimising financial reporting to enable effective decision making.
  • Remediate emerging issues that impact finance.
  • Support clients when implementing new ERPs.
  • Design and build visualisation tools that leverage large data sets.

Our clients span a range of industries, including public sector, media and entertainment, construction, health, supply chain and procurement, and financial services.

Governance, Risk and Controls Advisory

Joining one of several teams, you'll work to offer an integrated approach to risk and regulatory compliance that helps clients build a resilient and successful business. This involves identifying and maximising opportunities, protecting reputation, mitigating downside threats and designing and implementing an optimised internal control environment.

Teams within Governance, Risk and Controls include: Commercial Assurance, Risk & Regulatory Compliance, Culture & Accountability, Certification, Environment, Sustainability & Governance and Fraud & Forensics.

Law

Corporate Tax

Using your skills in accounting, finance, law or broader commerce, as a part of our Corporate Tax team you’ll assist large, multinational and publicly listed clients from a variety of industries with managing their Australian and international tax affairs.

In the Corporate Tax team, you’ll be part of our clients’ core tax advisory team of passionate and innovative people. We are trusted by our clients to help them navigate the ever-changing world of tax, providing them with advice on complex Australian income tax and foreign tax matters. This is an opportunity to build your soft skills as you form strong client relationships.

Each day is different as we advise our clients on a range of issues, whether that’s managing and executing market transactions, building and implementing structures for their commercial arrangements, working through engagements with the Australian Taxation Office, or helping them to meet their annual tax compliance obligations and other reporting requirements. You’ll also have the opportunity to work cross-functionally within the broader Tax team and/or with our Legal, Deals and Accounting Advisory teams.

Analytics

Data Analytics (Trust and Risk)

Using your skills in data analytics and your ability to analyse, model and interpret data to create meaningful solutions, as part of our Data Assurance team within Trust and Risk  in Assurance you’ll help deliver insights to clients through data analytics and visualisation. You’ll also help these clients establish the right controls, processes and structures to ensure that decisions are based on accurate information.

Infrastructure and Project Management

Program & Project Assurance (Trust and Risk)

Using your skills in strategy, tech or project management, as part of our Program and Project Assurance within Trust and Risk in Assurance, you’ll help our clients gain confidence by ensuring their projects stay on track, assess any risks and achieve the intended results. You’ll help identify project strengths and determine accuracy of the scope, using your analytical thinking skills to make informed decisions and enable businesses to thrive. Our client base spans financial services, health, government, oil & gas, energy and defence. From Finance to operations to IT to HR, Risk and front line teams, our teams work with many different areas of clients' business to ensure success across the lifecycle of a project.

See our Trainee success stories

A Career Journey: Trainee Success at PwC

When Kaitlyn Bunyamin started university in 2018, she had no idea where her career would take her. 

Read more

Building on your skills to open new career pathways

"I wanted to do something that would have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.”

Read more

Boost your career with international experience

Mark De Luca shares his progression from Trainee to Senior Manager of Indirect Taxes and the overseas experiences he’s gained along the way.

Read more

FAQs

What are the key dates?

Applications to our Trainee Program open on Monday 26 July 2020 at 7:30 am, and close on Sunday 22 August 2021 midnight (AEST).

Our Trainee Program will commence between November 2021 - January 2022.

We’ll be assessing applications immediately and progressing candidates who meet the program eligibility criteria to the online assessment and digital interview.

You could have outcomes for your online assessment and digital interview as early as the beginning of September 2021. This will depend on when you apply and complete these parts of the recruitment process.

Assessment centres will run from mid to end of September 2021.

Please note, all applications will be reviewed.

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What is the difference between a Trainee and a Vacationer?

As a Trainee, you'll embark on a three-year journey of combined work and study with PwC. You'll join us as a full-time employee while you study part-time for 2 years. In the third year you will take a break from full time work. For the first 2 years of your Trainee Program period you will work for us full−time while studying part−time. During this time, you agree to work four days per week for PwC and you will be provided with one paid study leave day per week during your University semester, to be taken on days and at times agreed with us. During your semester breaks, unless otherwise agreed, you will work 5 days per week. In the third year of the Trainee program, you will take a break from full-time work in order to return to full-time study and complete your degree. The program also offers an opportunity to secure a spot in our Graduate Program upon completion of studies.

This is different to the Vacation Program, which is a full-time internship spanning between four and six weeks over the semester break and is only available to penultimate year students (ie. in the second last year of studies).

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Who is eligible to apply?

You must be an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident to apply.

Students in their first year of a three year single degree or students in their second year of a four year double degree are eligible to apply for the program.

A simple way to know if you're eligbile for this years program would be to ensure you fit within the following pattern: first year of a three year degree, second year of a four year degree, third year of a five year degree and so on.

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I’m an international student - can I apply?

Unfortunately only Australian permanent residents and citizens are eligible to apply to the Trainee program. However, our Vacationer and Graduate programs are open to international students to apply.

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What’s the recruitment process?

Our process has never been easier! Simply:

  1. Apply online and complete the application form (Guess what? You don’t need a CV)

  2. Complete an online aptitude test

  3. Undertake a video interview

  4. Attend an online interview with a person(s) from the team you’ll join

Once you complete the process, offers will be issued from your local recruiter.

We have an exciting online assessment tool for you. You'll play a series of engaging and fun online games that'll assess cognitive, behavioural and emotional traits, giving us a little more insight into you as a person and where you'll thrive the most in our business. After you've completed it you'll also receive a traits report so you can learn more about yourself as well.

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What do you look for in a candidate?

As a Trainee you’ll be assessed against the competencies of our global framework, the PwC Professional. This is how we define and encourage leadership at all levels - from Vacationer to Partner. Learn more about the framework and the skills we look for here.

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When does the Trainee Program start?

Trainee Program start dates vary depending on the business area and location you join. You will generally commence your formal Trainee position in December in the same year, or early the following year after applying (Jan/Feb/March).

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Where will the Trainee Program take place?

Trainee roles are generally offered in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. However, keep an eye on our job ads to learn which locations will be offered this year.

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Am I paid as a Trainee?

Yes, you will be paid an annual salary. + add any additional support and leave entitlement.

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Which areas of the business look for Trainees?

We currently hire Trainees in our Financial Advisory and Assurance businesses.

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Will taking part in this program affect the length of my undergraduate degree?

Becoming a Trainee means you’ll take one extra year to complete your degree. During your first two years of full-time work you will be provided 1 day a week of paid study leave and exam leave (as you’ll be studying part-time). If towards the completion of the Trainee Program you meet the applicable graduate criteria, you may be offered a graduate role.

By completing the program you are gaining invaluable training, industry experience, and professional development before you’ve even graduated. The Trainee Program will set you up for a successful career and give you a priceless advantage when it comes to applying for Graduate roles.

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I need an adjustment for a disability. What do I do?

PwC recognises the benefits of diversity and is committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce, including the number of employees with disability.

As part of our commitment to creating a culture of inclusion, if you have a disability we'll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to our processes for you.

During the application process you will be asked if you require any adjustments to our recruitment process or if you anticipate needing any workplace adjustments to enable you to perform the role you're applying for. If so, please specify and discuss with your recruiter on first contact. By letting us know we can help you to perform at your best.

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Find out about our recruitment and application process

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