I have been given the guidance and support from my peers that I need to be successful in the role. Much of my learning has been done on-the-job, with training modules (online and in-person) to support this.
Broadly speaking, QAO offers plenty of training for auditors, especially prior to the End Of Financial Year getting underway. However, there is a lot less structured training offered if you are not in one of the main audit teams. In my team, almost everything I have learned is through doing. Whilst there are plenty of benefits to this, such as learning quickly and getting to work with concepts practically, it also presents challenges. In my case, I had no knowledge of the systems I was auditing. A lack of training prior to starting work meant that I was learning everything on the fly, impacting my ability to deliver quality work on time. This was further compounded by the fact I started in my team's busy season. Learning on the fly with no formal training with stricter deadlines than usual was not pleasant. However, one major positive of this experience is that managers are very receptive to this kind of feedback, and the team has been working hard to develop our own training materials to help future grads get a better understanding of the work we do.
There are dedicated training blocks during the year where formal training is provided. In the graduate program we have monthly grad forums where further training and development is offered
There is a consistent grad forum organised approximately once a month - in these sessions, there is often a topic (i.e. a presentation, a training session) but also fosters good culture amongst the grad cohort. There is also a performance feedback process for job-specific check-ins, half-yearly and year-end check-ins.
