Apprenticeship - Finance (Housing Sector)

The Sage Group plc; Northampton; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 22,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading provider of affordable housing in the UK is seeking a Finance Apprentice to gain comprehensive exposure to essential financial processes and controls. The role includes responsibilities such as invoice processing, office administration, and project planning. Candidates will engage in training designed to develop their financial skills and support overall business operations. This apprenticeship offers ample professional development opportunities and involves contributing to the mission of providing quality affordable homes.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus additional days for service

Health cash plan for physiotherapy and dental

Workplace pension

Qualifications

• Strong communication skills and ability to interact with stakeholders.
• Attention to detail in financial tasks and reporting.
• Proficient IT skills for managing finance-related software.
• Organisational skills to handle multiple administrative tasks.

Responsibilities

• Learn key transactional finance activities including invoice processing.
• Develop skills in planning and managing administrative tasks.
• Engage in professional development and support balance sheet reconciliations.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders to deliver accurate results.

Skills

Communication skills

IT skills

Attention to detail

Organisation skills

Problem solving skills

Presentation skills

Administrative skills

Analytical skills

Logical thinking

Team working

Non-judgemental

Patience

Job description

As a Finance Apprentice within Sage Homes, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of key financial processes, controls and regulations, a diversity of financial processes, and important deadlines. Whilst learning on the job you will also explore customer service and office administration.

Responsibilities

• Transactional Finance: Learn about the key transactional finance activities including invoice processing, AI reader technology, supplier payments, dispute resolutions, processing incoming payments for rents, and reconciliation activities, including Shared Ownership completion statements.
• Office Administration & General Enquiries: Develop skills in planning and managing administrative tasks, such as team and insurance mailboxes, organising and prioritising workloads, GDPR compliance, scanning, providing insurance certificates to internal stakeholders, supporting the open claims process and developing Excel skills.
• Project Planning: Develop skills in planning and managing finance‑related projects, including report writing and the management of spreadsheets to track and report progress, alongside associated project leads.
• Financial Control: Build your understanding of the importance of financial control across the business and how our policies, procedures and controls fit together.
• Treasury: Learn about the management of Sage bank accounts and treasury matters within the housing sector, along with an understanding of the bank account matrix within Sage.
• Management Accounting: Learn and support balance sheet reconciliations, internal audit compliance, copy invoices and prepayments.
• Professional Development: Engage in professional development activities and participate in remote or classroom‑based learning sessions, use the organisation's standard tools and processes to examine data to identify transactional issues such as reconciliations and inconsistencies between invoices.
• Recognise and rectify routine errors, escalating as necessary.
• Plan and review accounting and finance tasks.
• Communicate with stakeholders to deliver accurate and timely results, avoiding jargon and tailoring language to the audience.
• Use finance and accounting software packages to accurately input and manage data and contribute to routine accounting tasks.
• Handle data and digital technology in line with cyber and data security requirements, using data securely and safely, including backing up data.

Training and Development

• You will gain the skills, knowledge and behaviours through off‑the‑job training which will include either remote sessions each month, along with assessments and wider learning that could include workplace training, e‑learning, research and completion of assignments.
• You will be required to spend at least six hours a week on off‑the‑job training to meet the course requirements.
• Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.

Qualifications and Experience

• Communication skills
• IT skills
• Attention to detail
• Organisation skills
• Problem solving skills
• Presentation skills
• Administrative skillsNumber skills
• Analytical skills
• Logical
• Team working
• Non judgemental
• Patience

About the Company

Sage Homes is an innovative Blackstone and Regis business addressing the housing crisis in England by making good homes affordable for people across the country who need them. Since 2017 we have delivered around 17,000 new homes across affordable rent, shared ownership and social rent for individuals and families. In 2021 Sage Homes became the largest provider of new affordable housing in England, and we continue to deliver high quality affordable homes across the country. We have invested more than £3 billion into high‑quality affordable housing. Our entrepreneurial spirit combined with our technical expertise has got us to where we are today and will enable future sustainable growth.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday, and an additional day for every year’s service (up to five years)
• A health cash plan, financial support for a range of options including physiotherapy, opticians, dental
• Workplace pension