E&Y voted best employer for school leavers

A survey of young people employed on apprenticeships and school leaver schemes has placed E&Y at the top of the table.

RateMyApprenticeship.co.uk's annual poll of the best employers for school leavers found that the Big 4 firm beat rivals PwC, who were 8th in the table, and Deloitte, who came in at 15th. KPMG didn't make it into the Top 60 at all.

Popular training programmes

At any one time, more than 100 under 25's are employed by E&Y on the company's training programmes.

The rankings in the annual poll are determined by how popular schemes are with the students who actually take part in them, and the criteria includes how valued a trainee feels and how much he or she earns.

E&Y's managing partner for talent in the UK and Ireland, Maggie Stilwell, said: "Our number one ranking is a great achievement and it demonstrates just how much our trainees and interns value their experience with us."

"We have invested heavily in our school leaver programme since its launch three years ago, and a key part of that has been listening to and acting on feedback from our trainees, as well as involving them in shaping their own training and development," she added.

The table of top employers has been expanded from 30 last year to 60 in the latest edition due to the increase in the availability of apprenticeships, school leaver programmes, sponsored degree programmes and other work experience schemes.

The final results were drawn from more than 2,500 reviews written by students.