Cadetships at Saward Dawson

A cadetship with Saward Dawson enables VCE graduates the opportunity to combine paid employment in the accounting profession with their tertiary accounting studies. Cadets are often able to excel in their studies through the provision of challenging and varied work experiences within a flexible working environment.

About Saward Dawson

Saward Dawson embraces a culture of professionalism, generosity and community focus.

Great reasons to work at Saward Dawson

At Saward Dawson, we are genuine in the pursuit of the highest standards in professionalism and corporate ethics. We are large enough to provide our clients with an extensive range of services enabling our staff to experience a breadth of disciplines available in the chartered accountancy profession. However, we are still small enough to care for staff on a personal level.

Our ethos and vision

You will also have to opportunity to participate in our social events. We have a social club that organises events both here at the office as well as activities to do outside the office. These range from events like going to Bounce to having BBQ lunches.

The program

Our Cadetship program is very flexible and usually runs over 4 years. It comprises a combination of full-time or part-time study with part-time work. We will work with you and agree the best options around your study program and work hours. Cadets will generally work three days per week with their university schedule taken into consideration. There may be the option to do additional hours of work while on holidays.

Our cadetship program is a wonderful opportunity to work and learn at the same time. Our aim is to work with you to establish a good balance between working and studying.

Training

Our cadets get involved in the regular graduate and other training sessions provided to professional staff. In addition, cadets are provided on the job training within their allocated division being business advisory, taxation or audit. Cadets also attend our Back to Basics graduate training sessions.

Cadets, like the rest of our staff, have access to senior staff including managers and partners, if they have particular technical matters with which they need assistance. Additionally, we encourage cadets to utilise the firm’s technical and electronic resources if these can assist with their studies.

While you work

Cadets are trained and gain experience in many areas of business. Extensive use of the many different Information Technology packages is a routine part of life at Saward Dawson. The ability to learn whilst in the work environment should accelerate your progress in tertiary studies and will make them more relevant.

We support you

In addition to the modern facilities and friendly team environment, we provide our staff, including cadets, with a mentoring process whereby they meet regularly with a more senior staff member to discuss their work commitments and other issues.

We provide cadets with a six monthly formal feedback session with a manager and a partner.

Work requirements

We aim to be flexible in relation to the hours worked throughout the duration of your studies. We require cadets to work a minimum of three days per week (around 23 hours per week) for the term of their cadetship. This may be spread over four days. We review our expectations at the commencement of each semester to ensure that it accommodates, where ever possible, the university timetable.

Obtaining the right balance

Flexibility is the key to ensuring your success both on the job and in your studies. Your academic success is important to us and we will support you to ensure the right balance and scheduling of your work and study commitments.

Our expectations

We expect the following of our cadets:

• Cadets will dedicate sufficient efforts to their studies to ensure they obtain a high standard of academic achievement.
• Cadets will work a minimum of three days per week (approximately 23 hours). This may be increased to full time during university holidays and other times when available. Normal office hours are 8.30 to 5.30 with an hour for lunch which equates to a standard 38 hour week.
• Cadets will seek to develop personally through their involvement with other activities outside their work and study commitments.
• Cadets will quickly progress to a level of junior accountants and beyond as they are provided with work experience and as they develop academically.

We seek enthusiastic, well balanced people to join our team. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, we'd love to hear from you.

Please respond to the questions below and provide the following information when requested:

• a letter of introduction with accompanying resume that details your school activities and previous work experience (if any)
• a copy of your most recent marks
• a list of the universities which you have applied for and the nominated courses (if you have already applied)
• a demonstration of your ability to work in a team
• a demonstration of how you share our ethos and vision