Deloitte Access

We are proud to be supported by Deloitte, the global professional services firm. Deloitte works closely with us to help our students raise ambitions, gain work experience and acquire life skills to complement the school curriculum.

How does Deloitte help our students?

Deloitte Access is designed to raise aspiration, support achievement and provide opportunities for our students.

Deloitte believes that supporting young people from all backgrounds to develop the skills they need to get a job, and to succeed in the workplace, is crucial to the development of a fairer society. Deloitte volunteers support the academy by running a variety of programs, including:

Mentoring

Every year, students in Year 11 have the opportunity to have a Deloitte professional as mentor. Students regularly meet their mentors over the school year. The meetings give our students a chance to talk to someone neutral about some of the major decisions and challenges in their lives – GCSE revision pressures, Sixth Form choices, career options (university, college or jobs, apprenticeships etc), favourite singers, etc., etc. One of the students recently called it ‘the best thing since sliced bread’!

Tutoring

Deloitte volunteers have supported many of our Year 11 students in GCSE preparation in teacher-led sessions to provide extra support with coursework and exam preparation, for example in maths and foreign languages.

Book club

A team of Deloitte volunteers share their love of books with a group of students. The Deloitte book club aims to ignite an interest and life-long passion in reading, and often leads to interesting discussions of current affairs or other topics touched upon in the literature.

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Deloitte TMT Predictions Challenge

Every year, there is an exciting opportunity for a team of Sixth Form students to develop their skills whilst gaining an insight into technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) trends and meeting some of the UK’s experts in these industries.

The COLAI team competes against other schools and has to come up with a business idea, supported by Deloitte coaches. In previous TMT Predictions challenges, the COLAI team had to come up with a business idea for flying drones and develop an app for their grandparents! The judges discussing our teams’ ideas with them included experts from the BBC, Virgin Media, The Guardian, EE and Sony.

Micro Tyco

In another great business challenge for Sixth Form students, a Deloitte coach helps the COLAI team plan and run a business for one month, making as much money as possible from a £1 seed capital, using any legal means. All proceeds go to the Wild Hearts charity, who give micro-loans to enable people in third world countries to set up a small business and work their own way out of poverty. Our students develop organisational and entrepreneurial skills in this challenge are inspired by seeing just how much you can achieve when you work as a team. Taking part is also a great thing to put on CVs to demonstrate organisational skills, team working and creativity.

Deloitte runs many one-off events for Years 9 -13 which help our students develop their employability and life skills. These include sessions on:

  • CV skills and Personal Statement writing
  • Financial awareness
  • Interview skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Workplace behaviour
  • Communication skills
  • Working as a team

There are some opportunities for Sixth Form students to apply for the Deloitte Aspire work experience program. In the past, Deloitte volunteers have helped the students through the application process and we have had a great success rate in our pupils securing places on this highly competitive program, where our students get the chance to further develop their skills and gain invaluable first-hand experience of what it is like to work in a world-class professional services firm like Deloitte.

“Deloitte” is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services to select clients.

City of London Academy Islington

Prebend Street | Islington | N1 8PQ

Telephone: 020 7226 8611

Registered in England: No 6426966, City of London Academy Islington Limited is a Registered Charity no: 1121962