KPMG won the Gradireland Most Popular Graduate Recruiter in Ireland award and the Most Popular Graduate Recruiter Accounting/ Professional Services award "because of its commitment to graduate development on a number of fronts," says Paul Vance, head of resourcing at KPMG.

These include training and development, mentoring and coaching, career progression, student work experience programmes and a commitment to diversity and corporate social responsibility.

“As well as business graduates, we welcome applications from engineering, science, arts, law and so on as our clients operate in every industry sector. We provide additional training for non-business graduates to support them with the switch to business. So if the career motivation is right, then they will succeed.”

Graduates who join KPMG in the autumn spend their first six weeks in a comprehensive induction programme.

“This programme really helps the graduates to settle in and get to know KPMG and one another. They are all assigned an individual mentor – we call this person a ‘buddy’ – who is there to help them with all those early work questions that soon become everyday norms,” says Vance.

“From a work perspective, graduates are supported from day one and we ensure people are trained to be successful with their work.

“From a social perspective, graduates soon realise there is a great social element to the firm, be it sports, socialising or CSR – there is something for everyone that helps with integrating people into the firm.

“All of our graduates train to be chartered accountants and we take pride in helping them to achieve their professional goals.

“We invest enormously in learning and development through the KPMG Business School.”

On average, it delivers 1,600 courses a year and there are more than 200 technology- based learning modules allowing employees to access training from their desks if they wish. “On average every employee completes 25 training days a year,” says Vance.