Forage, which used to be known as InsideSherpa, is an open platform that hosts company-backed virtual internship programs. Forage assists companies whose eager to help students comprehend how appealing the career is. Also, through the virtual internship program, there is a chance that the company could contact you for job employment. Moreover, this virtual internship is completely free!
Personally, the Forage is one of my top favorite education/career platforms due to the unique features I mentioned above. Even though I realize that Forage does not guarantee the company will hire the students, for me, it is not a problem. Because the company expert teaches the program and the material discussed is part of the real work cases. Thus, it could boost my understanding and experience compared to other platforms that are merely theoretical courses.
Forage also tells the student about ways to increase the chance of getting hired or at least noticed by employers/companies. First, you could opt-in to share details information about your account, especially your submission/answer to each given task. Agreeing to share your answer could attract the employer since they can assess your understanding/competency through your submission. Second, after finishing your virtual internship program, Forage will provide you with a certificate of completion. Thus, you could add it to your LinkedIn to show that you actively participate in a professional development program. Third, Forage always encourages the student to share their progress on social media, especially on LinkedIn, and tells the student to tag the company so it can be noticed. To share your achievement, Forage provides guidelines about doing so in the Referencing Policy.
If you are interested, I invite you to Join Forage <- It is a referral link, or you could directly go to the Forage Website, or if you still want to know more before signing up, read their FAQ.
Now I would like to share what I learned from registering for the virtual internship program. Since I want to be a Financial Auditor (External), I enroll in 2 auditing programs from KPMG USA and KPMG Australia (There are many types of career interest programs from many companies.)
*) Each task contains video instruction, background information, the task, useful resources, and a submission section. After completion, a solution will appear, and you could conduct self-reflection by comparing your answer with the solutions. Also, you could fill the comparison box with the result of your self-reflection or insight you got; This could be visible to the company; it shows the company your improvements. Then, you could resubmit.
KPMG USA Career Catalyst Virtual Experience Program
There are 6 tasks:
The Big Picture - Audit at KPMG In this task, at first, I learned about what is an external audit, the reason auditing conducted, and the reason to be an auditor. Also, this task provides me with knowledge about the brief KPMG history, the purpose of KPMG, and information about the smart and intuitive audit platform, KPMG Clara. The task tested my understanding of stakeholders and Audit Opinion/Report.
The Audit Planning Process I learn about materiality in the audit engagement. It tells to use pre-tax income as a basis to determine the materiality. Overall materiality uses a 5% rate, while performance materiality is only 1%. The task asked me to determine how much the performance materiality is from a company trial balance; So, I need to calculate the pre-tax income from the trial balance and then give a mark (grouping) to the account that exceeds the performance materiality threshold.
Audit procedures - Accounts Receivable This task teaches me about one of the audit procedures, external confirmations of AR. It tells how the use of confirmation, the type (positive, blank, negative), and what to do after it is returned. Task 3 asked me to do a presentation (video) to the daily engagement team; In the video, I explained what type of confirmation is used, the result of assessing the confirmations draft, and what to do with the returned confirmation, which tells disagreement to our positive confirmation.
Communicating with Your Client Task 4 is still about confirmations. It teaches me the further process of responding to the confirmations. This task provides me with material on how to write a good & effective email for work. The resources are handy since I'm asked to write an email to be sent to the audit senior and manager. The email I am writing is about the status of confirmations. But, before writing the email, I should summarize the AR confirmation status by using Excel VLOOKUP.
Walk Through of Client's Process In this task, I learn the importance of assessing a company's internal control and audit walkthrough. This task provides me with one of the business process flow charts of the order-to-cash (OTC) cycle. To do the task, I was required to understand the OTC cycle to know the kinds of internal control implemented.
Prepare and Present Your Findings This last task is for finalizing my responsibilities (Task 1-5). I am required to make a simple PPT for the presentation. In the PPT, I put the information about the account grouped as 'Material', a further procedure for the confirmation, and the assessment result of OTC internal control. This task also asks for a video of me explaining those key points.
KPMG Australia Audit & Assurance Virtual Experience Program
There are 5 tasks:
Risk Assessment In this task, I am asked to compile Risk Assessment Planning Discussion. I learned about the significance of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) in mining companies from the background information. This task informs a mining company that wants to acquire a mine using an external lender (debt funding). There is also information about mining company risk forecast to help do the task. The task asked me to tell the impact of mining transactions on the company, analyze what accounts impacted the most from the transaction, and analyze the impact of ESG on the business.
Audit Risk Assertions Task 2 taught me CEAVOP (Completeness or Cut-off, Existence, Accuracy, Valuation, Ownership, Presentation) audit risk assertions. The task requires me to determine the assertion of the Income Statement and Balance Sheet account and its reason.
Create an Audit Lead Sheet and Perform a Preliminary Analytical Review This task provides me with the company's manager's Minutes of Meeting, Trial Balance, and Lead Sheet for the Cash and Cash Equivalents account. The task required me to fill the Cash Lead Sheet with the MoM and TB information. I am using VLOOKUP to fill TB amounts in the Lead Sheet and then compare it with the previous year's amounts to calculate the variance amount and percentage. After that, I am writing notes for each account to explain the reason for the variance from the information I gained on MoM and the materiality threshold that has been set. Last, from the notes, I conclude whether the account needs a follow-up or not.
Assess Impairment of Assets for Sports Retailers United (SRU) In this task, I should understand a company policy in impairment. Then, there is information about a company allocating their cost on a pro-rata base on the total net sales. Therefore, I should calculate the expenses allocated to each individual store by using excel calculation. Then I should propose an impairment (write off) journal entry if some conditions are reached.
Prepare a Management Letter for the Board of Directors (BoD) of Miners United (MU) This last task requires me to prepare a presentation to the Board of Directors (BoD). This task provides me with the background information about the client and the Minutes of Closing Meeting between KPMG and the client's CFO. From that information, I should explain the observation, impact, and recommendation of each case that happened to the client. The case that happened to the client is ESG disaster, assets impairment, hedge accounting, and ERP implementation.
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