Most cadetships are offered to school leavers, but i've heard you can apply during uni. So for me i'll be working full time and studying part time for 1st & 2nd year uni. I dont think any cadetships are offered for finance, theres only the UNSW coop available. You are not allowed to take a cadetship and a coop, theyre mutually exclusive. A cadetship involves you applying thru an accouting firm, and then undertaking employment while completing your uni degree. In a coop, you apply thru the uni and gain work experience with at least 2 companies (not limitied to accounting firms). The workload for both is pretty heavy, however i believe its more for coops as i think you have to maintain good results to keep getting the scholarship? (not sure about this) whereas cadets only have to maintain passes, work is more important.
Coops get a $13k pa scholarship, and also get paid for any work placements they do. Cadets receive a salary of around $28k + corporate benefits. it probably ends up working out about the same.
For both you gain valuable work experience. Coops are advantaged in that they arent restricted to just one accounting firm, you get awesome experience at other companies as well (they get at least 2 6 month work placements). Cadets work full time for the firm for 2 years, work part time for the next 2 and then are offered employment at the completion of their degree, theyre good if you have aspirations for higher management positions in an accounting firm