May 2024
Katie was recently awarded Student of the Year by the AAT. Here, she tells her story…
Growing up, I didn’t know what I wanted to do once I had left school. Although school work came easy to me, no career path felt right. I feel that I took my A-Levelsbecause I should do them rather than part of a grand plan. I opted not to go to university and instead fell into administration roles.
By late 2018, I was working as a Stock Administrator, but then two of my colleagues in the accounts team announced that they would be going on maternity leave within weeks of each other. My manager approached me with the idea of taking on some of the accounts work in that time, mainly costing work, as this would tie in with my main job.
It was during this time my manager suggested I do an AAT course to improve my knowledge. I took him up on this, and in June 2019 I registered with Training Link to do AAT Level 2 Accounting. I knew that I wanted to do distance learning so I could learn at my own pace.
Life can change in the blink of an eye
However, on Saturday 23 November 2019 – one week prior to my penultimate exam – life as I knew it changed forever.
My father was taken seriously ill in hospital having suffered a rare type of stroke. Previous thoughts of revising for an exam went towards learning complex medical terms and making three-hour round trips to visit my father in a specialist hospital. He had been my biggest cheerleader and I was going to return the favour by being there for as much of his care and therapy as possible.
Despite the poor outlook for my father’s condition, I eventually managed to sit my postponed exam in February 2020 and then focused on learning my final unit. I felt that I had a new purpose for completing my Level 2. In early March 2020, my father was placed into a nursing home and I got myself into a position where I was given the go-ahead to sit my final exam.
How the pandemic changed everything
felt very much in limbo during this time as I had no idea when I could sit an exam and was not able to see my father due to the visiting restrictions for care homes. Nevertheless, I eventually passed AAT Level 2 with an overall mark of 98% (Distinction) in August 2020. That same week, I was also approved by the Court of Protection to be my father’s financial deputy (as he had lost capacity before a Power of Attorney could be put in place).
The next year was spent getting my father’s affairs in order. But I found I was relishing in the challenge of ensuring that my father’s finances were properly recorded on the Office of the Public Guardian’s (OPG) system. For the first time, I was seriously thinking about making a career change from admin to accounts. Having seen my father struck down having barely retired, I wanted to make the most of my working life. I resolved to look for new employment once my personal life was more stable.
The start of a new chapter
In February 2022, I started applying for entry- level accounts roles and I started my current employment that April as an Accounts Assistant. The company knew that I had experience of costings, but my general bookkeeping knowledge was minimal. That did not stop them from throwing me in at the deep end, but I felt that helped me learn at a faster rate. Before long, I was not only logging purchase invoices and reconciling the bank, but I was also moving on to processing month-end journals, putting together cash forecasts, and liaising with customers and suppliers worldwide.
At the start of my employment I made a promise to my new manager that I would study AAT Level 3 Accounting. In September 2022, just after AAT launched their new syllabus, I signed up with Training Link again. Everything was as I remembered it and it made my learning experience a lot easier, even though the course was a lot harder than Level 2.
My initial goal had been to pass all four exams on the first attempt. Just over 12 months after signing up I was awarded an overall mark of 90% (Distinction), having indeed passed all four exams the first time.
What’s next?
My short-term aim is to start studying AAT Level 4 so I can take on even more responsibility in my job. Management accounting is what appeals most in the long term, but for now I am just embracing the chances I have been given and enjoying finding my way through my new career path.
