Former Coundon Court Student Becomes Associate Director Through Accountancy Apprenticeship!

Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce Training helps prepare individuals through an apprenticeship, an ideal pathway to kickstart a career in a range of sectors, The accountancy programme at Chamber Training is designed to equip apprentices with the necessary skills and knowledge for success in the professional world. Recently, we had the opportunity to interview one of our former apprentices who has achieved remarkable success in her accountancy career. 

How did you get to your position as Associate Director at CTT?

“My name is Amy, and I went to Coundon Court School in Coventry. At school I did fairly well with my GCSE’s so I was in two minds as to whether to go straight into my ATT at 16, as at that age you could go straight into it, rather than do A levels and I went for an interview at CWT with Karen at the time who looked at finding me a job but I took a step back and thought I’m going to do my two years of A levels incase I decide to go down a different path or change my mind in the career I wanted. So I stayed on and did my A levels which was Business, Maths and Psychology, which was a bit of random one turns out at the end of two years of A levels I still wanted to take the Accountancy route so I went back to CWT went through the same process where they found me a placement and they put me straight on a Level 3. I managed to skip level 2 as I did maths and business which is quite helpful in this sort of industry and then I did my level 3 and 4 at CWT and then went on to do my ACCA. I think the AAT with CWT was a really good foundation for the ACCA which is quite a big step up. I then did my training with quite a larger national firm which was very useful as I had exposure to wide range of client services. In January 2021, myself and Nic set up CTT Accountancy which like I said we are now a team of 6 based in Leamington and have good relationship with the wider CTT group and different financial service providers in CTT law, private clients, wealth and estate planning so it is a great place to be and have exposure to different types of clients.”

Why did you choose an apprenticeship?

“I just think with this industry in particular that the on the job training and application to real life scenarios when your in the workplace is invaluable to be honest. I mean I am not against university route but things such as picking up the phone to client or dealing with awkward relationship within the workplace, just general personal life skills that you develop from getting straight into the workplace and applying your study to real life scenarios is most valuable experience you can get for this industry I would say.”

How did you find the course?

“AAT back then for me yeah I really enjoyed it after having done A-levels it was sort-of a good way to maintain that headspace of study and getting exams done and CWT were very supportive in terms of lesson planning and then booking exams so the course itself I really enjoyed.”

Hows your apprenticeship helped shape your future and advanced you career to become associate director of CTT?

“I would say just get stuck in early as possible as the more experience you get the better you get at your job. We all have situation where we are nervous or we don’t particularly want to do something but I think the sooner we face those, sort-of scenarios, and keep doing them the better you get at them and more confident you become.”

Would you recommend an apprenticeship to others? If so, do you have any advice for future apprentices?

“Yes, I’d 100% recommend an apprenticeship, not even just in our industry to be honest. I keep going back to the university route, but I think unless you need to be a doctor or a teacher or your going for a career where you actually do need a degree then I would 9/10 recommend an apprenticeship route because getting that experience early on is the best thing you can do in my eyes. And that would be my advice aswell, it’s not easy, you do need to work hard and it’s not just a stroll in the park that would be my advice to get stuck in work at it get your head down for a few years and hard work pays off in the end.”

If you are interested in doing an Accountancy apprenticeship then email enquiries@cw-chambertraining.co.uk or call 024 76231122.