Our ability to shatter the usual myths (Isn’t accountancy boring?Isn’t it just grey suits and briefcases?) is, we believe, how we will attract the next generation of accountants. It shows ambitious teenagers the full breadth, range and variety of the roles accountancy offers and the different ways they can turn their interest into a fulfilling and rewarding career.
This was the starting point for our latest event in Leeds.
We created a packed two days that started with a series of activities to calm the attendees nerves. We then ran informative sessions hosted by a diverse range of accountants from national heavyweights including the NHS and Leeds Building Society and leading local firms BHP and Kirk Newsholme before moving into more practical territory with a CV clinic and mock interviews. At every turn, we shared a wealth of top tips that will make our attendees more credible and more attractive candidates to future employers.
The programme culminated with our team activity. We split the attendees into groups and tasked them with creating their own festival from scratch.
They had to work as a team to put together a presentation that would introduce the theme of their festival and then explain how they planned to tackle budget, security, advertising and marketing, accessibility and pricing to a judging panel.
This must have been daunting task for the groups. The panel were all experienced professionals, including qualified Chartered Accountants. Some of which could end up as potential employers. All the groups, however, exceeded themselves. After a series of highly engaging and creative presentations, a unanimous decision was reached and the winners were announced. You now need to keep a lookout for the world’s first one-hit wonder festival.
With day two drawing to a close, First Intuition Yorkshire Managing Director Lucy Parr, reflected on another highly successful Academy:
“We were extremely impressed with the quality of the presentations as were all our ‘dragons’. We really put the learners through their paces, with some tough questions. This is difficult enough for experienced businesspeople but even more so for our attendees, especially as they’d been well and truly put on the spot and handled it so well.”
Lucy’s enthusiasm was obviously shared by the attendees who also provided positive feedback on their experience at First Intuition’s Accountancy Academy:
“Thank you for hosting the accountancy academy. I found that it was extremely informative. The presentations from the different employers and the CV clinic and mock interviews were also incredibly helpful.”
“The academy was lovely and extremely helpful and gave me good insight for what employers are looking for in applicants.”
“Thank you so much for this opportunity. I enjoyed it thoroughly and have gained such a significant amount of knowledge in a short period, as well as meeting some lovely people experienced in this field with such a positive attitude. The mock interviews and CV support gave me a huge confidence boost.”
As the last candidate left, we all reflected on one last question … did we shatter those myths about accountants?
With our feet firmly in the data-driven world of accountancy we of course had to find irrefutable proof. We think we found it.
On day one we asked the attendees to give us the words they associated with accountants. Many of the words we were given were less than complimentary. However, when we repeated the exercise at the end of day two we were met with a much more complimentary set including ‘interesting’, ‘flexible’, ‘versatile’ and ‘dynamic’.
We’ll take that and build on this unbridled success at First Intuition’s next Accountancy Academy, where we look forward to meeting the next team of future Accountants.
Next step….Sheffield. Look out for details of our Easter Academy. If you would like to take part either as an attendee or an employer please get in touch with lucybrennan@fi.co.uk
#”
