Organisation and position in organisation:
ACCA, Head of Wales
About ACCA:
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. Founded in 1904, ACCA aims to develop capacity in the accountancy profession and encourages the adoption of global standards. ACCA seeks to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating their qualifications and their delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.
The organisation supports 178,000 members and 455,000 students in 181 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills needed by employers. They work through a network of 95 offices and centres and 7,110 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development.
Year of graduation:
2015
How did you find out about the course?
At the time I was working at Cardiff Met and so I applied for the Exec MBA as an internal candidate. I had already done the Leadership for Collaboration course which gave 60 credits of advanced standing onto the Exec MBA and so doing the MBA felt like a natural progression.
What attracted you to the Cardiff Met Exec MBA?
As well as being on my doorstep, the course offered me the flexibility I needed – the 'step on/step' off nature of it was good as I was travelling a lot with my work at the time. Also, as I worked there I had excellent access to the academics and administrators on the course.
How did the course help you to grow and develop in your career and life?
I learned lots of new things which helped me to develop my career. I feel that having the Exec MBA certainly helped me to get my new role at ACCA, both in terms of the qualification on my CV and with the knowledge and skills I gained. It was also very helpful in my previous role within Cardiff Met.
I did as much as I could on the course to help me in my job. For example, the marketing plan I devised helped me directly in my (previous) job. I also tried to apply OB and OT learning into practice with my team and with colleagues. Sometimes, it was a case of learning the theory that underpinned the practical – to make sense of what I was already doing or trying to do.
In terms of my life in general, the fact that I was studying and travelling so much at the same time meant I needed to develop good time management skills.
The flexibility of the course does help however with the balancing of work with life. If I needed to, I could delay doing certain things on the course due to work commitments.
What top three things did you learn from the course?
The course gives a broad grounding in a number of areas which has helped me to appreciate the Big Picture with regard to management. I learnt so much on the course that it has been difficult to pin it down the three things.
However, here are the three main things I learnt:
That everything you study on the course is connected though you don't realise it at the time.
The importance of sticking at it.
The importance of a good support network – family, peers, course team.
What is the best piece of advice you can give to anyone thinking of doing the Exec MBA at Cardiff Met?
Do it! Make the most of the contacts you encounter during the course.
Do as much reading as you can – use as many of the resources (many provided by Cardiff Met on-line!) as you can.
I did the Strategy module at the end. Ideally, I should have started with Strategy but work commitments precluded it. So, do Strategy first if you can!
And finally…don't be afraid to ask questions!
