Before moving into teaching you worked in finance. Tell us more.

I ‘cut my teeth’ in finance at a large multi-site private dental company, in their commercial finance function, and I was fortunate to work for a business that invested in my studies and in me. I started as an assistant management accountant, handling typical ‘month-end’ tasks, and worked my way up to finance business partner where I ‘bridged the gap’ between the numbers and the non-financial operational teams (done with the dental puns now!).

If I was to align my career at that time with an ACCA exam, it would be Advanced Performance Management (APM). I produced budgets and forecasts, produced investment appraisals for potential acquisitions and built a dashboard to track the success of various operational initiatives.

Why did you decide to switch career path and teach accountancy?

I was always interested in ‘giving back’ and helping future finance professionals pass their exams by sharing both my industry experience and my empathy as a former student. Post-qualification I maintained a close relationship with my old tuition provider (First Intuition Manchester) and, a few years later, I joined them as a tutor. I made the leap to full-time teaching (still at First Intuition) in 2016 and now lead a strong tutor team. I am one of a rare breed of tutors who like to teach a bit of everything including tax, strategic business leadership and APM, to name just a few.

What key challenges currently face accountancy teachers and how can we overcome them?

Learners are more distracted than ever before, and this is even more challenging for learners who opt for live online tuition, or other forms of distance learning. Rather than fight this, however, I accept it. In the classroom, if a learner needs to take or make a call, then I encourage them to do so, otherwise they are just thinking about it.

I also like to touch base little and often with learners between sessions with prompts about what they could and should be doing at home. I view myself in a similar light to a personal trainer. A gym membership might give you access to the premises and all the equipment but it can still be daunting, which can result in the inefficient use of time and energy. A personal trainer will instruct you on what to do, how to do it and, if applicable, provide corrective action. My job is no different – learners have all the materials they need and I provide guidance on how to use them.

What gives you most job satisfaction?

Learners are extremely grateful and excited when they pass their professional exams and are often quick to pass on their gratitude to those who helped them. It’s nice to play even a small part in their success and even nicer to guide someone who has struggled to pass an exam in the past and help them get over that ‘hump’ – that feeling never gets old.

What have been some of your career highlights so far?

I’m fortunate to lead a team of eight talented tutors and, by most metrics (including pass rates, service and support), my entire team performs extremely well and I’m honoured to be part of their success.

What common mistakes do learners make when preparing for ACCA exams?

Spending time ‘re-writing’ notes rather than attempting past questions or mock exams. As part of learning, we all go through something called ‘conscious incompetence’ – the very real awareness that we just don’t ‘get it’ (yet). This can be the most uncomfortable stage of exam preparation and some learners try to avoid it by putting off question practice and mock exams, either because they don’t feel ‘ready’ or because of a fear of failing.

I point out early on (especially when learners progress to more difficult exams) that this feeling is normal but also unavoidable, and that empirical evidence shows a direct correlation between the number of mock exams learners attempt and their chance of passing the real exam. Note that I said ‘attempt’ and not ‘pass’. It doesn’t matter how well you perform at question practice and mock exams, it’s the act of doing them, and learning from them that’s important. And one last thing I tell my learners – turn your phone off and leave it in another room when it’s time to study.

What’s the most important advice you give your learners before – and after – every exam?

I tell my learners to stay calm. I don’t know what questions will feature on exam day but I guarantee that some will make them feel uncomfortable and that’s OK – take a deep breath and remember that the exams are meant to be hard. After the exam is over, I email everyone to ask how it went and at least one learner will tell me that it was awful and that they are convinced they’ve failed. I ask why and if the learner focuses on one question, but tells me the rest went OK, I’ll say that they have probably passed. It’s human nature for us to focus on what went wrong – but a lot of my job revolves around reminding my learners how much went right.

What’s your key advice for tutors new to teaching ACCA?

As a new tutor you are a prime candidate for ‘imposter syndrome’. You will be extremely knowledgeable in certain areas because of your finance background (such as my knowledge of APM) but you will also teach subjects that don’t complement your real-world experience (for me it’s tax).

The knee-jerk reaction is to over-compensate and to think of every eventuality and question in advance, but it’s both OK and completely normal not to know it all. Learners don’t expect it and if a learner asks a question you can’t answer, it’s probably a really good question, so acknowledge it. It’s motivational for a learner to know they’ve asked a question you hadn’t thought of before. Pose the question back to the class and there’s a good chance someone will know the answer based on their own work experience. And if they don’t, it’s perfectly acceptable to get back to them later once you’ve found out the answer.