A Different Education

So I started off in school, just like everyone else. I had lessons I thrived in as well as the lessons I couldn’t stand for all sorts of different reasons. I couldn’t be bothered, I didn’t like my teachers, I didn’t see the point in attending just because it wouldn’t get me where I wanted to go.

For my GCSEs I took maths, English, sciences, ancient history, music, and engineering. Now maths was one of my strongest subjects when I first started secondary school, in fact in my first two years teachers asked me to tutor the younger children which is when I realised, hey I might be quite good at this after all. It changed when I got to year 9 or year 10, different friends than I’d had before, different teachers, different classes. I went from being the quiet kid that gets his head down to the kid that didn’t really care, all in a few years. Now don’t get me wrong I wasn’t the one who disturbed the class, or always got detention, or held back after class had ended, I did the work. It’s just I didn't really mind how well I did it, I didn’t take pride in my work.

So when it got to exam time, I crammed and crammed revision in, like a switch had just flicked on and I started taking it seriously again, it might’ve been the fact my friends were studying, or the fear of not having a good job and not being able to provide in the future for myself, and not being independent, because after all the bank of mum and dad stopped giving out cash anytime you need when you hit a different age.

Back to exams.

I sat all my exams and tried to the very best of my ability to do as well as I could, and I passed them all too! It wasn’t necessarily easy to pass them all. As I said before I was good at maths, but I kind of fell off after the first few years so it was actually quite a struggle for me to revise and do as well as I actually did.

So if finished school. Achievement. Now on to the next stage in my life.

Sixth form college.

Did I mention I always wanted to be an accountant or a musician, played guitar for 7 years now to the time of writing this and it’s been great, but at college I didn’t do anything to do with music in the slightest. I took A level business studies, A level psychology, and AS level media studies. I don’t know why I went down the route I did in the end, music was such a huge passion of mine and I would stay up endlessly learning new songs or trying to write my own music. But I chose the finance route instead, I’m not entirely sure what made me want to be an accountant to be completely honest with you. I enjoyed the concepts of business and finance, and when I went to my sixth form interview I spoke to the head of accounting and I remember he quizzed me on what I knew about it. I didn’t lie, I said I’m not too sure to be honest with you, long story short I remember he said he wouldn’t let me take the class, I was let down completely I thought, well, if I can’t take take the one class I want, then I just won’t try in my others.

I finished my first year but about halfway through I had an epiphany. Why not look for an apprenticeship? A lot of the time they don’t need a lot of qualifications and I liked the idea of earning my own money while I learnt on the job! So I started long around and one came up, sure it wasn’t accounting but it was finance and banking, I applied, it was a position with Barclays as a cashier/ advisor which I am currently still working towards finishing; long story short I got that job, took my A level exams and skeddadled.

Barclays has taught me a lot about finance and the corporate world so far, and I enjoy the job, but my heart is still set on accounting and working in a firm with likeminded individuals. I still work for Barclays in my apprenticeship scheme but I’m also looking for ways to get my foot into that accountancy door, I have started to take the necessary steps to better myself and make a good career for a stable life in the future, now, I’m only 18 so I have, hopefully, got a long, long life ahead of me.

I’m currently planning a route to become a fully chartered accountant by the time I’m 22/23. I’ve started studying AAT which is an accounting qualification in my spare time. I have got to say I am enjoying it, obviously it is going to be difficult and there have been a few times where I thought is this what I want to do, but I’ve finally started to take those steps in my education to get myself where I want to be. If it wasn’t for the teacher that said I probably wouldn’t be an accountant and if he had instead let me take the course I know for a fact I’d be in a complete different scenario right now.