When I left school, I started off as a temp in the purchase ledger department of a big car rental firm, entering invoices onto Sage.

As I grew older and settled down, it became clear that I would have to embark on some sort of career in order to pay the mortgage and as the only business I knew was accountancy, I decided to get some accounting training.

It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I had no idea how interesting it would be!

I cast around for the right kind of accounting training for my personality and experience and really thought I would study for an AAT qualification.

But this involved going to a local college and I couldn’t spare the time to study on a regular basis.

I needed something much more flexible but I didn’t know if such a thing existed.

As luck would have it, I saw an advert in the paper for Pitman Training and they were offering an accounting technician bookkeeping course on a flexi-study basis. I called them and it turned out they had all kinds of bookkeeping and accountancy courses on offer and I could choose when I wanted to study. My study hours didn’t even have to be regular, which suited me fine. I went down to see them and enrolled that same evening on an Accounting Technician Diploma programme.

It turns out that they even had a finance plan so I could spread the payments over the duration of the course.

They told me I had up to one year to earn my diploma but that the more hours I put in, the more quickly I would graduate.

I started off with their Basic Bookkeeping course and quickly learned for the first time, the difference between debits and credits, liquid and fixed assets and much more!

Next they put me on a purchase ledger course and suddenly all my earlier work experience made sense! I followed this with Sales Ledger, Final Accounts and eventually, the ubiquitous Sage Line 50! I really felt my accounting training was putting me in the frame for a great new job.

Sage completed, I learned how to do payroll, both on a manual and Sage basis and you just wouldn’t believe my Excel skills!

Finally, I passed a short company law exam and I was qualified.

I had become an Accounting Technician!

Although I had my qualification and the team at the centre assured me I was well equipped with practical skills, I was still a bit nervous about my next career move, so I was amazed when I was offered a job at my first interview.

I was to become the internal bookkeeper at a small consulting firm, with responsibility for the management accounts and payroll.

To be honest, the first month was pretty tough as I tried diligently to put my accounting training to use in the real world, but by the middle of the second month, I was beginning to get a handle on how it all fitted together.

The business grew rapidly and so did my skills. Today I’m the finance director and I’m studying for my ACCA.

Hard to believe it all started with a Basic Bookkeeping course!