“Being a Tutor is a vocation not a job”
This is what Simon Deane told me when I first enquired about teaching accountancy having recently qualified as ACA. He wasn’t wrong! I have now been teaching accountancy for almost 15 years and have taught AAT, ACCA and ATT qualifications as well as lecturing on the Accounting and Finance degree at Plymouth University. My teaching areas have always been tax and auditing although as a tutor at Accountancy Learning, we need to be able to turn our hand to any of the AAT units, so I am enjoying getting my head back into management accounting!
So what does “a vocation rather than a job” actually mean? Well, it does inevitably mean it is not 9-5 but much more than that – the role becomes part of you, it gets under your skin and is something you are naturally drawn to do, rather than a job you perform only at the workplace and in your work hours. The skills I use in tutoring are also skills I use in parenting or in my relationship with friends and colleagues. Above all, for me tutoring is a privilege. I get to play a significant role in an important stage of my learner’s lives, a time when they are developing knowledge, skills and behaviours that will shape their futures. I can share this journey with them as they navigate their way through their learning, helping them to overcome any obstacles in their path and celebrating successes along the way. Knowing that in some way I have been a part of their success is a huge honour.
My role at Accountancy Learning is not only as a tutor but also as a part of the Senior Management Team. This is an opportunity to work with Simon and Prue and use my experience of being a qualified accountant but also working in education to contribute to the future of the business, it is an opportunity I am enjoying immensely. I am also working closely with other tutors, sharing my experience when relevant and helping them to develop their tutoring role. I am also, of course learning from them. Each tutor will have a different style, but the underlying role is to support, coach and mentor our learners and it is something I think we are very good at. The personal, one to one approach we have as tutors allows us to build a much stronger working relationship and value each learner as an individual.
Written by Sally Antrobus
