Jordan Hurst

Former student, Jordan Hurst, had been working as an A-level Maths teacher since completing his degree, but after deciding on a career change, he is now training to be a chartered accountant. Here he shares his advice:

Jordan says:

“I attended UpHolland High School before enrolling at Winstanley in 2008 to study Geography, History, Mathematics and English Literature A-level.

Winstanley was a great college to attend as a student – the teachers and friends I made there make me look back fondly on my time there.

After college I completed my degree in mathematics at Lancaster University. Whilst there, I volunteered at Morecambe Community High School, which was part of the reason I chose to study a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics at Cumbria University.

I was an A-level maths teacher at Runshaw College for 8 years post my PGCE, and currently I am going through a career change into accounting by studying the ACCA qualification whilst working as a trainee Forensic Accountant at a firm in Manchester.

My goal is to finish the ACCA qualification as quickly as I can to become a qualified chartered accountant, and then to become a director of Forensic Accounting at the firm I currently work in.

My advice to students hoping to follow the same career path would be to consider the many different options and study plans to get into accounting. Most of these don’t include the traditional go to university and study accounting and finance options that you would think. Do as much research as possible into your career plan.

 If you want to be a teacher, I would suggest sticking it out through the difficult days of your PGCE qualification (because there will be difficult days) and lean on your peers for support as much as possible – they are the only people who will get what you are going through!

I would also advise student just starting college to study the subjects you actually like! You will find the subject a lot less stressful and less work if you actually enjoy it in the first place. In addition – it is never too late to change what you want to do at any point. You can change career whenever you want to, and don’t be scared to say you want to do something different.”