Kent Business School’s Outreach Department hosted a successful outreach session at the Thomas Aveling School in Medway on 25 November 2021. Outreach Officer Brendan Hammond joined forces with KBS Senior lecturer Ashley Casson who is a former student at Thomas Aveling and Business Studies teacher Andy Lowery, a KBS Alumnus, to host the event.
The session focused on finance with a masterclass courtesy of Ashley, an expert in threshold concepts and their relevance to teaching accounting, as well as accounting education in general and wider higher educational issues.
Students who took part were engaged and excited by what they learnt with many stating that the session was ‘informative’ and ‘enjoyable’ and others commending the team for shining a light on university education. Others were impressed by the masterclass with one student saying: “It helped me to get a better understanding of the Statement of Comprehensive Income”.
Senior lecturer Ashley Casson presented the session with the hope of inspiring youngsters from her former school to get into finance and accounting careers.
She says: “Back when I was at school in the 1980s we didn’t have many career options presented to us as women: shop assistant, hairdressing, nursing or bank clerk. I would probably have ended up working in a bank had it not been for the two weeks’ work experience that my school arranged for me in an accountancy firm.
“Hopefully my talk will have pointed some of the young people to a career in accounting or finance. We often get students join KBS who have no idea what an accountant actually does and have chosen the degree because their parents want them to go into a well paid, secure profession. Although this is true of accounting, we want young people to join the profession in an informed way, because it is something they will enjoy and they have something to offer.”
Staff at Thomas Aveling were also pleased with the outcome of the session and gave excellent feedback to Brendan and the team.
“The session was full of information and excellent in delivery, well prepared and specifically tailored to the student’s qualification” said Business Studies teacher and KBS alumni Andy Loweth. Fellow teacher Sam West added: “It was great to have an expert give a slightly different perspective to mine, validate my teaching and to help student’s understanding of the topic and aid revision.”
For more information about the Outreach Programme or if you would like your school to get involved, email b.hammond@kent.ac.uk