Head of Accountancy and Finance takes on ICAEW role
Tue, 25 Aug 2015 06:00:00 BST
Head of Department Wilma Teviotdale joins Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s Learning and Professional Development Board
ACCOUNTANCY is a highly-varied profession that simply does not deserve its frequent reputation for being staid and dull. That is a message which the University of Huddersfield’s Wilma Teviotdale is determined to press home when she takes on a prestigious national role.
The Head of Accountancy and Finance at the University and is a long-standing and prominent member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), generally considered the world’s leading body in its field. She is one of 84 members of the Institute’s worldwide council and has served as President of the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants, one of ICAEW’s largest district societies.
Now, she has become a member of the ICAEW’s Learning and Professional Development (LPD) Board, meaning she will be closely involved in policy over issues such as student training. Her work with the board will have many facets, but one goal will be to develop the strategy of encouraging young chartered accountants to visit schools and colleges as part of ICAEW’s approach to widen access to the profession.
“This is to raise awareness of the fact that chartered accountants are business advisers as much as people who just deal with numbers,” she said.
Wilma Teviotdale acknowledges that accountancy can be a hard sell as a career choice. One of the roles of the ICAEW is to counter this, she says.
“The profession does have a very staid, boring image. But accountancy leads to a wide range of really interesting careers. They could be within practice, industry, commerce, financial services or HMRC. There is insolvency work, tax, corporate finance, small business planning and advice. Accountancy is about making the decisions in an organisation, not just supplying the numbers.”
As part of her LPD Board role, Wilma Teviotdale – who joined the University of Huddersfield after many years as a chartered accountant at an international firm – also aims to work with and support local universities in spreading the word about the ICAEW.
At Huddersfield, she leads the University’s Partners in Accountancy programme (pictured left), designed to give students an exceptional start to their careers through working directly with local practices such as Kirk Newsholme or Simpson Wood, plus multi-national companies that include PwC, KPMG, Baker Tilly and Grant Thornton.
“I think my appointment to the LPD Board fits well with the endeavours of our department,” she said.
