Grateful thanks to Gillian Woolman MA(Hons) FCA CPFA (1982) who kindly came in to speak to Higher Accountancy pupils about a career as a Chartered Accountant at the end of term. Pupils enjoyed her inspirational words and could appreciate how qualifying as a Chartered Account brings great independence.

Gillian has enjoyed a golden 37-year career in Audit, until recently she was Audit Director of Audit Scotland.

‘’I have found, through a career in audit, that I have had tremendous variety. I trained in the private sector in financial services. When the Berlin Wall came down there was a shortage of English-speaking accountants in Europe, so I was immediately picked up by KPMG Brussels. I moved to Geneva and I was soon working on the audits of former Soviet state enterprises – as in the former nations – so the oil and gas as it was explored there. I returned to the UK and joined the NHS – I loved being part of the NHS as a chief internal auditor for a consortium of NHS bodies. Then when the Scottish Parliament was set up, Audit Scotland was formed, somebody reached out to me and I joined as an audit director in 2001. It’s a rule that every five years we change our audit portfolio. So my work has taken me up to the Orkneys, down to the Borders, Glasgow’s and Edinburgh’s councils, creative arts, police, justice, the NHS – I think audit has provided me with tremendous variety and I’ve loved that’’.

Thank you to Gillian for her inspirational talk. We look forward to welcoming you back again.