Attracta Duggan decided to gain a professional qualification in accountancy with ACCA while she was working in AIB Corporate Banking. With a primary degree in Commerce and a Masters in Economics, Attracta already had a solid background in business but she felt that the ACCA qualification would enhance her knowledge and expertise in business as well as give her a universally recognised qualification in her industry.

Working in the corporate business sector of the AIB, Attracta’s customers are all corporates in the Irish market. She decided to the ACCA as it was relevant to her job and her career progression and she felt that it would give her a “broad business education”.

Attracta completed a two-year part-time course at Griffith College Dublin and was awarded the prestigious ACCA qualification. Graduation from the course follows the successful completion of 14 exams over the two-year period. She was lucky enough to have her studies fully funded by the AIB, which was obviously a great source of financial relief.

Though juggling her studies with a demanding workload was at times challenging, Attracta had to organise herself and her time effectively and overcame any difficulties posed by working and studying simultaneously. She says: “the demands of my job often meant working past 5 o’clock but I would just have to find time to fit my studies in. I could be in college for three nights in a week and at a weekend too sometimes so I had to manage my time well”.

Her hard work and time management skills paid off and Attracta achieved second place in Ireland in her final exams. She attributes her remarkable success to the support she received in abundance from family, friends and colleagues. She says: ‘without the support of my family, friends and colleagues it would have been impossible to have combined my work with night study successfully’. She also thinks that the focus on exam success at Griffith college paid a big part in her achievement and recommends that other people embarking on doing a similar course of study choose their college carefully as the way in which programmes are delivered in different institutions can suit some people and their requirements more than others.

Attracta’s ACCA qualification has helped her career progression at AIB as well as open up many opportunities in the business industry. Career-wise she says she has a much broader understanding of all aspects of business and can relate to her clients’ needs – whether they be financial directors, financial controllers or accountants – because she now “speaks the same language”.

She believes that the ACCA qualification has countless benefits and grants its graduates opportunities in business around the globe because of its universal recognition and standing. She says that many people in AIB do the ACCA exams and accredits this to the fact that they see a lot of others around them doing it and can see how it benefits them – both individually and in terms of their career.