CM December 2021

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
WINNING WAYS
Sean Feast FCICM speaks to CICM
Prize-winning student Claire Tetley.
CLAIRE Tetley is a winner. Literally.
She recently scooped not only the
CICM Prize for the best student,
but also the Francis Clark Prize
for the best BA Accounting &
Finance student at the University
of Plymouth where she did her degree.
But even Claire would admit, she’s something
of a late starter. At school she had little clear
direction on what to do as a career, but she
always had a good head for numbers: “I used to
watch my mother balancing the family finances,
keeping the receipts and entering them on a
ledger. I liked things that made sense, numbers
that aligned and added up on a balance sheet.”
Her passion for numbers led her into
the financial services sector, working for a
mortgage administrator (Western Mortgage
Services) in its administration, underwriting
and financial crime teams: “We would be
looking for suspicious and ultimately fraudulent
activity and then would forward the case on to
the National Crime Agency. You soon got to
recognise when something didn’t look right,”
she adds.
FOUNDATION DEGREE
While working for Western, she attended
Plymouth City College to complete a Foundation
Degree in Business Management and, after
being made redundant, Claire worked first
part-time at a Secondary School (taking time
out to have her first child) before taking a job at
Barnardo’s as a secretarial assistant: “It was here
that I was given responsibility for invoicing and
expenses, checking mileage claims for example,
and found that I really enjoyed it.”
An appetite to learn more led to a return
to education, this time at the University of
Plymouth, to study for a Bachelor of Arts
in Accounting & Finance: “Having already
completed a Foundation Degree I went into the
second year as a direct entrant,” she explains.
This was in September 2019. Within six
months, COVID had struck, and the learning
shifted almost entirely online: “To start with
we’d had lectures in person and depending on
the module we were studying at the time, we
either worked individually or in teams. With
the first lockdown, everything moved online,
which wasn’t quite the experience I had
anticipated.”
While certain modules within the degree
were mandatory, in her final year Claire
was also able to choose two that were not.
One of those was credit management: “At
the time it was not considered ‘core’ but
that has now changed,” she explains, “and
“Claire is an
excellent example
of someone whose
hard work and
dedication is
taking her to the
top, and I have no
doubt that this is
just the beginning
of an exciting
future for her and
her family.’’
it’s easy to see why as it’s so fundamental to what
we do.
“Professor Salima Paul FCICM was excellent
at engaging with us and ensuring we engaged
with each other, and made the course highly
enjoyable,” she adds.
GROUP WORKING
Within the module, 70 percent of her study
involved course work, working in groups of
four to analyse, for example, a company’s credit
strategy and performance, while the balance of
her time was spent on written exams. She had to
study while bringing up two children, aged five
and two: “It was lovely to spend time with one
another, but it was quite challenging,” she says,
in a masterly understatement.
Her efforts, however, were rewarded by her
winning not just one but two prizes: “I couldn’t
quite believe it was me,” she laughs.
Her excitement increased in September when
she was presented with her CICM Prize by none
other than the Chief Executive of the Chartered
Institute of Credit Management, Sue Chapple
FCICM: “I just wasn’t expecting it and, in a way,
it was a little overwhelming,” she says.
Professor Salima Paul FCICM, Claire Tetley and Chief Executive of the CICM, Sue Chapple FCICM
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2021 / PAGE 28