CSN President Sophie Darlington hands over to her successor
After the success of her year-long presidency of the CIPFA Student Network, Sophie Darlington formally ceded to her successor Lin Liu at the student conference last week. She reflects on her time as President, the achievements of the CSN in the past year and the future of the network.
A few words from Sophie
My year as President of the CSN has been challenging and insightful. At the start of the year, my three main priorities were to:
- help support and prepare students for life post-qualification as a fully qualified accountant
- introduce regular, virtual events that are open and accessible to all students
- provide any support as needed in relation to the upcoming changes to the CIPFA professional qualification.
Overall, I feel we have addressed all three of these areas, and I’m proud of what our network has managed to achieve. We have continued to promote our students’ interests and concerns within CIPFA and facilitated study groups for students undertaking the final case study module. We have provided feedback on new resources and had input in the recent student conference.
We also branched out to provide regular events for students, which online platforms like Microsoft Teams have made much easier. This is as a result of some of the responses to our student survey a few months ago. Interest in attending online events for development in technical skills like Microsoft Excel and Power BI, as well as career-related events like our Career Stories event in April was indicated, and we are in the process of responding to that and arranging related courses.
It can be easy to focus so much on passing your exams that it’s difficult to consider your next steps and what making the transition from student to member will be like. Our hope is that our Career Stories sessions – the next of which will be in August – will give you some insight into where the CIPFA qualification can take you and the opportunities that are available to you. There is always time at the end to ask questions, and I would encourage you to attend and get the most out of it as you can.
I am really pleased to be handing over the student presidency to Lin Liu, who has already been an excellent asset to the CSN. I wish her the best of luck and I am excited to continue to work alongside her, and I would also like to extend my gratitude to all members of the CSN who have dedicated their time to attending our meetings, raised issues on the behalf of students and innovated new ideas on how best to help other students.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to wish you the best of luck with your studies and your progression to membership.
Best wishes,
Sophie
CIPFA Student Network President