In conversation with Jannine Edgar, COO of AAT

How did you come to take up the role of chief operating officer of the AAT?

I joined in October 2018 from a previous membership organisation. I have a background as a chartered accountant and also hold a masters of business association (MBA), but it was really about AAT as an organisation and what it does for society that made me take up the role. 

I am really passionate about what it does for education, qualifications, but also giving something back to society, which I think is a strong theme that AAT has. That’s what particularly attracted me to the organisation; that I had some relevance in terms of the qualification itself, but also its ethos, too. 

In regards to the Annual Report, what were the most surprising findings? 

I think the overarching report gives a really good view of our impact over the past 12 months. I wouldn’t really say there were any surprises as such, but I think there are some things that stand out that I’d like to draw some attention to. 

It’s been an incredibly challenging year where things were very complex on an uncertain backdrop, and I think we weathered the storm really well in light of the pandemic. We came out with some really robust financials and we continue to be the largest awarding body, operating high-quality, life-changing financial qualifications, which I think are really important. 

Other highlights would be that we had to (by necessity) trial a virtual conference, which was a great success; we had well over 2,000 students logging on, so it was particularly well received. I think during the challenging time it’s always really important to make sure we remain very customer-focused, and as part of that, we did the Institute of Customer Service and we scored 81, which really shows that AAT goes above and beyond the national benchmark in how we treat our customers. 

That’s also reflected in how we treat our own employees; we’re very proud to have achieved a one-star company rating for the ‘Best Companies To Work For’ award. We saw a high level of engagement from our employees this year, so I think that’s a significant achievement, which we’re also very proud of.                        

How did the AAT manage to progress with students’ qualifications despite Covid-19 restrictions? 

Quite a challenge for everyone, I think, but I am particularly proud of how we handled it. We had to be a little more creative than we have been in the past. The key thing for us is that we were able to give access to our students the qualifications through remote invigilation, which we had available across selected assessments and allowed students to further their career by sitting the exams during a very difficult time. 

What was the process behind the launch of the Accountable Campaign and what does it aim to achieve?

I think this is a particularly hot topic for us at AAT and it stems from a research that was carried out in April 2021 by the organisations that showed that many people were unaware that there was no requirement for any formal qualification in order to be offering ‘paid-for’ tax advice, for example.

The main aim of our campaign is to really raise awareness regarding this and ensure that the businesses are using qualified accountants. There’s a large chunk of the market that is unregulated and what we’re finding through the research that’s been carried out is that two thirds of the agent-related complaints that go to HMRC are activated from one third of the agents that are unregulated. It’s quite a big topic for us here and we’re very much driving it forward.

We also work a lot with MPs in lobbying and eight out of 10 MPs right across the political spectrum are very much in line with our view that this is a profession that needs to be regulated, and as part of that campaign, we actually were shortlisted for an award at the ‘Tolley’s Taxation Awards’, which shows how much influence we’re having on this sector on a particularly important topic.                      

Since the launch of the AAT Qualification 2022 at the start of September, what has its reception been and do you think it’ll be well-received by 16-19 year olds?  

Generally speaking, we’re really pleased to see that the new qualification has been well received by students, training providers, but also by our employers who are obviously the recipients of this. 

We have had a number of assessments that have gone through our cloud platform and the feedback we have gotten so far around our user experience is extremely positive. It is early days and we will continue to monitor that, but I think initial signs are really positive from what we are seeing. 

There is an increasing demand from employers around recruiting school leavers and making sure that we have that updated qualification with all the technical knowledge. I think particularly around people looking for an apprenticeship in the accounting space the new qualification is very relevant for the future.               

Due to the success of the AccelerAATe 2022 campaign, do you think it will be hosted again next year, and if so, what changes would be made? 

The student conference this year was really successful, and because of its success, we will be running it again in January 2023. It will still be an online forum and will be open to all of our AAT students. We will continue to provide the support and personal development workshops.   

Is there anything coming up that you would like to share?  

Under the banner of future finance, next month we do have our Future Finance 2022 Live Conference that will be in person for the first time, held in Birmingham. We’ve been doing it online for the past couple of years, and we were actually shortlisted for ‘The Best Online Conference’ as part of the association awards, which I think was all credit to the team who put a lot of hard effort in trying to move that online. It will be great to have an in-person event this time though and return to that feeling of organic interaction.  

We are also in the process of looking at our strategy. In the new year, we’ll be looking to share what our long term aspirations are for AAT and what the vision is through to 2030. What we’re looking to do is expand the role and the contribution of AAT to provide greater qualifications, not just looking in qualification and membership alone but also that wider contribution and the impact we have on the profession and definitely growing our voice, which I think is very strong, as you’ve seen from our campaign. We are listened to and I think we just want to bring that further overall.