Scottish ACCA student awarded Gold Medal at International Women’s Day ceremony

Johnston Carmichael employee and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) student Kayleigh Milne has been awarded a Gold Medal in recognition of coming first in the world for her performance in her December exams.

She received the award from ACCA Vice-President Jenny Gu at a special members’ ceremony in Glasgow for International Women’s Day last Thursaday.

ACCA specially honours Affiliate prize winners who achieve the highest aggregate score of the five professional level exams globally.

The top three are awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal respectively. In addition, Kayleigh received a cash prize of £500 and a certificate recognising her achievement.

Craig Vickery, head of ACCA Scotland, said: “It is a truly remarkable achievement to be recognised as the best performing student in the world for your exam sitting. It felt particularly apt for Kayleigh to receive her medal before ACCA’s global Council at an event which encourages us all to consider how to support diversity and opportunity across the accountancy profession. Well done, Kayleigh.”

Kayleigh, who works at Johnston Carmichael’s Inverurie office, said: “I put a lot of pressure on myself and get very stressed out around exam time. I consider myself extremely lucky as Johnston Carmichael is very supportive of my studying. I receive exam / study leave before my exams which admittedly is absolutely vital to helping me pass my exams as it gives me that time to fully focus my attention on studying and gives me a break from juggling work and study right before the exam.

“Life can get in the way and it can become easy to fall behind. However if you have a plan and keep up with it, it will allow you to assess the situation on a weekly basis enabling you to stay on track.”

Iain Abernethy, head of learning and development at Johnston Carmichael, said: “The staff and partners here at Johnston Carmichael are extremely proud of Kayleigh. She has sustained a very high standard of exam pass throughout her studies; however this result is a truly outstanding achievement. Kayleigh has a tremendous attitude to her work and studies, is a real pleasure to work with and undoubtedly has a very bright future ahead of her.”

Earlier this year, Kayleigh’s score of 92 was the highest mark out of 14,515 candidates who sat P3 in June. In recognition of this achievement, ACCA awarded Kayleigh a cash prize of £200 and a certificate.