A group of students from Aquinas College visited chartered accountancy practice Clarke Nicklin in Cheadle as part of the Gander project.

The visit was arranged by Gander, a Stockport focussed initiative to develop the employability skills of local students. Gander matches students with businesses, and businesses with local colleges to deliver work experience placements, mock interviews, careers day presentations and mentoring.

Partners and staff across a number of departments at Clarke Nicklin including accountancy, tax and marketing delivered a tour and short presentation to the students, and then they all participated in a question and answer session. It gave the visitors the chance to find out about how an accountancy practice actually works, and to get a flavour of what a career in accountancy might be like.

Brian Bradley, Partner at Clarke Nicklin commented: “In my role as Stockport President of G M Chamber I am passionate about promoting Gander, which I co-founded with previous President Christian Mancier of Gorvins.

“It is a fantastic initiative and I am delighted that at Clarke Nicklin we can put our money where our mouth is to deliver valuable experiences for local college students. It was a really interesting morning and the students asked us some great questions, I hope they got a lot out of it.”

There was also a session the same day for Financial Planning students presented by Scott Herbert, Partner at Clarke Nicklin Financial Planning. He covered what goes on in the day to day life of an Independent Financial Advisor and highlighted some careers options.

Andrew Deighton, Gander coordinator, commented: “This was a fantastic opportunity for these two groups of students from Aquinas College and no doubt it was a rewarding experience for Clarke Nicklin too.

“That is what is great about Gander, we build relationships between businesses, colleges and students that are mutually beneficial. Since our launch last year we have received incredible support from the Stockport business community.”