Donnelly Wins National Accountancy Award

Donnelly Wins National Accountancy Award

Ballinasloe student Dylan Donnelly recently won first place in a prestigious CPA national accounting competition .
Moore native Dylan, who is in his first year of a BA in Accounting at the Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone was up against first to final year accounting students as well as Masters students. 

During the ten weeks of the competition, 17 colleges across Ireland and Northern Ireland took part. Each week a range of theory-based accounting questions were released to participants on Quitch. Participants could monitor their progress under their avatar name and see their score on a leader board along with the other participants.

Dylan was justifiably delighted with his achievement: “I feel very proud of myself for achieving this accolade, it was a great achievement for myself and for my college TUS. I only discovered afterwards that I was competing against other students who are in their final year of Master programmes. As I have just finished my first year of studies in BA Accounting I was honoured to have won the competition against my peers who are at such a high level in accounting.”

Trevor Prendergast, Head of Department, Accounting and Business Computing at TUS Athlone Campus said: “We are absolutely thrilled at Dylan’s achievement. We are delighted that Dylan availed of this opportunity with CPA Ireland and Quitch to showcase his accounting abilities on the national stage. On behalf of the lecturing team, I would like to say a massive congratulations to Dylan.”

A past pupil of Garbally Dylan added it’s where his love for the subject came about: “My time in Garbally was a big influence on me especially my accounting teacher Mr. Tom Burke who helped and encouraged me, as well as all the other teachers. They were always there to guide me; if I ever had any questions, they would do their best to help me 100%. My time at Garbally college has impacted my love for mathematics and accountancy quite significantly. I have learned so much from the teachers there, that they have inspired me to pursue a career in accountancy.”

“Hopefully, in 5 years, I will have graduated from TUS with my degree and be working as a trainee accountant with a well-regarded accounting firm. From this, I hope to further my career by getting my qualifications from an accounting body such as ACCA or ACA or CPA. When I complete this I hope to be a fully qualified chartered accountant, and hopefully move to Dublin. My dream would be to work with one of the big 4 accounting firms as this would be my end goal career-wise,” Dylan added.

“I would recommend anyone who has a love for numbers and problem solving to pursue a career in accountancy.. Accountancy is a trusted profession, and the salary is at a high end when you are fully qualified. This career is very flexible and there are excellent job opportunities for graduates,” Dylan concluded.