21 August 2025 

Guest Writer: Allyson Kerr

After leaving school in 2007, I was unsure what I wanted to do, so I took on a job  working full time as an Administration Assistant for 1 year to gain some work experience and learn new skills. I applied for a HND in Accountancy at Forth Valley College and two years later after completing the course, I graduated with an HND which then led me to attending university.  After attending university and completing a three-year course in Accountancy with Business Law  and I achieved an Honours Degree.

After being in education, I felt I wanted a different career path and not continue with the accountancy route. I wanted to challenge myself doing something different whilst using the skills, knowledge and experience I have achieved through further education.

I then applied for a Debt Advice Graduate job within Falkirk Council in 2013 through the Employment Training Unit and I was the successful candidate. Initially this was only a 6-month graduate post until a permanent post became available, and I am still here 12 years later. The Employment Training Unit helped me work towards a SVQ in Falkirk Employability Award which covered communication, information & technology, numeracy, problem solving , working with others, building own employability skills. Responsibilities of employment and work experience.

My main task when I first joined Falkirk Council was to start gathering evidence to submit to the Scottish Legal Aid Board to gain accreditation within the Scottish National Standards.  I began work on this, and it gave me a good handle of what would be required for the Debt Advice role. After a few years of gathering information, we were finally ready to apply for accreditation which we achieved in 2019 for the very first time This was a huge achievement for both me and the team which led to the team being selected as a finalist for the 2020 Falkirk Council’s “Make it Happen” awards under the Business Impact award section.  Unfortunately, we never had to opportunity to compete for this due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

After 6 months in the job attending various money advice related training and working alongside the advisers in the team, I progressed to taking on a case load of my own and advising my own clients.  In this job you learn about all aspects of life, and I feel I have grown up both as an adviser and a person during the last 12 years. During this time, I married and now have my own family. I would say that being in this career has helped me when managing my own personal finances and lifestyle choices.

What I love most about this job is being part of a great team, this helps with the job as you are listening to colleagues’ experiences along with asking for their advice and opinions to help you achieve successful outcomes for client’s. It’s also settling to know you have colleagues that you can discuss cases with and help you to de-stress when you have a demanding and challenging case / client.  This sector matters as it helps to alleviate poverty and financial hardship and, in most cases, you feel you are really making a difference to people’s lives. This is the main reason why I continue in this role is the satisfaction the job gives me. In my experience the job is becoming more challenging all the time due to the many complex issues client’s present with and the volume of information you are required to collate. This said I continue to enjoy the challenges and the variety the job brings along with meeting people from all walks of life who make it all worthwhile.