As we sit down to talk about Karen Sand’s time qualifying as a chartered accountant, she has to cast her mind back some way. It’s been six years since she attained her membership to this exclusive club. What may come as a surprise is to find that she’s still in her mid twenties, an age when most accountants are still stuck with their heads in books trying to earn their stripes.

When Karen was awarded her ACA, she was the youngest person ever to be classed as a chartered accountant, a distinction she still holds. Only 20 when she qualified, she entered the profession straight from school at the age of 16, bypassing the more traditional route of A-levels followed by University before entering a graduate programme.

She had her reasons for doing so and some inside information that helped her decide to do it this way.

‘My mother has been working in tax for about 30 years and she has seen people coming out of university and going into the same sort of position as someone who has done AAT. In fact, they were often going into lower positions because they didn’t have the experience that someone with an AAT qualification has.’

Karen chose accountancy as she was looking for ‘the sort of job where you go in every day and it’s different’.

Walking straight into a job from school, Karen began her AAT training immediately, and while she has never let her age stand in the way of her ambitions, things could have been very different at the outset when she was hired by Oxford firm Critchleys.’

‘They thought I was 18 because they didn’t look into the CV in enough detail to realise that the exams I was waiting for were GCSE results,’ says Karen. ‘By the time they realised, I was two months into the job and getting on well.’

Critchleys saw her through her AAT and ACA training, and her qualification at just 20 came amid a swell of publicity, something she enjoyed and which may have opened a few doors for her.

But a life in audit wasn’t for her. Only a year after finishing her studies, she switched to the other side of the classroom, taking up a teaching post at BPP Professional Education. She’s been there ever since and has thrived on it.

‘The first few months were the best months I’ve ever had, because there was so much adrenaline; it was so new and different.’

The reward for her came from the gratitude students would express when they had passed their exams. But it’s not the only reward. She describes the financial rewards as ‘much better’ than working in practice, while the lifestyle is more relaxed.

Last year she moved from teaching students to helping those already qualified with continuous professional development ­ a role that she finds more challenging.

‘Students are great, but they won’t ask probing questions because they are learning and haven’t got the knowledge and the ability, but delegates on CPD courses ask me whatever they like, which I really enjoy but it does make your brain go into spasm.’

Her age can sometimes be a factor when she is teaching people nearly twice her age, but she insists: ‘Once I open my mouth they are fine.’

She also recently went back to studying, taking her CIOT exams, an experience she describes as ‘awful, I fell into every trap that students fall into.’

Karen continues to enjoy her teaching experience and while she is excited about the opportunities on offer, she is happy where she is now. On being a teacher, she admits that knowledge is essential, but it is about much more than that.

‘Enthusiasm for the subject is just as important as well as a general flair and a love of your subject.’