JESSICA Lydon is proof that becoming a chartered accountant is not all about numbers and balance sheets.

The 27-year-old newly qualified member of the Warings Chartered Accountants team specialised in languages, with A Levels in Spanish and French, before going on to study Persian in the Islamic department at Edinburgh University.

It was a four-year course and included a six-month stint living in Tehran, which was “not as daunting as it sounds”, according to the former Thornleigh College pupil.

“I had to adhere to Islamic customs,” said Miss Lydon. “But there are other areas of the way their society works which are far more liberated than we are.

“One surprising statistic is that more women graduate from university in Iran than men.”

Miss Lydon was not thinking of a career in accountancy when she completed her studies, but was asked by her father and senior Warings partner, Patrick, to help out at the Chorley New Road offices.

But she took to the task like a duck to water and was offered a trainee accountancy position by Warings recruiters Nicola Roby and Helen Chambers and has now passed her final exams.

Now, she is enjoying her role working with local small and medium-sized businesses in the Bolton area, as well as continuing as a keen tennis player at Markland Hill Lawn Tennis Club.

No one is more delighted with her progress than dad Mr Lydon, aged 58, who qualified as an accountant himself without going to university.

And it is a trend he thinks is growing, with Warings keen to recruit A-level finishers who do not wish to go to university.

“The advantage is that they can be trained by us and, in four years, then can be a qualified chartered accountant at the age of 22 and with no student loan debt,” he said.

“The great thing about being a chartered accountant is that it opens other doors in addition to accountancy.

"As the economy improves, the demand for trainees goes up and we are one of the only firms which have consistently trained chartered accountants for the past 40 years.”