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Exam Success for Firms

Evidence-based programmes built to improve how trainees perform in their professional exams

I work with firms and company's to improve how trainees doing professional exams perform, build their confidence and protect their wellbeing through the most demanding stretches of the qualification.

I have written and marked professional exams, taught them for over a decade, and coached hundreds of trainees through them.

I bring all of that to exam preparation, a calm, structured and human approach that gets trainees through their exams without costing them their confidence or wellbeing.

Creating an Exam Success Culture in Your Firm

A practical webinar for professional services firms that want to improve exam outcomes, reduce repeat attempts, and give trainees a clearer path to qualification.

You will learn how to:

  • Help trainees build stronger study habits across the firm
  • Reduce the hidden cost of failed or repeated exams
  • Create a more consistent support structure for exam success

Watch the free webinar

Creating an Exam Success Culture in Your Firm

 

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Who This Support Is For

 

This work is designed for:

  • Accounting and professional services firms supporting exam trainees

  • Training and performance managers seeking structured, reliable external support

  • Trainees preparing for high-stakes professional exams

  • Organisations who care about both performance and wellbeing

  • Firms looking to improve retention, confidence, and exam outcomes

Support can be delivered to individuals, cohorts, or embedded within broader training and development programmes. All services are tailored to the firm’s context, culture, and requirements.

Ways to Work Together

Exam Success Culture

Consultancy for Firms

I work with professional services firms to build an exam success culture, one where trainees pass sooner, with their confidence and wellbeing intact rather than burned out getting there.

It starts with a structured Exam Success Analysis. I get under what's really driving your exam performance, not what's assumed to be driving it, through confidential surveys, focus groups and trend analysis across recent exam cycles.

I then turn those findings into clear, people-focused recommendations your leadership and L&D teams can act on: moves that raise pass rates and confidence, protect wellbeing, and build an environment where trainees are understood and set up to succeed.

Best for:
Firms that want a strategic, evidence-based approach to exam outcomes and trainee experience, not another one-off intervention.

Download How Student Coaching works

Exam Success For Firms

Workshops for Trainee Cohorts

Targeted workshops, online or in person, that tackle the side of exam performance technical training leaves out: the psychological one. Because passing professional exams isn't only about what trainees know, it is about how they perform under pressure on the day. 

Topics include:

  • Smart study strategies for busy professionals
  • Time management and prioritisation during exam periods
  • Building confidence and resilience
  • Managing exam anxiety and performance pressure
  • Bouncing back after exam setbacks

Every session is interactive and built to apply straight away, alongside your existing technical training.

Best for:
Firms who want to support multiple trainees efficiently while maintaining quality and depth.

Download our full brochure

Performance Managers

The Manager's Role in Exam Success

Professional exams put real pressure on trainees and on the managers responsible for them. Study leave and flexible hours help, but they're only part of the picture. The trainees performance manager is a bigger part than most firms realise.

My work gives performance managers the tools and the conversations to guide trainees through exams properly.

Areas of focus include:

  • Understanding the challenges exam trainees actually face
  • Holding check-ins and mentoring conversations that land
  • Spotting the signs of stress, and knowing when to step in
  • Building an environment of trust, accountability and clarity

The result: managers who are confident in the role, and trainees who feel understood and set up to succeed.

Best for:
Firms who want to strengthen line-manager capability alongside trainee performance and wellbeing.

Contact Edel

Graduate & Internship Training

Building the Skills Graduates and Interns Actually Need

The first months in professional services are exciting and daunting. Graduates and interns step in eager to do well, but the skills that decide their first year are ones education rarely covers. My Graduate & Internship Skills Development Programme builds them.

Areas of focus include:

  • Personal Leadership
  • Time Management & Productivity
  • Resilience and Wellbeing
  • Professional Communication

The programme develops the whole person, not just the professional so your graduates and interns don't just cope in their first role, they grow into it.

Best for:

HR and L&D leaders in firms and companies that want to see their graduates and interns thrive.

Download Work Placement & Internship Training Brochure here

Exam Coaching Clinics

Intensive 1:1 Support for Trainees

I run tailored Exam Coaching Clinics for firms who want to back their trainees through professional exams and see measurable results.

Each clinic is focused, one-to-one coaching, with guidance built around the individual trainee on:

  • Study strategy and planning
  • Time management
  • Exam technique
  • Mental preparation and confidence

Delivered online or in person, as half-day or full-day clinics, they work at every stage of the training contract.

For firms, the return is direct: stronger exam performance, fewer repeat sittings, and trainees who stay engaged and stay with you. Over time, that's a healthier exam success culture you can feel across the organisation.

For information on Exam Coaching Clinics, let’s talk.

Contact Edel

Exam Success Learning Hub

On-Demand Exam Support, Branded for Your Firm

As Chartered Accountancy exams move to a more modular format, trainees are preparing for different papers at different times throughout the year, and a single workshop simply cannot stretch to meet them where they are.

The Exam Success Learning Hub is a flexible, white-label learning environment, built in your firm's colours and carrying your logo, so trainees can access expert, structured support exactly when they need it, not just when a session happens to be timetabled.

Each firm gets five on-demand courses covering:

  • smart study strategies,
  • workload and life management during exam season,
  • confidence and resilience,
  • study leave success, and
  • exam execution strategies.

Alongside the courses, trainees have access to

  • live group sessions,
  • a community hub where they can bring questions directly to Edel,
  • reflective challenges, and
  • learning goal features designed to keep them accountable across the full exam cycle.
  • Every student has their own secure login, and progress is tracked throughout.

For firms, the value is in the consistency: the same quality of support reaches every trainee, across every sitting, without the logistics of coordinating in-person sessions or the pressure of relying on one fixed date in the calendar.

BEST FOR:

Firms who want scalable, year-round trainee support that flexes around the modular exam environment, without the cost or complexity of building an internal programme from scratch.

To find out more, contact Edel
If you want to learn more attend my free webinar on "Creating an Exam Success Culture"

What changes

Firms and trainees consistently report:

  • Greater confidence and clarity under exam pressure
  • Sharper focus, motivation and consistency
  • Less anxiety and overwhelm
  • Performance that holds across exam cycles, not just one sitting
  • Stronger engagement and retention among trainees

My work was never only about exam results. It's about trainees who come out stronger, steadier and more sure of themselves than when they started.

 

What Firms and Trainees Say

Edel delivered three sessions for our CPD events in 2025 and was excellent every time. Edel is a highly engaging, knowledgeable, and professional speaker.
Edel covered topics including Dealing with Conflict, The Power of Mindset, Building Resilience, and Thriving Through Challenges, delivering practical insights and strategies that attendees could immediately apply in their professional and personal lives.
Feedback from event attendees was very positive, many commented on Edel’s ability to make complex topics relatable and impactful.
We would highly recommend Edel as a speaker and would happily work with her again for future CPD events.

- Caoimhe, Omnipro

Edel supports my organization across a number of programmes for our graduates and consistently delivers high-quality sessions. She has a strong ability to hold, engage, and motivate an audience, creating an environment that is both interactive and impactful. Edel is extremely easy to work with and brings content that is useful, practical, and highly relevant, with real-life examples woven throughout her sessions. Her credibility within the profession is clear and adds significant value to the learning experience for our graduates.

 
- Doireann Lalor, EY

A Note from Edel

I've spent years on every side of professional exams, writing them, marking them, teaching them, and coaching people through them at the most demanding points of their careers. I know what these periods take out of people, and what carries them through.

My approach is grounded, evidence-based and calm. I work alongside your existing training structures, not in competition with them, tailored to the realities your trainees are actually facing, not a textbook version of them.

I don't accept that exam success and wellbeing have to be at odds. With the right structure in place, people can perform at their best and stay connected to themselves while they do it.

To talk about how this could work in your firm or organisation, email me at [email protected] and we will arrange an introductory conversation.

Enquire about Firm & Corporate Exam Support

Not ready to book a call yet?

Watch the free webinar: Creating an Exam Success Culture in Your Firm

Learn how firms can create a stronger exam support structure, improve trainee confidence, and reduce the hidden cost of repeat exam attempts.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  • Why exam success is a firm-wide culture issue, not just an individual study issue
  • How to support trainees before exam pressure turns into underperformance
  • What firms can do to build more consistent exam preparation habits