AN assistant manager from a Guisborough firm is celebrating after achieving the highest score in the world in an accountancy exam.

Samantha Welford, who has worked at business advisory firm Baldwins since 2017, is based at the company’s Guisborough office and is studying to become a Chartered Certified Accountant.

In September, she took the Applied Skills exam Audit and Assurance Paper, which has a pass rate of just 36 per cent, but Ms Welford excelled and achieved the highest score in the world of 85 per cent.

There were 12,925 entrants worldwide to the September paper, making her accomplishment even more remarkable.

Fitting her studying around her full-time role, Ms Welford said she is incredibly pleased with her results.

She said: “I am very proud of my achievement.

"It is something that I never envisaged I was capable of, but it has given me confidence to carry forward to future exams.

“When I am studying for my exams, I always try to consider how I can use what I have learnt to improve on what I do on a day-to-day basis.

"By completing this exam, I am continuing to make progress towards my goal of becoming a Chartered Certified Accountant.

"I hope that by completing the qualification, I will be securing my long-term future at Baldwins, and that it is enabling me to continue to grow and develop my role at the Guisborough office.”

To mark Ms Welford’s outstanding success, she was presented with a cheque for £1,000 from David Baldwin, owner of Baldwins, at the business’ Durham office launch event.

Mr Baldwin said: “We are incredibly pleased for Samantha and it was important to us as a firm to highlight and celebrate her success at our recent event.

“At Baldwins we want to help our team develop and flourish within their specialist areas and it’s great to hear that Samantha’s hard work and dedication has paid off.

"I wish her the best of luck with the rest of her exams.”

Baldwins specialises in accountancy and business advisory services, including corporate finance and specialist tax advice to all businesses from start-ups to mature companies, across a broad range of varied business sectors.