Forced to quit school, young accountant joins dream firm

His message now is for other youngsters to never give up on their dreams. "It will always get better, so always have faith."

The global financial crash which shook the world in 2008-09 left many people unemployed within months.
Many were forced to put a halt to their life plans. But the hidden issue, which many failed to touch on, was how the crisis impacted the children of those who found themselves suddenly out of jobs.
Take 20-year-old Dubai resident Sagar Kanakiya, for instance. Sagar was just 12 years old when his whole world changed. "I was at school in Sharjah at the time. My dad lost a lot of his net worth due to that stock market crash. We were left wondering if I should be sent to school in India, or drop out altogether."
With an older sister also in school, the Dh40,000-plus tuition fees became too much for the Kanakiya family to handle. So much so, the two siblings were forced to drop out.
"We were studying in a British curriculum school here. If we'd gone back to India, we would most likely have had to repeat a full grade and study a whole new curriculum, so my parents decided against it," Sagar told Khaleej Times.
As one of the class toppers, dropping out of school was a devastating prospect for the then pre-teen, and initially he retaliated. "I was devastated. I was leaving all my friends. It did not feel good at all. But as a kid, I didn't really understand the hardships and what my parents were going through. It didn't cross my mind."
After leaving school at age 13, Sagar spent two years self-learning at home, without professional tuition. At 15, he completed and passed his Grade 11 exams via the British Council in Dubai.
Then came the turning point. At just 15, Sagar joined the Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business (ICAEW CFAB) programme, which has no pre-entry requirements. By the time he was 16 he completed all six examinations of CFAB program and by the age of 19 completed the remaining nine papers of the ACA ICAEW program. At the age of 20 he got the membership in ICAEW, enabling him to join a Chartered Accountants firm.
Now - at 20 - having worked his way up from as little as Dh500 a month, Sagar is an ACA Chartered Accountant, a member of the ICAEW, and now works at KPMG, one of the world's 'Big Four' auditors. "My dad was an accountant, and when I started out on this journey after being forced to leave school, he told me KPMG was the company I should aim for. I finally achieved my dream," he said.
Despite his family's hardships in the worldwide financial crisis, and circumstances that were completely out of their hands, Sagar said he never gave up hope.
"I was childish back then and didn't realise the struggle and pressure that continuing my schooling would have had on my family. That initial shock of being told I could no longer continue at my school could have been my downfall, but I made it the turning point of my life."
His message now is for other youngsters to never give up on their dreams. "It will always get better, so always have faith." 
kelly@khaleejtimes.com
 
 

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