Governance Adviser, Beyond Governance
To build a career as a company secretary in the UK, develop your governance knowledge, gain relevant practical experience and apply for roles that match your capabilities. A common professional route is the Chartered Governance Qualifying Programme through the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, known as CGIUKI. You can study while working.
You do not need a university degree to begin that route. You do need to choose a suitable starting point and understand the difference between getting a job, completing a qualification and becoming chartered.
This guide explains how to make those decisions, including what to check before paying for tuition. It covers UK careers and CGIUKI study routes; other jurisdictions and Institute divisions have their own arrangements.
This guide explains the UK and Ireland division’s qualification routes, how to choose a starting point, and the difference between completing your studies and becoming chartered.
A company secretary helps an organisation meet its governance responsibilities and supports the way its board makes decisions. Depending on the role, the work can include organising board and committee meetings, maintaining company records, coordinating filings and advising directors on governance processes. The National Careers Service profile describes the range of responsibilities.
The work calls for accuracy, clear writing and confidence dealing with people. A filing deadline needs careful organisation; a discussion about an unclear decision needs judgement. Consider whether you would enjoy both the detailed work and the conversations needed to get it right.
For a practitioner’s perspective, read Tanya Asimiea’s account of governance advisory work. It explains how preparation, meetings and follow-up connect. Advisory and in-house jobs differ, so use it to understand the work rather than as a description of every vacancy.
There is no single qualification required for every company secretary job. Companies House guidance distinguishes the legal position:
These appointment rules do not tell you what an employer will expect from a trainee or an experienced governance professional. Read the qualification and experience requirements in each vacancy separately. Holding the job title also does not automatically make someone a Chartered Secretary.
The work calls for accuracy, clear writing and confidence dealing with people. A filing deadline needs careful organisation; a discussion about an unclear decision needs judgement. Consider whether you would enjoy both the detailed work and the conversations needed to get it right.
For a practitioner’s perspective, read Tanya Asimiea’s account of governance advisory work. It explains how preparation, meetings and follow-up connect. Advisory and in-house jobs differ, so use it to understand the work rather than as a description of every vacancy.
CGIUKI’s current entry guidance allows direct enrolment on Part One without compulsory pre-study. It recommends relevant study at Level 4 or above, or at least five years in a related role. Eligibility and readiness are different questions.
Use your background to decide what to investigate first:
Your starting point | What to investigate | What to confirm |
Little relevant study or work experience | The Foundation Programme as preparation | Whether you need a grounding in business, law, compliance and finance before Part One |
Relevant knowledge from study or work | Direct entry to Part One | Your readiness for the syllabus and assessments |
A law or finance degree or professional qualification | Potential module exemptions | The Institute’s decision on your evidence, including transcripts and membership details |
Established professional experience | Fast Track eligibility | The detailed qualification and experience conditions, not just your years in work |
You also want a university postgraduate award | A CGIUKI-validated postgraduate course | The exact course’s validation, admissions, assessments and Institute registration requirements |
The Foundation Programme is an open-entry Level 4 qualification. It provides preparation for further study; it is not compulsory for every applicant. If you have been away from education or find the introductory material unfamiliar, consider that preparation before committing to a more demanding module.
Fast Track is for eligible experienced professionals. A senior title alone does not establish eligibility. If you hold an overseas qualification or membership, ask CGIUKI how it will assess it rather than assuming recognition transfers automatically.
Validated postgraduate programmes offer a university route to the academic requirements for graduate membership. Compare the actual delivery and assessment methods with the professional programme, particularly if a university award matters to you. Apply to the university and register separately with CGIUKI during your first term or semester.
An exemption means CGIUKI accepts prior qualifications or experience in place of a particular module requirement. If you are seeking exemptions, obtain the Institute’s written decision before buying tuition. Campbell’s can discuss its tuition, but cannot grant an Institute exemption.
Include practical experience in your plan from the beginning. You can investigate junior opportunities while studying rather than treating the final examination as the point when your job search must start.
Search for trainee company secretary, company secretarial assistant, governance assistant and board or committee support roles. Use those as search terms, then inspect the responsibilities. An assistant company secretary vacancy may expect experience that a company secretarial assistant position does not.
Look for work where someone can review your drafting, explain decisions and help you take on greater responsibility. Ask what you would do during a complete meeting cycle, which records or filings you would support, and who would supervise you. A title alone cannot answer those questions.
If you already work in administration, legal services, finance, compliance or another related area, discuss whether you could support a governance task in your current organisation. Be specific: ask about observing a committee meeting, helping maintain an action log or assisting with a reporting timetable under supervision.
In England, a Governance Officer apprenticeship is another option to investigate. Check vacancies and the training offered by the employer. Apprenticeship arrangements differ across the UK, and this employment route is separate from meeting CGIUKI’s chartered membership requirements.
The full qualifying programme has seven modules across two parts, at Levels 6 and 7. These academic levels do not themselves award a university degree. Campbell’s guide to chartered governance qualifications explains the subjects and the alternatives.
CGIUKI gives a broad study-duration guide of two to five years and indicates around 200 hours per module. That range is not a guarantee or the formal registration time limit. It also does not tell you when you will get your first job or become chartered; those are separate milestones.
Illustrative study calculation: spreading a 200-hour module over 20 study weeks means 10 hours a week. That could be two two-hour weekday sessions and six hours at the weekend. This is a planning example, not a promise that 200 hours will be sufficient for you.
Test those hours against your real calendar. Include busy periods at work, caring responsibilities and time for revision and practice answers. If the time is unavailable, consider a later sitting or a lighter workload rather than relying on a last-minute catch-up.
Examinations are held in June and November. Under CGIUKI’s published qualifying programme rules, students can enter a maximum of two examinations per session and must complete Part One before progressing to Part Two. Confirm your own permitted sequence when exemptions apply.
For a personal account of the trade-offs, read Tanya’s experience of studying while working. She followed a validated postgraduate route, so her assessment experience should not be treated as a description of the qualifying programme examinations.
Keep Institute registration, examination entry and tuition enrolment separate in your plan. Buying a Campbell’s course does not mean you have registered with CGIUKI or entered an examination.
Use the Institute’s fee schedule and your chosen course’s terms to build a budget covering:
Illustrative first-module budget: CGIUKI’s current UK fee schedule, checked on 8 October 2026, lists £200 registration, £240 for a full-year student subscription and £320 for one exam entry. For a new standard-route student entering one module, that is £760 before tuition and study materials. It excludes further modules, renewals and resits. Foundation, Fast Track and half-year registration have different fee arrangements.
On the standard fee schedule, exemptions cost the same as exam entries. Reducing the number of exams does not necessarily reduce Institute module charges.
Check package inclusions before adding individual charges: the same item may already be covered. Ask for the total payable, including any applicable tax, and check access periods before you commit.
If an employer offers support, establish what it covers, whether you get study leave and whether any repayment condition applies if you leave. A course fee alone is not the full picture.
Self-study is an available route. It may suit you if you can organise your learning and assess your own progress. Tuition may be more useful when you want structured materials, a tutor to question or feedback on practice answers. Compare the support you will actually use.
For applications, connect previous work to the demands of the vacancy. Instead of relying on broad claims such as being organised or good with people, describe a task, your contribution and how you checked the work.
Hypothetical example: you helped coordinate a monthly reporting pack. A useful application example would explain which contributors you chased, how you checked the pack against the requirements, what you escalated and who signed it off. Only include a result, such as meeting the deadline, if it happened and you can substantiate it.
Keep your level of responsibility clear. Coordinating papers for a board is relevant experience, but it does not mean you advised that board. Describe the contribution you made and what you are ready to learn next.
A short exercise to test your interest in the work
Hypothetical practice task: you are helping prepare draft committee minutes. Your notes say a proposal was approved subject to revised costs being agreed, but the draft says it was approved without a condition.
What would you do? A useful response is to flag the discrepancy to the person supervising the minutes, ask for the decision and condition to be confirmed, and revise the draft through the agreed review process. Do not guess what the committee intended.
The exercise shows how careful writing and judgement work together. Try explaining the issue in two clear sentences. If you enjoy finding the ambiguity and working out who can resolve it, that is something to explore through supervised experience. This is an original practice example, not an Institute assessment.
Build a simple development record as you gain experience: the task, your level of responsibility, who reviewed it and what you learned. Record your contribution without copying confidential papers into a personal portfolio. The record can help you identify gaps and prepare for applications.
Describe your study status accurately too. State the programme and any modules you have passed; do not describe yourself as chartered before admission to the relevant membership grade.
Completing the qualifying programme leads to Graduate membership and the letters GradCG after your name. GradCG is not chartered status.
For Associate membership, the usual qualifying period is six years of relevant experience. The Institute’s byelaws allow a reduction of up to three years for recognised qualifications or professional development. Relevant experience gained before or during study can count. CGIUKI assesses your eligibility, so confirm which qualifications and experience it will accept for your route.
Admission requires a successful application as well as academic completion. Once admitted as an Associate, you can use ACG and the designations Chartered Secretary and Chartered Governance Professional. Passing exams or reaching a certain number of years does not automatically make you chartered.
Plan your development around the responsibilities you need to learn, not simply the passage of time. Review your work with your supervisor and seek opportunities to understand why a process exists as well as how to complete it.
You can make progress before committing to a full course of tuition. The useful first decision is which combination of learning and experience fits your current circumstances.
Campbell’s College offers distance-learning tuition for the Foundation Programme and all seven qualifying programme modules. Its support includes recorded lectures, course notes, marked assignments and tutor access, as described in CGIUKI’s Campbell’s listing.
Once you have confirmed your route, browse Campbell’s courses or ask about tuition for your intended module and sitting. If you are still building the basics, explore the Foundation Programme tuition first.
Join students worldwide studying CGIUKI
qualifications with Campbell’s College.
Evon Chung is a Chartered Governance Fellow who has spent more than a decade bringing order to some of the most complex corporate structures in the world. As Manager of Global Corporate Services at Deel, she oversees the governance of around 350 entities across 125 jurisdictions, leading an international team of sixteen lawyers and governance professionals. Before Deel she held senior corporate secretarial roles at The Law Debenture Group and Eversheds Sutherland, running multi jurisdictional projects for FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 clients.
She has also sat on the other side of the exam paper. Some years ago, as a Subject Matter Expert for the Institute, she set and reviewed questions for the foundation level examination. She no longer does so, and her work with Campbell’s is purely as a tutor. The insight stays with her, and few tutors understand better what an examiner is looking for.
Evon came to governance by accident. An engineer by training, she joined a charity board of seventeen trustees, none of whom had a governance background, to help write the minutes. A few years later a law firm invited her into corporate secretarial work, and she never looked back. In a previous life she was a volunteer emergency ambulance technician, which taught her to stay calm under pressure, decide quickly on incomplete information, and know when to lead and when to hand over.
She teaches strategy as a form of storytelling. Her students arrive knowing the words and leave able to use them.
“Strategy is not about execution. It is about direction, intent, and asking the bigger questions.”
Steven Jones has spent his career making governance work where it matters most. As Deputy Director for Governance & Accountability at the Department of Health and Social Care, he leads the teams responsible for the governance of one of the UK’s largest government departments, supporting Ministers, the Departmental Board and senior leaders through periods of significant organisational change. His work spans corporate governance, board effectiveness, risk, accountability, public appointments and legal compliance, with responsibility for governance frameworks affecting millions of people.
Before joining DHSC, Steven led governance across some of government’s most complex programmes, including the UK’s border response during COVID-19, Brexit preparations at the Cabinet Office, and corporate governance for HM Revenue & Customs’ largest business group. Alongside his public service career, he founded Disability Connect Mentoring Scheme, advising organisations on disability inclusion and accessible leadership, and serves on Transport for London’s Independent Disability Advisory Group.
Steven teaches Company Law from the perspective of someone who uses it every day rather than someone who simply studies it. He believes the biggest misconception is that company law is about compliance alone. The rules matter, but the real question is why they exist, who they protect and what happens when the law reaches its limits. That is where judgement begins, and where governance professionals earn their value.
He describes governance simply: it is about who has power, how they are held to account, and what happens when they are not. Once students understand that, the legislation stops feeling like a collection of disconnected rules and starts making sense as part of a much bigger picture. His aim is for every student to leave not just knowing directors’ duties, but being able to explain them, apply them and use them confidently in practice.
Away from governance, Steven is a mentor, disability advocate and podcast host. He is also, somewhat unexpectedly, a partly qualified counsellor and the owner of a tortoise called Frank.
“People often think governance is just about board meetings. It is not. It is about who has power in an organisation, how they are held to account for using it, and what happens when they do not.”
Jamie Hunt is a barrister and a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute who has spent his career at the demanding edge of regulation, governance and risk. He is Director of Governance and Legal at the Royal Institute of British Architects, where he leads governance, legal, risk, data protection and procurement, advises the board, and serves as the organisation’s Designated Safeguarding Lead. He also advises Social Work England on complex fitness to practise matters. Before RIBA he was General Counsel at the Security Industry Authority and Head of Legal at the ACCA.
He earned his Chartered qualification through the Fast Track route and passed with distinction. He brings deep experience of risk to the module he teaches, having advised audit and risk committees and senior risk officers on operational, reputational and strategic risk across regulated organisations.
Jamie is also a natural teacher and examiner. He trains advocates for the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, lectures in advocacy at the University of Westminster, and serves as Lead Examiner for the Bar Standards Board professional ethics examination. He previously lectured in Corporate Governance and Boardroom Dynamics at Campbell’s College. Students gain an instructor who understands risk as a practitioner and knows exactly how to prepare a candidate for assessment.
John McLean is a chartered company secretary and a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute, currently Head of Governance and Company Secretary at Great Places Housing Group. He has built his career in complex regulated settings, advising chairs, boards and executives across corporate governance, risk, data protection, safeguarding and quality. Before housing he managed national programmes at NICE and led performance and compliance roles across local government.
He earned his Chartered qualification the recent and the hard way, completing the programme between 2023 and 2025 with distinctions in both Company Compliance and Administration and Boardroom Dynamics. He now tutors both at Campbell’s College.
John is a law graduate who fell for governance because, by his own admission, he is nosey. He likes to know how decisions really get made. He describes the work as less admin and more drama with a very good audit trail, full of personalities, politics with a small p, and the occasional plot twist. He teaches the human side of the boardroom as seriously as the rulebook, because he has watched perfectly compliant boards descend into chaos the moment nobody is willing to challenge anything.
There is one more thing. Out of university and in debt, John paid it down by winning more than fourteen thousand pounds across Weakest Link, Supermarket Sweep, Eggheads and The Chase. He has a gift for retaining information, much of it useless, all of it ready.
“If it is not written down properly, it did not happen. Or at least not in a way anyone can defend.”
Richard Poole is an accounting and finance specialist with more than twenty years spent teaching and marking the ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS and CIMA qualifications. As Managing Director of RJP Financial he lectures for providers worldwide, and he teaches financial reporting at Queen Mary University of London, where the PwC Flying Start programme he contributes to was named PQ Programme of the Year in 2025. He has helped write one of the most widely used taxation texts in higher education and built online courses now sold around the world.
He found financial accounting hard when he first learned it. That memory shapes how he teaches. He reassures students that there is no such thing as a silly question, and he uses plain explanations and real stories to make daunting ideas stick. He treats a set of accounts not as debits and credits, but as a story waiting to be understood.
His interest in governance came later, sharpened by hearing Erika Eliasson-Norris speak about her experience, which made him want to understand the field more deeply. Away from the classroom he is a lifelong sportsman who played semi professional football, and he draws his energy from team sport.
“Instead of seeing accounts as a series of debits and credits, think of them as a story waiting to be understood.”
Evon Chung is a Chartered Governance Fellow who has spent more than a decade bringing order to some of the most complex corporate structures in the world. As Manager of Global Corporate Services at Deel, she oversees the governance of around 350 entities across 125 jurisdictions, leading an international team of sixteen lawyers and governance professionals. Before Deel she held senior corporate secretarial roles at The Law Debenture Group and Eversheds Sutherland, running multi jurisdictional projects for FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 clients.
She has also sat on the other side of the exam paper. Some years ago, as a Subject Matter Expert for the Institute, she set and reviewed questions for the foundation level examination. She no longer does so, and her work with Campbell’s is purely as a tutor. The insight stays with her, and few tutors understand better what an examiner is looking for.
Evon came to governance by accident. An engineer by training, she joined a charity board of seventeen trustees, none of whom had a governance background, to help write the minutes. A few years later a law firm invited her into corporate secretarial work, and she never looked back. In a previous life she was a volunteer emergency ambulance technician, which taught her to stay calm under pressure, decide quickly on incomplete information, and know when to lead and when to hand over.
She teaches the Foundation Programme the way she would have wanted it taught to her — starting from first principles, building confidence early, and making sure no student feels out of their depth for long.
Marieclare Peter is a Chartered Governance Fellow who has built her career at the meeting point of governance, sustainability and financial services. She is Deputy Company Secretary of Monzo Europe, where she designs and runs governance frameworks for the board and its committees, and she advises senior leaders across banking on governance that keeps pace with a fast moving world. Her work spans board effectiveness reviews, transformation programmes and the thoughtful adoption of emerging technology, including AI.
She is twice a winner of the DMJ Governance Hot 100 as a Governance Trailblazer, and she won the ICSA Tom Morrison Essay Prize. Her MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, completed with distinction, included research into the experience of company secretaries, a role she believes is still widely misunderstood. She is also an examiner for the Institute in another subject, so she knows the standard from the other side of the exam paper as well as the front.
Marieclare arrived in governance by a well told accident. She learned early that she would not make a great lawyer, spotted a trainee company secretary role, and has stayed for nearly a decade. The film The Big Short sharpened her sense of why governance matters and how badly its absence can end.
Away from the boardroom she runs on curiosity. She once ran a cake business, plays piano and sings, is learning Spanish, cooks in a kitchen for people who are homeless, and is devoted to her two cats.
“Anything that is governed requires governance. And governance directly correlates to outcomes.”
