Khlayre Cairney

Khlayre's Story

Khlayre Cairney is no stranger to Stirling, having spent 30 years working for the University in a variety of roles. After a brief spell with Breast Cancer Care, she returned to campus last year to study a Masters of Business Administration with the aim of dovetailing her existing knowledge and experience with new learning.

As part of her course, Khlayre spent three months acting as an analyst and consultant for a small but well-established local business, Moirs Cleaning. Working with the Falkirk-based company, Khlayre analysed the way in which the business operated before presenting its owner with a report detailing how it could increase efficiency and profits.

Khlayre explained: “I built up a strong rapport with the client and that offered me the opportunity to expand and grow the project. It allowed me to give a much more holistic response to the client at the end of the three months.”

The project also offered Khlayre the opportunity to develop her own skills.

“This was a really great experience for me and one which I really enjoyed,” she said. “It offered me time to experiment with business analysis, to review and correct processes, build templates, and to reflect on how I might address the project if I were to start over.

“I knew that once I had graduated and was in fee-paying consultancy, it would be for real and, therefore, to really understand analysis and build a bank of templates would be of great benefit further down the line.”

After building her knowledge, skills and experience at Stirling, Khlayre has now set up her own business, ‘jkc consultancy’, which supports small and medium-sized enterprises, and the University’s Macrobert Arts Centre is among her first clients.

Khlayre describes her time studying at Stirling as “fabulous, invigorating and fun”.