A FORMER economics student at a Worcester college has become one of the youngest multi-billion pound fund managers in the City of London.

Kate Jones attended Chantry High School, in Martley, between 1989 and 1994, and then studied economics, maths and physics at Worcester College of Technology, in Deansway, between 1994 and 1996.

Just seven years later, the 25-year-old is managing the investment of company pension funds and making waves in the capital's high-powered world of risk analysis.

"I originally took economics to balance my two other A-levels, but Chris Brown was a fantastic teacher and I went on to do a degree in economics at Birmingham University," said Ms Jones, whose parents still live in St John's, Worcester.

"And the practical A-level course at the Technical College has actually proved more useful in my day-to-day work than the complex theoretical principles I learned at university."

Ms Jones was the only woman in the annual intake when she joined her present company, Prudential M&G, four years ago.

However, neither her age nor her gender has proved a barrier to her rising through the ranks, and she now has a portfolio - a collection of investments - worth around £2.7bn.

"I've been with the company for four years in September and have been given given quite a lot of responsibility surprisingly quickly," she said.

"I'm probably about five years younger than average and there are definitely more men in the job but it's getting better."

And while she thoroughly enjoys the 'work hard, play hard' lifestyle in London, she also misses some of the things she took for granted growing up in Worcestershire.

"There aren't any sights in London like the view from the top of the Malvern Hills," she said.

"It is very frustrating that it's actually quicker to get to the European mainland than it is to get back home to Worcester.

"When I do come back to visit my parents, I find myself dragging them off for walks up the hills.

"It was something they used to do to me when I was younger

"It makes you realise there's far more to life than work."