Aat training providers ?

Midmac

I would like to study AAT as an apprenticeship.

Here are the providers i have applied for and in the process of applying for:

North East chamber of commerce

Durham Business Club

New college, Durham

PriceWaterhouse Coopers

Does anybody know of any other providers of accountancy apprenticeships?

Also if there is any AAT or ACCA qualified persons here, feel free to help me start my career in accounting

Many thanks in advance

CIS

Iam interested too, Iam doing the OU certificate in accounting from sept and would like to see any advice that people can provide.

Gateshead college and Newcastle college both provide NVQ's in accounting, it'll be worth asking them as AFAIK they will have a list of employers to place people with, otherwise they wouldn't accept applications from people not already in posts.

Midmac

So its best to apply through colleges etc rather than the employers themselves?

CIS

I find that the employers are often unwilling to meet the costs of NVQ's themselves, but their happy to beenfit from work placements.

The colleges will happily take you and help you find a placement as they are the ones that get paid per student and AFAIK they get more if you actually finish the course, you can only do this on teh NVQ by having wrk placement.

Iam going the OU way so that I dont have to worry about a work placement and full time college whilst Iam holding down a full time job, I can apply for suitable jobs when they come up rather than having to find one at all costs.

Red_Elle

I recruit for accountancy staff, so have a good deal of insider information on the best way forward with study.

The one thing that puts employers off is someone who is studying AAT, but has little to no experience. It really depends what you want to do. Do you want to work within Practice or Industry? Do you have a degree? If you want to work within Practice, they all offer full study support, usually with day release. They are reluctant to take anyone on who is already studying, as they prefer to put people through their own training. If it is industry that you want, apply for jobs and detail in your covering letter that you wish to study AAT. Most companies these days recognise the need to offer study support, both financially and in terms of time off, to get the best employees.

You mention AAT and ACCA. Most people go down the route of studying AAT and then move onto ACCA or CIMA, unless they are within a Practice and then they will do ACCA or ACA. However, you can start ACCA or CIMA without doing AAT.

If you give me an idea of your academic qualifications, what you ultimately want to do (EG Management Accountant in product based industry, Financial Accountant in service based industry, partner in firm), then I will be able to give you some career/study advice.

Midmac

Im in my second year of sixth form, about to finish my A levels. ( im doing economics, accounting and ICT )

Ultimately I want to become a fully qualified chartered accountant. Im not sure about what industrys etc yet )

I dont feel university is for me. I would prefer to complete my AAT as an apprenticeship and get paid to do it. I belive I can start on the intermediate AAT course as i already have knowledge of the basics due to my A level studies.


Ps. thanks for your help, much appreciated

Red_Elle

Hi

AFAIK you will not be exempt from the first stage of AAT because of A Levels, but I may be wrong. People are generally only exempt if they have studied a degree.

You mention wanting to be a fully qualified chartered accountant and I just want to check on that. Do you mean a certified accountant (ACCA - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)? A Chartered Accountant is ACA (Association of Chartered Accountants) and you can only train to do this within a Chartered Accountancy practice. The terminology might sound very similar, but if you are in an interview and say you want to be a Chartered Accountant, people take this to be ACA and they will think you are either confused or haven't done your research.

After gaining the qualification you can move into industry, but you cannot study ACA in industry. ACCA is studied in both industry and practice. Only a Chartered Accountant can sign off year end accounts and they perform company audits.

You can study AAT in either a practice or an industry, although a practice will want you to apply to study through them with whichever firm they use for their trainees. Firms (practices) take on their Trainees in September, but they are all open for applications now.

The differences between industry and practice are quite broad. Within practice the training is much more structured, as is the progression and the monetary rewards at the top levels are high, but it can take many years to get there. Some people find working in a firm quite boring, there is a lot of strict time management - you have allocated times for everything when working on a client's audit. A lot of people qualify there and move into industry. Within industry, there is no guarantee that you will be offered a study package. AAT qualified people are not considered to be qualified accountants and people often use it purely as a precursor to studying CIMA or ACCA. The work is more varied, but you will start off at the very lower level and can expect a starting salary of £10k-£14k doing menial data entry type work before progressing onto things you will learn in your studies. Depending on what industry you want to work on, CIMA is the prefered route by a lot of people. This is changing, but many manufacturing companies still prefer CIMA qualified accountants, to ACCA. The course are very similar, but there is more of a focus on costings with CIMA, which is more relevent to manufacturing.
If I were in your shoes I would probably go down the Chartered route (ACA) within a top 20 firm if possible. Top 50 can be found here:

http://www.accountancyage.com/resource/top50

Have a look if there are any local to you. Chartered accountants generally command the most money at the top of their field, within either industry or practice. It's not as easy to get into top 20 without a degree (they often recruit directly from universities), but it's not impossible.

hjb123

Hi,

You could try the following website - may be some use - may not though! Has some job opportunities on it and also runs courses - I am doing distance learning through it at the moment while I am ill

http://www.financial-training.com

Midmac

Thankyou very much Red_Elle for your response.

It looks like im going to have to research into this a bit more before i go ahead and apply for other places. I didnt realise how many different routes and qualifications there was :eek:

As regards to your top 50 list that was very helpful ! ( wish i could thankyou more than once ) i found a few firms there that take on post A level students such as PFK and BDO Stoy Hayward.

Im going to have to pull my finger out and get a placement soon as it isnt that long till september.

As regards to entry into AAT i found this for the intermediate course

Candidates with 2 A levels can enter at this stage or if they hold a GNVQ advanced award or equivalent or already hold an NVQ2 in Accounting

Also the course flyer i have from Durham new college does not state any strict entry requirements for intermediate course.

I also found this firms site which describes their school leaver careers:
http://www.cooperparry.com/schoolcareers.aspx

Most places seem to have a minimum requirement of 280 ucas points. Which i am on target for. However im also doing "Institute of Financial Services CEFS". This can be worth up to 60 Ucas points :eek: will accountancy firms accept this as part of my ucas points tally ? If so that would put me in a really good position.

Also thanks to hjb123, that was a great site and seems to cover most courses. Im going to look further into it. (Ps. Get well soon )

Red_Elle

No problem - I know it's a minefield. I get as many people call me for advice as call me to register!

BDO is a good firm, as is Saffery Champness. They offer a superb study package and it would be worth looking on their site at the different options within a firm. https://www.safferychampness.com

You learn something new everyday! Thanks for the info on AAT exemptions.

With regards to what they accept, I would approach each firm to find out their requirements. The best thing to do, if you do want to go down that route is send out a covering letter and CV to all the top 50 firms enquiring about placements. Don't rely on just a few - it's nicer to have a few options. Wait and see what they say and then make a decision based upon that. It's definitely the cheaper and easier option to train through a firm, as they give you time off, pay for the course, pay for books and revision training etc.

Good luck.

Midmac

Thankyou very much. Im going to get a great CV and covering letter written and sent off to each of those firms.

Any ideas to the acceptance of the "Institute of Financial Services CEFS" course im doing ?

Do you accept it as a qualification when recruiting ?