Am I too old to train as an Accountant/Bookkeeper?

JoJoArmani

Thank you. I feel much more confident now.

Do you think it is possible to work for yourself after you have the AAT? Or are you better off working part time for a company? I'm not greedy I just want to earn a fair living while still being mindfull of my responsibilities at home.

I worked full time from the time my eldest was 3 months until she was 5 and I regret it so much. I have vowed never to work full time again while my children (and my hoover) need me.

Any thoughts?

jessicamb

I know people in their 40s who have started CIMA so you dont worry about being too old.

AAT + CIMA will take you about 6 years to complete as previously posted. Normally people working in finance jobs are able to get the employer to pay for the training costs. I suspect that this might be hard to come by if you are only wanting to work part time though. Maybe a small accounting firm would be the best option for a part time job. Why not have a look at the accounting job sites and see if there is anything that suits? https://www.gaapweb.com is quite handy - just google your area and AAT or anything else and see what comes up. They have the salaries on there too which is useful information. I dont know what administrators earn but I guess you wouldnt get that much more (if anything) for being qualified to AAT level compared to what you are on now. Further accounting study would help I am sure though.

Most of the jobs I have seen are full time - and if people do part time hours it is normally if they have come back from maternity leave rather than applying for a part time job. Its not impossible but I think it will be harder to find a PT job in this area.

Debt_Free_Chick

You may want to think about work, in the future. If you stick to bookeeping, that's something you can easily do self-employed, from home with local sole-traders as your clients.

JoJoArmani

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

You may want to think about work, in the future. If you stick to bookeeping, that's something you can easily do self-employed, from home with local sole-traders as your clients.

This is exactly what I'd like to do. Need to get the training behind me and a bit of confidence in what I'm doing. By then the little ones will be a bit bigger and going to school so I'll in in prefect time to get myself headed where I want to go.

Imagine being self employed and earning money doing something I enjoy... it would/will be like a dream....:j

Thanks again for the advice!