CIMA - Accountants and perhaps people who have done the course through ICS?

Any

AP007 wrote: »

You can be a PL or SL Manager or Bookkeeper, Accounts Assistant etc need we all go on

My first direct superior who was AAT was Financial Controller...(company turnover 10 mill). Sometimes you can get quite high up. Qualified by experience.

AP007

Any wrote: »

My first direct superior who was AAT was Financial Controller...(company turnover 10 mill). Sometimes you can get quite high up. Qualified by experience.

Yeah I know - I have worked for a guy who is a Finance Director (turnover £40million) in London with no formal accounting qualifications only QBE like most people I know. Experience counts for a lot more.

bewilderedhelpneeded

You are really going to struggle starting with CIMA without working in the environment or doing AAT first to get the background knowledge and I suspect you would end up dropping out. You realy need something you can relate it to to get the background knowledge. When you start CIMA they assume a certain level of prior knowledge which you wont have which is why I think you would struggle. To get the qualification anyway you need a good deal of financial accounting experience to prove you can actually put what you have learned into practice. Without it you dont get the qualification anyway as CIMA wont give it to you. You need to present cvs etc to prove you working at level required to get qualification and you have previous experience. Thats why most people study whilst they working in a financial accounting role. The employers can give them additional tasks and projects to do so they have the experience for their cv and can get the qualification when they have passed all their exams.

Not working in a finance role at the moment I would recommend you start at AAT to give yourself the basics before attempting CIMA. I think you are trying to run before you can walk and setting yourself up for failure. If you jump straight in with CIMA I think you would really struggle and give it up. Then it would be money down the drain. You can do accountancy qualification at uni - you wouldnt get on the course with just gcses!

There is also a gcse in accounting - have you looked into that as that wouldnt be expensive to do. I think it would make you realise that going straight to CIMA is a step too far. If you did gcse accounting you could then move onto AAT which would enable you to get job in finance department and employer would prob pay for CIMA and give you the experience required for your cv. Without the required level of experience you wont get qualification anyway!

bewilderedhelpneeded

AP007 wrote: »

Yeah I know - I have worked for a guy who is a Finance Director (turnover £40million) in London with no formal accounting qualifications only QBE like most people I know. Experience counts for a lot more.

either cima or acca is a legal requirement to do certain things. Yes experience counts for a lot but also the qualification does. Its like being a solicitor!

persa

Well, as a fully qualified accountant, I'm going to reiterate what all the other accountants and technicians have said - accountancy exams are hard. There are a few successful people out there who are qualified by experience, but they tend to be old school, i.e. they were established in their careers long before Enron and when the Big 4 were the Big 8. There are some limitations of being QBE - inability to sign off on an audit for one - but always ways around it if you're working in a team of qualified people.

If the exams were easy, everyone would have got a piece of paper by now. They're hard. The normal route for ACCA is GCSEs, A Levels and an undergrad course lasting at least 3 years. Not necessarily accountancy related, but the point is, experience studying sets you up better for what are often intensive, bewildering exams.

People fail. Often. People who are supported by their employers, on block release, with classroom tuition from leading tutors - the OP is planning on studying from home, part time around work, using the cheapest option she can find, and whilst being a full time mum at the same time. It's one thing to be bright and optimistic, it's verging on arrogant to say after no study since GCSE level, no practical experience, no prior knowledge and sub-ideal study conditions that the OP will do better than all these people just with "hard work".

I know graduates from prestigious universities who have failed exams and been fired. Many have since left the profession.

One of the most important things in this profession is to know your limitations and work accordingly. The sensible thing for the OP to do would be to start with AAT. People do often go on from AAT to ACCA, ACA, CA etc, but not all do. As one poster points out, sometimes you find you don't need to take your studying any further, based on your career path.

If you get a job being AAT qualified or even part qualified, a decent employer will offer to fund you through further study. It's not common to pay for an entire accountancy qualification yourself - most people are funded. One, because that's cheaper, two, because they need the practical experience.

IMHO, the qualification is only one part of the battle - I don't know of anyone who was of any use or ornament until they hit 3 years - excluding holidays, exam leave, etc - of practical experience. There's a reason the awarding bodies tend to go for 3 years as a benchmark.

It is often a bit pointless picking on people's spelling and grammar on internet forums, but as a warning, chartered and certified chartered papers involve a high level of written English. If you're confident your English is better when you're trying to impress, fine.

Choosing a route in purely based on cost is a bad idea - you need to consider the slant that each qualification gives, CIMA for instance is most suited to in-house financial accounting, is that what you want to do? - and also whether the level of study is appropriate.

I am by no means trying to discourage the OP from becoming an accountant, once qualified, it's an excellent profession for parents and people with caring responsibilities, so fits well with her ultimate goals - but it would be cruel not to point out that she's underestimating how difficult getting back into studying will be. Resits, incidentally, are not free.

I hope you find this helpful, like the others, I'm trying to give you the benefit of my experience - what you do with it is up to you.

MoneySavingUser

Some very good posts especially persa, Any & CrusingSaver

polgara

I'll reiterate what other experienced accountants have said. I am part qualified with CIMA which I studied at night school after my university (Accounting and Financial Management degree) and as I wasn't working in any financial role I found it really difficult.

Its expensive too - the exams are HARD and I had to resit a number of them. Eventually I gave up and luckily my career path took to something that I was more suited towards AND to a career path where my employer paid for my qualifications!

saintjammyswine

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I have no interest in the AAT ...Sorry! Don't no why your all being so pushie about it to be fair but the fact is I won't be looking for a job with this qualification for another 5 years so even *if* I did the AAT it would be more expensive as your only saying that on if I got a job & employer who would pay for it.

Either way I spoke to Kaplan and thiers another route I can take which is the FIA, which they say is basicly the same as the ACCA's first three modules (which I skip when I go onto the ACCA) and I don't need the A levels.

Maybe it seems like im over estimating the difficultly of the course but no offense I'm not going to let something like that put me off. As long as I put the work in I'm sure I will pass! And its not like I havn't got time on my hands to study.

Probally going to cost me about £600ish more to do the FIA but its the only thing I can do short of doing the A levels and I can pay for each module so I can do it all in little parts and spread the cost out.

Sorted. (As for the collage response I can only do it at home so thats a moot point to)

Are you not able to attend any lessons, at any time whether at College or other provider? If you could attend college for example, they will probably have funding available to pay for it. (Probably as it depends on your circumstances and whether they have access to it).

Kayalana99

My partner is full time fully flexible, as is my mum. I have no one I couldrely on that would look after 1/2 kids on a weekly basis...so no not really add in the fact I will be working part time with 2 kids its going to be a hell of alot easier then classes every week to study at home and let people babysit when possible if I need a top up (or just go out the way whilst OH is home as I'm sure he won't mind) Thier's always a way around these things I don't want to seem like I'm making excuses but I really would prefer to do it at home in my own time anyway.


I printed of the FAI, ACCA, AAT modules/information and sat down with it all, had a good think about everything.

I think most of you will be happy to know I decided to go for the AAT afterALOT of persuasive information on here despite my stubbornness...so would likeyou to know your posts have not been in vain. I did see in the AAT that thier was quite alot of it that peaked my interest and I think I would enjoy it alot more then I thought I would.

I have now already enrolled on the course and am reading through the inductions as the course will be with me in 3-5 days.

I did have one more question regards the AAT/ACCA but does anyone know if its graded? I.e Pass or Fail or A B C D (I know its not done the same as GCSE's obvouisly but you get what I mean) but tbh I will probally google the answar later on anyway.

Thanks everyone for thier advice I do appreicate it, I guess I'm just going to have to serouisly cut back money wise and put everything I have into savings for this... just have to get my car insurance money together for June and then I should be able to save up for this alone...hopefully.

Last last last resort their is my Dad who I know would support me espically if I got some exams past first before asking him but he has just lent me 10k to get on the property ladder (although that doesnt have to be paid off for another 10+ years or so) and I don't want to lean on him any more then I already have so we'll see what the future holds...

Kayalana99

I have a really high typing rate as you can see I missed the space bar quite a few times....I really should check what I am writing, I'm not that bad honest! Lol