Finance Courses

sweetdaisy

Thanks for the advice Kayalana99 .

AP007

sweetdaisy wrote: »

Me again, sorry (need some more advice)

I contacted Pitman Training and their Bookkeeping course has 3 modules and each costs £375, plus an additional £375 fee for the Sage 50 and Microsoft Excel courses - all in all it costs £1,875 :eek:. On completion of the modules you get a 'Foundation in Book-keeping Diploma with AAT Qualifications'. This seems quite expensive to me, but as I have never done any distance learning I am not sure if this is the normal price to pay.

I have had a look at 'ICS' and they offer a distance learning 'ICS Booking and Accounts Diploma' which runs over 12 months and costs £271.

In terms of getting a recognised qualification (as a starting point) before I hopefully get onto the AAT Level 2 course at college, would the Pitman training have more value than the ICS course?

You do not need to learn Sage at all no matter what anyone says.

You can learn Excel online here free

http://alison.com/courses/Microsoft-Excel-2010

saintjammyswine

Plus Sage is often used within AAT for the Using Accounting Software unit*

* cant remember the exact unit title but it is something like that.

morganedge

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I'm doing the AAT, I buy the books for £20 directly (or sometimes cheaper on eBay) and then just take the exams at £50 a pop ...can't afford all the courses.

Kaplan do the exams all over the country so worth looking into if your on a budget?

I'm not sure if I will carry on doing it this way into level 3 / 4 but for level 2 I think a book should be ok to get me though (it's only a 70% pass rate just passed my first 2/5 exams anyway for AAT level 2)

So you're not on any course at all?
You just teach yourself from a book, and book exam from the Kaplan website?

Whalie

I would recommend AAT as it's a wonderful grounding in all aspects of accounting.

Studying was hard at times but thats life so keep remembering what you want to achive.

If you do go ahead and join as a student member then please make use of branch meetings (approx 7 a year). There you will meet those who have qualified and other students and a great place to find out about whats available workwise as long as you are not shy!

I'm a committee member and try and help those who attend our meetings as much as I can by putting those in need of advice with those who can help.

Kayalana99

morganedge wrote: »

So you're not on any course at all?
You just teach yourself from a book, and book exam from the Kaplan website?

Well yea....

*If anyone is going to copy this don't forget you need to sign up for AAT as well membership it's just under £100 for the year.

MoneySavingUser

Don't do the courses with Pitman or ICS they are a waste of time and money.

Just start doing AAT!

The advice before in the thread to improve your excel skills with one of the free online courses is very good.

As for the Dummies books go with http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bookkeeping-Dummies-Jane-Kelly/dp/0470976268 for now - you might be able to borrow it from your local library.

You also mentioned ''Financial Accounting for Dummies'' I wouldn't get this yet as goes into quite a lot of detail some of which you won't understand straight away. It isn't a general book it is designed for students who have already done some of their accounting courses/exams.

sweetdaisy

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

Don't do the courses with Pitman or ICS they are a waste of time and money.

Just start doing AAT!

The advice before in the thread to improve your excel skills with one of the free online courses is very good.

As for the Dummies books go with http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bookkeeping-Dummies-Jane-Kelly/dp/0470976268 for now - you might be able to borrow it from your local library.

You also mentioned ''Financial Accounting for Dummies'' I wouldn't get this yet as goes into quite a lot of detail some of which you won't understand straight away. It isn't a general book it is designed for students who have already done some of their accounting courses/exams.

Thanks for the advice . I have decided not to do the Pitman and ICS course as they cost a lot and am going to buy the Dummies book of Bookkeeping and will learn the basics myself. Thanks for the link - there seems to be a lot of versions of this book, but will buy a used copy.

Tiggy_Wiggy

A really good FREE online resource for AAT & ACCA is https://www.opentuition.com.

I used this site for my final level of ACCA rather than using the expensive services of Kaplan or BPP.