Does anyone have any experience with this course? I start the AAT's at level 3 in September after doing bookkeeping at level 1 and 2 and am wondering how others found it. I will either be doing one day at college or two evenings a week. My work are paying but I'm not in a accounts role at the moment, but they do get me in to do little bits here and there, will this hinder me? I understand a lot of people do it with no background of accounting but I'm slightly worried I may struggle if I'm not in the role. Lastly, if I complete the AAT's, and have to look for a accounting role elsewhere, will I struggle if I have just the qualification and no experience, or should there be opportunities for 'junior accountants' for example. Cheers guys
Hi Bracknel - I'm not familiar with the AAT qualification but the accountancy firms tend to operate by hiring juniors and combining work experience with a professional qualifiction (normally ACA). I'm not sure how it works for acccounting roles for more general business though. I did ACA many years ago, and the work place experience had little overlap with the technical stuff in the exams so I don't think you'll struggle with the exams if you are not in that role on a day to day basis.
You'll be fine in doing the course without working within an accounts department, most of AAT is common sense. There may be some modules that you will need to ask your accounts department for assistance with, but a lot of people do AAT whilst unemployed. You may want to consider getting some experience working within a finance team to help your prospects of getting a job elsewhere as generally speaking experience is valued higher with a lot of smaller companies - but with an AAT you'll only go in as a junior or accounts assistant really as it's a lower level qualification, start thinking about going onto your CIMA or ACCA afterwards.
As a completely untrained accountant I took one of the first stage CIMA papers and passed it with no training at all. Mainly because someone I worked with was a complete tool and was always bigging up their CIMA qualifications and also because I was bored one afternoon. CIMA is pretty much looked down upon from proper accountants but it's a good way into a career where there's always a load of jobs. Business does well. Accountants are needed to handle the money. Business does badly Accountants are needed to wind the companies up. Any form of professional qualification enhances your employment chances. Accountancy is a good way of getting trained up at someone else's expense. Knowing what I know now I:d maybe have gone down an apprentice/trainee/professional qualification route rather than get a degree.
I don't think any accountants look down on CIMA. I'm ACA qualified as are most of my colleagues. If anything, we admire more those who have done the other proper qualifications (CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA etc....) because they are generally studied for while the person is working full time with little study leave (compared to ACA).
Cheers for the replies guys, the accounting manager at my employer mentioned that she would like me to do a six month course in London after my AAT's, and I'm sure she said it was equivalent to degree, but may be wrong, just excited to start the next level to be honest!
Hoth would be one of the worst places. Did any of them not fall over during that film? If you were thinking of applying for a role where you study for an additional qualification, such as ACA (which I'm currently doing), then firms often expect you have very little experience. I had no accountancy experience when I was offered my training contract (literally nothing - we take on people with degrees that have no relevance to accountancy, such as classics and languages etc). Of course it depends on what firm you apply to, but there are plenty of smaller sized accountancy firms that are looking to taking on AAT qualified students rather than just looking at those with degrees. Having already done the AAT, you'll probably have a better grasp of what is expected of you and a better grounding than those students with little or no experience in accounting/bookkeeping.
Hi Bracknell. I just sat my last exam (hopefully!) last week which was Financial Statements. I've been working in accounts for 8 years now, and really did the course as a stepping stone to ACCA which i'll do next year. (I only had GCSEs and could get funded for 2 thirds of my AAT course). So far I've passed all the exams first time and would say work experience has helped me a little with some earlier stages, but overall I can't say working in accounts has hugely benefited me - Actually in 1 module it totally threw me as companies do things differently to the textbook so to speak. If you want to use the MAAT letters after your name, then you will need to have at least 3 years work experience in accounts. The website has a selection of technical skills from which you can choose from to show your experience, e.g cost accounting. With regards to work, i'd personally say try finding an accounts role, but that isn't easy without experience and that's just my opinion. If your work are paying for it, can't they offer you a full role in accounts? Seems a little daft if they'll fund it without fully utilizing your skills? Feel free to PM me if you have any questions mate.
Hey cude my dad was FRICAS (i think that's it, royal institute of cost accountants or something like that) but it would seem to be defunct as I don't find it on google ... what happened to all the old school stuff, was there some kind of revolution?
Single entry bookkeeping was replaced by double entry as a result of the hyper inflation in the '70s.
Thanks cude that's a great help, appreciate it! As it stands my employer is not sure there is enough work to warrant a full role for me in accounts, YET, but during they are happy for me to work with them in the mornings with a view to offering a full role when it's possible.
