Following on from my "How did you get rich" thread; Help me become an accountant!

[Roxetta]

I've thought a lot since starting my other thread and have decided to start investing in myself by earning some qualifications that will help to set me up for the future.

Basically, my children are 4 and 2. In a year, DD2 starts nursery and the following summer, she'll start school. With DH being in the army and being away a lot and with having no family to help with childcare, my priority at the moment is to learn and educate myself in something so that once the DD's are old enough to not need childcare, I'll have some very strong career options.

I'm considering doing an AAT qualification, but which one? AAT Foundation & Advanced Level Combined would take a year. Would that be a good option? Or should I go for the Accounting Technician qualification?

My plan after that would possibly be to volunteer one or two days a week during term time in an accountancy firm to build experience, then possibly see if I could work from home part time in some capacity for the next few years. When DD's are older, hopefully secure a job in an accountancy girl where I can train & become fully organised qualified (I don't have a degree though, would this be an issue?). That way, when DH leaves the army - most probably he'll be around 40 - our D.C. will be 15 & 13 and I'll have good earning potential.

No one I know works in accountancy so I'm very hopeful that some of you kind people will be able to advise me on A. Whether this is actually a good plan, and B. Which AAT qualification would be best to study from here.

Many thanks for your help & advice 

No specific advice but it sounds sensible to me, accountants are always needed and I imagine you can do part time as well?

Good luck!

Not having a degree is not an issue. I went through a grad training scheme so can’t tell you about AAT but I’m sure someone who knows more will be along. And yes, there’s a huge shortage of competent accountants.

AAT accounting technician is a great qualification to have and an excellent route into accountancy. You can progress into either an accountancy practice or into an accounts office in industry and both would recognise this qualification. I personally studied AAT on an evening and worked as a purchase ledger clerk part time for experience. Then I applied to s local accountancy firm an have completed both AAT and ACA qualifications to become an accountant. Not having a degree is no issue. It's a great career I don't regret it and the money is good plus there are so many options for work.

It is a good plan, especially as you don’t have a degree. However, I do wonder if the lower end of accountany is going to gradually disappear as bookkeeping becomes replaced by technology. You’ve probably seen the adverts too.

The other problem is that accountancy is fairly boring - I’m not being nasty, it just has to appeal to your personality type. To save yourself time/money I suggest you borrow a book on bookkeeping from the library and work through some of it. If you can stand it, that’s great. If you cannot, then you have saved yourself an expensive course.

Unfortunately, purchase ledger clerk is exactly the kind of role that some employers are letting go and replacing with a system. My old employer did exactly that.

I’m a FD. I would suggest if you go down the AAT route and then decide to do ACA, CIMA or ACCA it will take ages to become fully qualified. I always advise my staff to just jump in and do ACCA or CIMA you can be qualified much quicker and demand higher salaries than if you had done AAT. Hope this doesn’t confuse you more. Good luck

I am nearly done with AAT level 2 and am moving onto level 3. I've self studied, it's pretty easy.
I know it's a longer route but I had no financial background so felt I needed the grounding of AAT. I did start to look at one of the ACCA exam textbooks and just got irritated by it all. Once I have level 4 (which I will within the year) I'll look at which of the other qualifications suit me best.

I started off with AAT (having got A levels) at school. Then went straight into ACA qualification as I was working in practice. At the time (20+ years ago) I was exempt from quite a few papers in the first of 3 stages, due to the AAT.

I would say the worst threat to the early stages (bookkeeping and data entry) as well as technology is offshoring - I've interviewed many people who got made redundant when their company's accounting function moved to a shared service centre abroad.
I now work as a contractor and mostly on process improvement projects. That is more difficult to buy in from a distant continent.

Also make sure you develop your IT skills - excel as a minimum, including macros. That is a very marketable skill I have found very useful and rare.

Good luck!

My mum did ACCA at 48. Just started it. She had a degree (in oceanography so arguably not the most relevant!) but it was nearly 30 years before hand.

She went to a local college to do it. The college did say beforehand that although they were happy to have her on the course they were concerned that her age would make it difficult to find a job.

But then she won the regional prize for the highest mark in one of her papers. And the college got quite excited by her.

Once halfway through she applied for (and got) a fairly low level but related job in the council. She finished her exams part time whilst also working and then applied for a higher level job. The combination of being fully qualified, her exam prizes and the experience from the low level job meant she got it. She worked as an accountant until retirement.

mumoftwo that is bloody inspirational! Go your mum! I am now trying to convince dh to do ACCA whilst working... (I am maths and IT challenged sadly).

Good luck with it OP.

I did acct tech over 20 years ago. Always loved figures and accountancy but ended up working in policy for years. About 5 years ago I started ACCA at night. I work full time and we have 5 children. I qualified in Jan this year, got 2nd and 6th in world out of over 20,000 students on 2 of my final papers. Just took over as head of internal audit in my org and have been asked to lecture on one of the ACCA papers. Go for it. You will never know until you try.

Agree with others, if you meet the entry criteria for ACCA or CIMA, go straight for those and bypass AAT.

I don't think you would need to volunteer (seems a bit odd in a professional environment), you could go for a paid entry level role. You'd have demonstrated some great skills and dedication if you have already started studying and progressing through the exams by yourself.

Thanks everyone. That's a great help.

I've checked the entry requirements and I meet the requirements for ACCA I think. The requirements are A Level/GCSE's whereas my qualifications are the Scottish equivalents so need to double check that.

Do you not need to be working in order to become a fully qualified accountant though? I'm restricted to only being available in term time for at least the next few years which I know is unlikely to be of any use to an accountancy firm.

Yes you need to have work experience to prove you have used your theory. Why don’t you see if any schools need a bookkeeper could be a good way of using your skills term time only

Yes you need to have relevant experience, I'd suggest jumping straight into the higher level qualifications, CIMA, ACA or ACCA.
CIMA is management accounting and usually works within industry, (which is my qualification). I started studying at 22 and at 42 became an FD.

I love my job, and whilst you need to have a grasp of figures, you don't have to be great at maths (I only have maths GCSE).