To want to retrain as an accountant...

[IBloodyLoveMichaelJackson]

I'm 37 and in a senior administrator role, have worked previously as a secretary, receptionist etc. All administration roles. I'm sick of it. I want out. I work for a great company so I'm not knocking them but I want qualifications and a proper career. I don't even know if I'm capable of achieving anything and I've always lacked self belief but I went back to college in September to gain a GCSE in Maths and when the lecturer threw us into a real exam a couple of months in just to see what it was like (we were told to treat it as mock) I actually passed and much to my absolute astonishment was only 5 marks away from getting a level 5 (a "high C"). So whilst I'm never going to be Carol Vorderman I'm hopefully not as clueless as I'd imagined. Going back to college has really given me a new zest for learning.

But what skills do you need in order to be an accountant? How academic does one have to be? Is it even possible to juggle this with a full time job? I can't quit and do full time university unfortunately. I will look at courses later but where do I even start? A bookkeeping course? Level 1 AAT? Ironically I actually work with accountants so I'll be asking them of course, but I've previously come on here for mortgage advice and anxiety support so extra advice is very much welcome!

I know this is going to cost me a lot of time and expense but it's a serious investment in both my future and my mind and I will be taking it very seriously.

Personally I wouldn’t do your AAT unless you are working in a relevant field.
The ACA and ACCA are both level 7 qualifications which means you need a level 5 first - usually a degree. IMO sitting the exams for AAT but having no relevant experience will not make you more attractive to employers and you will struggle without having A-Levels. Have a look on the link to the current ACA/ACCA training vacancies to see what qualifications are being asked for.

Obtaining a training contract is competitive,
the easiest way to qualify as a chartered accountant if you don’t have a degree/A-Levels is to do the AAT with a firm that will also sponsor your ACA.
A lot of the big firms offer a 5 year programme that puts you through AAT and ACA www.bdoearlyincareer.co.uk/apprenticeship/
If anything you would be better getting your A-Levels and then applying for one of these.

You are talking about at least 7 years of studies though if you do A-Levels too, sitting exams every 3-6 months.

You said you would take a pay cut and fund the £6k of fees yourself. The £6k comes out of your taxed income so you may be better off finding an employer who will pay for it and give you paid time off to study so you qualify sooner. £6k post tax is c£8.5k pre-tax and you would be have paid study leave so wouldn’t be using holiday to sit exams.

The other thing to bear in mind is that things have changed a lot over the last 10 years or so. If you have colleagues that did AAT and then went onto chartered through a more informal route a lot of these have stopped because more firms and companies offer the 5 year programme or they still expect internal candidates to meet the entry requirements of the graduates.

I wouldn't spend 4 years doing the exams without any practical experience at all. I think that would be a mistake.

I cannot think of anybody who's committed years to exams without experience. It's not uncommon for people who are changing careers to do the first few exams of a qualification and then secure a job with a training contract of some kind. That way they know they want to continue the exams, have proven themselves a bit, but are still at an early stage to start developing the experience alongside the exams.

As a few pp have already, I would really caution against a one-sided approach of exams-only for years. These qualifications are 50:50 split between exam and practical experience requirements. Applying the exam knowledge in the workplace is a very different skill, so you'd be making it needlessly difficult for yourself to get four years into studying before working in the field. It might not be impossible to be hired but it might make employers wary.

Aside from anything else though, it would probably be very demoralising after 4 years of studying to find you almost had to start from the beginning again in terms of learning the practical side. (Even my regular trainees who've been with us since their first exam get frustrated sometimes that after they learn the basics for their exams they then have to learn how to apply them in the workplace - that it's not immediately easy at work once they master the exam). It's easier to learn the technical and practical elements side-by-side as they complement each other then.

If you're not aiming for Big 4 then apprenticeship type training contracts / study support (ie for non-graduates) are pretty standard. It's only fairly recently they've started calling them apprenticeships but there's always been non-graduate training routes.

I don't think it's a bad plan overall - and like you say you're really at research and ideas stage - just needs some refinement in a few places. (Preferably to find a plan where you're not self-funding the whole thing! That really shouldn't be necessary for accountancy.)

I agree with @Logistria

I’d sooner employ a junior/trainee with some on the job experience and no quals than vice versa.

I got my first ‘accounting’ role with zero quals as I had experience and could do the job. The quals came later as they offered training.

Also depending on the type of work you’re interested in, it’s not necessarily highly paid - decent for sure, but not automatically £40k plus