Hi, I'm new to this and hope you all can help me take my first steps towards becoming a self employed bookkeeper. I'm going to start with my husbands books (he has his own ltd co.), and I hope to pick up other business as I become more experienced and confident.
But firstly:-
I've been looking at iab distance learning courses starting at level 1 . There are a lot of providers out there, but a lot of them say you have to make arrangements for your exams.
The only provider that seems to be able to do exams as well as distance learning are DP Skills. Does anyone have any experience with this provider.
Don't have any experience of DP Skills; however, if you want to go down the IAB route you can arrange to sit the exams through them and they will allocate you your nearest exam centre.
All the details are on their website http://www.iab.org.uk/qual_intro.asp
IAB are who I've decided to go with. I'm just concerned whether there are enough external exam centres locally. The nearest ones to me are Acton, London, or Rochester, Kent. Neither are very close. And both are difficult to get to, especially on public transport. (At least 2 trains and several buses!!!) I suppose if I want to achieve my goal, I'm gonna have to travel!
I still would like some feed back on dp skills though, so if anyone has used them I would appreciate their comments.
Have you considered the ICB qualifications. They offer a mixture of home based & centre based exams, and all centre based exams are open to all external students. This makes the qualification much easier to obtain via distance learning.
You can find full ICB details at the following page: www.book-keepers.org
I work for a distance learning training company that offers both qualification so please contact me on 0141 248 5200 if you require any further help.
I studied with the IAB independently and then made my own arrangements for the exam. I simply called my local college (only very small) who were happy for me to sit the exam there and paid the necessary fees for the invigilator etc. Most colleges are happy to do this.
Hope this helps
Valerie
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