I wonder if anyone can help me please as I am very confused and don't know where to start! I have been thinking about doing a bookkeeping course for a while and finally doing something about it.
I had emailed Home Learning College and they sent a salesperson round on Friday but to be honest I think I am going to cancel. They said I had 2 weeks in which I could cancel if I wanted. I have been reading reviews on the internet that don't sound very good and I found the salesman pushing me to book a course that I hadn't planned to do. The man at Home Learning College has told me I MUST do a computerised bookkeeping course rather than manual as no-one uses manual these days but my reason for doing this course is to learn how to do it. Please could someone please advise me whether I should do a course including manual or just the computerised on its own. Several times I told him I want to do manual and he basically laughed at me and just booked me on the computerised. Is this correct?
My other question is as to who is the best organisation to do it through. I have decided I don't want to do the Home Learning College one now so I am back to square one. Do I do ICB, ECB, AAT, ACCA etc. I have read the Open University one is good and very reasonably priced but will this give me membership for ICB? Is ICB the people I should want to eventually be a member of? I have also read good reviews about Premier Training and and Ideal Schools who are half the price of HLC - or have I missed someone else out who is even better?
Sorry for all the questions but I want to get it right!
I think the general consensus of those posting on this Forum is to avoid the Home Learning College- overpriced and apt to claim too much benefit from taking their courses ; I referred some of their advertising to the Advertising Standards Authority a couple of years ago as they were asserting that taking their courses would lead to a job income well above what I knew such qualifications could attract - as a result they toned down their claims. I did my IAB Diploma in Small Business Financial Management through Ideal Schools as they had a heavily discounted offer at the time - it was worth the discounted price but I'm not sure that I would have been satisfied if I'd paid the full fees.
As to which is the best organisation to qualify through, it depends on how far you wish to proceed. I've done my qualifications through IAB about which I have no complaints, which is probably fine if your horizon is book-keeping only but if you wish to proceed to accountancy eventually AAT is the best route.
I would advise you to learn manual book-keeping before doing computerised otherwise you will not gain an understanding of what the computer does and how to put things right when something has been done wrong.
As to which route to take - depends on what you intend doing. If you intend to go into employment then AAT is the way to go because that is a qualification recognised by employers. If you intend to go self-employed it really doesn't matter on which organisation you decide as membership of any of them will cover you for MLR (money laundering regulations) and cheaper PII (professional indemnity insurance).
It also depends on the way in which you learn best ie from reading books and having a go or from being taught by a tutor.
The guy from home learning college sounds as though he doesn't have a clue. They're also incredibly expensive. Have you looked at Premier training? I think that it's Amanda on here that's doing a course with them at the moment that made me look at their website and they do seem to be giving good advice and are reasonably priced.
The route that you take all depends on where you want to go. If you want to work for yourself as a bookkeeper than ICB is a good move.
If you want to work for someone else then AAT is the best route.
ACCA is really for when you're a bit further down the line. Just make sure that your first exams give you some excemptions from ACCA papers if that is the route that you decide to go.
ICB / IAB won't give you any exemption but AAT / CAT will. (I mention ICB/IAB and AAT/CAT together as they're basically the same but different governing bodies).
You could also look at the open university as their courses give excemptions from Some AAT / CAT, All of the ICB / IAB exams and also the first three ACCA papers.
There's also the AAT ABC bookkeeping course which is really good. It's more or less the same as open university course B190 which is the first step on the excellent but rather expensive road to the open university certificate in accountancy.
If I were you I would really look seriously at AAT. It's a well respected qualification in both bookkeeping and accountancy.
The advice that you got about the manual side of bookkeeping being defunct is complete garbage. Yes, we use computers for just about everything but you need to understand what's actually going on and for that you need the manual side.
The ICB have announced that from now on you will not be able to get membership via the computerised side alone.
The head of the AAT is spitting feathers about training companies misselling courses. A good example is that certain training companies are still selling both the NVQ/SVQ and Diploma routes to membership even though these routes disappear in June! Another example is training companies not mentioning that you are now going to have to gain both manual and compterised qualifications to gain membership of the ICB.
If for no other reason, if you don't understand double entry from a manual perspective you'll have real difficulty getting your head around journal entries.
If I were you I would cancel and talk either with Premier about either the new AAT qualification or the AAT ABC bookkeeping course, or alternatively talk to the Open University about B190.
If you do the premier training they're giving away the Sage computerised course with the ICB manual course at the moment.
Really hope that you enjoy your studies. If you don't then what's the point in them... I'm years in and it still gives me a thrill when a balance sheet does! (sad or what).
Take care of you,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
beat me to it again. Think we're agreeing(!!!) on the AAT as a great route in. Thought the AAT ABC might be a good starting point depending on how new to this Yvette is.
You need to have a course provider for that AAT though due to the skill checks etc. I've heard Premier are good but do you know of any others that Yvette should check out?
Talk later,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Wow, thanks everyone for such quick and userful responses. I am very grateful for your advice and pleased I came across this forum.
Just to give you a bit of background. I am a Virtual Assistant currently and would like to be able to offer bookkeeping as one of my services so I won't be looking for employment in the near future but would be doing it freelance. I haven't done any bookkeeping courses before but I do have a BA (Hons) in Business Administration which had an accounting module which I didn't do too bad in. I don't remember much now though, I have to be honest! I have 2 young children at home so will need to do it by distance learning so I can study around the children and my business. Also, I don't plan on going onto accountancy at the moment although I suppose you can never say never!
Thanks everyone again. I will have a proper read through all this useful advice again.
In the last few months Advent, Central College, LVMT Business School and Holborn School of Financial Management (all approved training schools) have all gone belly up leaving students out of pocket (some by thousands) and without the training that they have paid for.
There are calls for an ABTA style scheme for training colleges but at the moment there's virtually no protection beyond that offered by your credit card.
I wouldn't worry too much about the OU though if you choose that route.
Just thought that I had better mention that.
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I think that you got loads of replies quickly as we were all incensed by both the hard sell and you being told that you don't need to know the manual side... Grrr, so many sales people, so few bullets!
you'll be surprised how much you remember once you start doing the course.
From the sound of you're experience so far probably best you ignore the basic courses and go straight for AAT. Start at the lowest level even though you can probably get exemption with your BA as some of the stuff in units 1-4 done from the practical skill based perspective rather than theory really sets you up for later studies.
You can do it by distance learning but you'll have to attend college for the Skills tests and exams. It will take two to three years (there's no time limit so you can take longer), but at the end of it you'll have a really well respected qualification which is as applicable to accountancy as it is to bookkeeping.
Good luck,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
