What qualification is best? - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

nataliew · Newbie

What qualification is best?

RobH · Expert

Hi NatalieW,

Personally if you have adequate time to complete AAT, then that's the one I would go for if you are looking to get into accountancy. A lot of local colleges offer classes too if you feel distance learning difficult. I'm not sure what the entry requirements are for ACCA but a big ginger Tom could tell you! Here kitty kitty!!!

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Natalie,

AAT is definitely the best of those three.

It's well respected and opens a lot of doors. Just look at job ads posted on Reed. Job after job requires you to be AAT qualified or studying towards AAT... I've yet to see one job that mentions ICB or IAB.

Premier training are an excellent training provider and are reasonably priced. (Unlike some of the others).

The AAT qualification is changing in June so the current NVQ and Diploma routes will disappear this year to be merged into a single qualification.

If you are completely new to bookkeeping then worth considering for you would be either the BPP ABC AAT Bookkeeping course which will give exemptions when do the full AAT qualification or the Open University course B190 which is basically the same as the ABC bookkeeping course but you do the qualification as part of a community rather than on your own.

The current prices are :

BPP ABC AAT Bookkeeping : £175
OU B190 Bookkeeping : £295

Have a read of some of the threads on here related to training providers. The concensus seems to be that Ideal Schools and Premier Training both get a thumbs up. Home Learning College gets a thumbs down.

ICB and IAB are good if you intend to set up on your own. They are not really that good for finding a job with anyone else. The AAT qualifications open both doors. (As does CAT which is the ACCA equivalent of AAT).

Hope that this helps. If you need more details on anything just ask and we'll dig it out for you.

Kind regards,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Afternoon Rob... Think that I know that big ginger Tom Cat your talking about.

Providing you've got some GCSE's including English, anyone can do ACCA via the MSER route but you only have two years to pass the first three exams or your out for good!

If I had to do ACCA again I think that I would do AAT first and use the exemptions from the first three ACCA papers.

I think that if your not going to need ACCA in order to become a full accountant (PLC's audit, etc) then it would be wiser to stick at MAAT. MAAT's can at least produce sole trader and limited company accounts and give tax advice where once you convert to ACCA suddenly as a PQ your deemed not able to give that advice (grrrr...).

Also, if you've already got a job in accountancy with MAAT status why would you want ACCA when you could go ACA (ICAEW / ICAS)... The pecking order is definitely :

ICB / IAB

AAT / CAT

ACCA / CIMA

ACA

Talk in a bit,

Shaun.

RobH · Expert

Good afternoon Shaun..I knew you would know! Is it all stored in your head or do you look these things up?

nataliew · Newbie

Thanks for the advice, I think i will go down the AAT route. I have looked at premier training and there is a AAT bookeeping certificate course, would it be worth me doing that first or going straight onto the AAT foundation level?

Keithm · Member

In a list

1. ACCA
2. AAT
3. ICB
4. IAB

If you have the money do the ICB first then study for your AAT the ACCA.

Try and self study as the home learning college's just over charge for the course.

Course costs 1k+ But you can buy some books and learn the same thing for less than £200.

keith

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Afternoon Rob,

wasting way too many brain cells on storing all of this stuff.

The bits that I do always have to look up are in relation to questions on tax. I think that my limited storage capacity has at least taken in that the governments ways of bleeding every last penny from us changes so regularly that there's no point memorising it all.

I do however seem to have a worrying number of quotes from financial reporting standards and audit standards that I can wheel off and with the convergence between UK GAAP and IFRS they're about as precarious as tax rules at the moment!

Just got to take my boy to his Moms for a couple of hours.

back in a bit,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Keith,

back in ten minutes. not in agreement over what you've written. but no time to explain why at the moment.

Talk in a min,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

If you intend to study for the AAT then to do ICB is really a waste of money as it's the same material but to a lower level.

You cannot study AAT without a training provider. However Premier training is very reasonable on their prices and their course material (Osbourne books) is excellent.

ICB can be taken without a training provider (although training providers and to a certain extent the ICB try to keep that a secret). However, if your intention is to go on to do AAT then why not just do that in the first place and save the money spent joining the ICB and taking their exams!

In financial terms, even if you spend only on distance learning materials, exams and membership. You would still be looking at £175 membership and exams plus a couple of hundred pounds for study materials.

For a couple of hundred pounds more then that you could get through the AAT Foundation stage which will open more doors for employed work (so some return on investment) than ICB would.

ACCA can also be taken without a training provider however it must be born in mind that there is a quantum leap between the level of material for ICB and that for the ACCA. It's certainly not a qualification that should be considered if you have an adversity to studying legal documents in their original form (accounting and audit standards, companies act, etc.).

For AAT there are three distinct levels. Foundation, Intermediate and Technician. For each you will need to budget not only for the course materials but also the exams, skills tests and student membership of the AAT. All in you're probably not going to see much change out of £3000 which if you self taught ACCA using the BPP and KAPLAN materials is about the same amount that you would pay for that qualification.

Big difference is that AAT will take you between two and four years, ACCA will take between five and seven years... And the restrictions on what you can do as an ACCA student are quite Draconian.

There, just thrown that in the ball pit. Lets see what responses that sparks!

cheers,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Natalie,

The bookkeeping course offered by Premier is basically the BPP ABC AAT Bookkeeping course.

To do it with their support at that price would be a really good move on your part and an excellent introduction to bookkeeping.

Have a talk with Jane Hasler at Premier about what exemptions the course will give you as you may find that this is a cheaper route than going in at foundation level (you may be allowed to join the AAT at intermediate level saving you around £400 over doing the foundation level).

Talk soon,

Shaun.

nataliew · Newbie

Thanks for all your help Shaun.

What is the better qualification to have, AAT diploma or NVQ as premier do both.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Natalie,

glad to have been some help and hopefully I've saved you some money.

iI doesn't really matter which route that you take (Diploma or NVQ) as both end up with MAAT.

The NVQ seems to assume that you are able to build up a work portfolio where the diploma assumes that you are doing the qualification before looking for work.

As mentioned previously though both are merged into one in June. Nobody, including training providers, yet has any details as to the form and content of the new syllabus.

If you sign up before June you have 18 months to complete the qualification before it disappears at which time the modules that you have passed will count as exemptions on the new syllabus.

Have a chat with Jane at Premier. She's really friendly and helpful.

cheers,

Shaun.

Robertson · Member

I wish I'd had the above advice when I started studying - AAT is much better supported with learning materials than either ICB or IAB, which is what you need if you're a distance student ;as mentioned above the ICB/IAB can qualify you with a practising certificate if you want to 'go it alone' but there seem more than enough 'one man bands' in the bookkeeping market at the moment.

Neil · Senior Member

The more I read on here the more I'm thinking I might do AAT after I've bagged myself all of the ICB qualifications I'm aiming for.

I disagree with Shaun in one respect though. I think ICB is the right thing for me to be doing now as I have good local connections where I am and should be able to get a good start since I know plenty of sole traders. I plan to create a second income stream through PC support and have in mind a competitive business model for that. Hopefully, I could cross pollinate the two businesses.

When I was first looking to create an accounts career I was actually looking to study AAT but the ICB route gets me into practice much sooner- months instead of years. Having seen reference to Premier and their more competitive rates I'm now considering going for AAT later but I'm not sure how it would dovetail with an existing ICB practice. Any thoughts?

Would I need to move beyond MAAT to be able to run my own practice? There is a bewildering array of accountancy qualifications I see on here and its not clear which has what advantages. Is there somewhere I can see a summary?

Cheers

Neil

-- Edited by Neil on Tuesday 23rd of February 2010 03:17:12 PM

Nikki P · Member

Natalie, I'm going down the AAT route too (after some good advice on here). I'm going to start with the bookkeeping course and then go on to do the rest. I've just signed up with Premier Training (again, after the recommendations here) and am expecting to get it tomorrow by courier (Premier phond me this orning to ake sure I would be home tomorrow to receive it). I'll let you know how I get on!

steve12 · Veteran Member

Hi, Although the ICB route gets you your qualifications alot sooner than AAT you will find that the AAT qualifications are much more widely recognised in the accounting industry and to be truthful AAT qualifications are of a much higher standard than ICB. The AAT qualifications will make it much easier for you to progress into accountancy at some future date because the professional accountancy bodies recognise AAT qualifications whereas they do not recognise ICB qualifications. But for basic bookkeeping knowledge and qualifications then ICB is fine.

Steve