Funnily enough I was speaking to someone at CIMA about this the other day (and they were very helpful).
In a word, no, they don't have the restrictions. They even have their training set up so that part way through you get a certificate in management accounting, then further on you get a diploma, then near the end an advanced diploma, so that you have something to put on your CV before you get to being a qualified CIMA.
You can also use self employed experience towards the 3 years experience, although there are specific requirements about who needs to sign it off on your record (an auditor was one person who can do it, I can't remember the others).
I'm weighing up CIMA against IFA at the moment, I would like to do CIMA but I don't think I'm going to be able to get the experience, so I'm wondering if IFA would be a better way in and then I could do CIMA in 5 years time when my circumstances have changed....decisions, decisions.
I know what you mean about decisions, decisions!!! Well in the next few months hopefully i will be AAT qualified, and i wasnt sure if i could still work self employed like doing peoples tax returns and stuff while studying as a cima student, as i know you cant while doing acca. Do you know what kind of experience i would need to gain to qualifiy in cima.
On the CIMA website, if you go into the qualification section then to what they call T4, that's the information about the professional competence level i.e. work experience required.
I didn't find it the easiest of sites to navigate, but the person I spoke to was very helpful and emailed me the relevant parts, so do call them if you want to find out more about it all.
