As a follower of football at the lower level I'm aware of diagrams that describe the various levels of football in England that make up the non-league pyramid.
I wonder if it would be possible to create something for bookkeeping and accounting.
There are various bodies and exams - which ones are roughly of the same level.
ICB / IAB / AAT etc level I, II, III, IV
Or is that like comparing bananas with laser printers and a waste of time?
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
it probably has more merit than you are giving it credit for. I mean, how many people who are new to this have no idea that IAB and ICB are the same level and what qualification is next up the food chain.
When you start bringing levels into the equation as well matters do get a little confusing though as levels of knoweldge required for the various papers seldom match up with the exemptions that they carry.
For example. full ICB gets no exemptions from ACCA papers but full IAB does yet the expected level of knowledge and skill of the two is about the same.
personally I think that on the basis of what you need to know you could just draw a flat line and say that all of the following require basically the same level of knowledge but applied in different ways :
ICB level III IAB Level III AAT Intermediate level ACCA fundamentals level CIMA fundamentals level CAT Intermediate level OU Course B680
Already we have an issue as you need to get full AAT or CAT in order to get exemption from ACCA fundamentals where I think that at that level AAT and CAT have already started into the skills level ACCA papers.
So, conclusion is that they are pretty much uncomparrable from a heirarchic position and pursuit of attempting to build a pyramid of where everything fitted would just prove fruitless.
One idiosyncracy that just occured to me whilst writing this is that employers post ads for AAT qualified or ACCA/CIMA PQ.
You are a PQ as soon as you've passed or got exemption from one exam so if someone did IAB then got ACCA exemptions that opens up work that you would otherwise have had to complete AAT for. If you have done ICB then although you will have done a similar level of work to attain your qualifications no exemptions would be available.
Funny old world init.
P.S. anyone reading this should not base their study plans on exemptions available now as these can change at a moments notice. A month down the line you might find IAB is not recognised by the ACCA and ICB is. Base all study on the qualification that is right for you now, not the exemptions that it may or may not bring from other qualifications later.
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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.
unusually for me, no debate at all from me on that statement.
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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.
No idea how it relates these days ,as I stopped after level 3.
Im pretty sure ICAEW & ICAS would consider themselves number one with ACCA, CIPFA & CIMA behind.
Going forward, I'm interested what public perception will be of ICB Level 4 v AAT, all though recognising the fact that ICB and it's members have a lot of promotion to do to increase public awareness
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Tony
Responses are intended as outline only. Formal advice should be sort from your Institutes Technical Department or a suitably qualified Accountant.
ICB is having many debates about re-vamping its levels to match QCF etc etc as its levels are pretty tough at the moment, ICB Level 1 being closer to QCF Level 2, Level 2 to Level 3 etc etc.
For ACCA pretty sure that when employers state PQ they acually mean students who have passed the skills level (first nine papers).
To my mind at that level you are ready to be an accountant. What comes next is just plain evil and I would say most of it would never be used by most accountants in practice.
As for public perception. I find that people have heard of chartered, certified and management accountants but have absolutely no knowledge as to what qualifications mean anything, or indeed even exist at lower levels.
Our main issues seem to be amongst ourselves rather than how we appear to the outside world. A bit like the grades of management mean something to people within a company trying to climb the corporate ladder but mean absolutely nothing to anyone outside of the organisation.
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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.
For a long time I have heard that the ICB have been in negotiations to have their qualifications mapped to other organisations etc, but to date this has only been from the ICB. Sorry to mention this James, but the IAB has gone to a lot of trouble to have their qualifications mapped to the various levels which is why they are recognised by the various other bodies which as far as I can tell ICB qualifications are not.
The IAB started doing this a couple of years ago, and as the qualification system changed (which it has done recently) they have made sure they have maintained the mapping with all the various bodies, so nothing is going to change, except for more recognition and additional higher qualifications becoming available.
In fact a couple of weeks ago, the IAB announced that both the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) have agreed to fund IAB qualifications as part of the NEW UK Apprenticeships in Bookkeeping and Payroll.
-- Edited by YLB-HO on Sunday 22nd of May 2011 08:29:05 PM
There are links to other bodies, for example, many ICB members go on to ACCA but there are complications with that as Shaun has mentioned on other posts.
The ICB sees its market differently to the IAB, more geared towards the industry and supporting it, rather than just the qualification.
There would be no problem with the ICB mapping its qualifications if it decided to, and these mapped qualifciations would be accepted by other organisations, but it would mean moving towards unitised testing. The ICB feels it would affect its current market (the more mature student, or someone who does not want to be tied to a college for funding) and does not feel this is worth while.
Therefore the ICB sits in its market, and leaves the college based qualifications to IAB/AAT etc. However, this is now, and things might change.
