I'm probably asking something that get's asked a lot, but here goes.
I'm wondering whether it's best to, or should I say do employers prefer to see people studying their AAT at a college or is it irrelevant to them?
Also, for distance learning providers, is Premier Training well regarded? I'm also looking at Kaplan and Home Learning College. I've never heard of any of these providers but am very cautious of getting ripped off! Is there a specific provider thats well known to be better than the rest or will it be near enough the same with everyone?
I imagine that I can get my AAT's done faster through distance learning than going to college, is this correct? I'd b able to start my AAT now I'd assume if I did distance learning, yet have to wait until September for college.
Sorry if I'm going over something that's mentioned all the time, I just moved house and haven't got the internet yet, doing everything through my mobile phones connection and it's incredibly slow!
from an employers perspective they are concerned with whether you've passed the qualification, not the steps that you took to take it so it's irrelevant to them where you studied for your AAT qualification.
Premier trainng is very well regarded on here. They are professional, give good advice, use Osbourne books (so top class materials) and are not at all pushy.
Kaplan are one of the major players in study materials and courses. Their study materials are second to none. I cannot comment on their courses but I have heard no bad reports of such.
HLC gets a pretty bad press on here. When you've got your internet just do a search of the site for reference to HLC or home learning college and you will see what I mean. The issues (mostly) don't seem to be with their materials but rather down to very high prices combined with some rather dubious sales ploys which seem more akin to double glazing sales approaches than learning providers. Personally I cannot make comment about them as I have not dealt with them. As I say, just do a search of the site when you can and base your decisions on the experiences of others.
As you've identified mostly you don't have to wait on term times in order to enrol in distance learning (that statement is not true of the Open University).
Personal feeling would be to go with Premier and if you can afford it also buy the Kaplan study texts. It may seem like overkill now but when you're seriously into this you will find that having more than one set of books is a serious advantage.... Unlike if you were an actual bookkeeper in practice in which case having two sets of books means something completely different! (lol).
Hope that this helps,
kind regards,
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.
Thanks for the quick reply! that does clear up a lot for me, interesting point with the text books - though looking at it the study materials section that I can see it'd be about £320 for the entire lot, am I looking in the right section there? It looks as though you have to buy books for each module, is that the norm? A colleague that was studying with the AAT only seemed to have two books, albeit two rather large books, that apparently cost around £100. Though she was studying through the local college.
Haha, I got the joke and laughed at it... clearly accounting/bookkeeping is for me! ;)
Yes, it is a shame with the OU that you have to wait. I was hoping to do some courses, maybe even a BA in Leadership & Management (could be useful?) through them but I'm having to wait a very long time for it to start.
Anyway, I'll be giving Premier Training a call tomorrow and get the ball rolling. I think I was just wary because of the dated web design!
Seems like neither include exam fees but Training link include registration and 12 months student membership of the ICB so you would need to add £45 to each of the Premier courses.
My reading though is that Premier is still coming out cheaper on every course except payroll.
Premier do the Self Assessment module where Training link don't.
The difference between prices is not huge for any module so I think that really it should all come down to which has the better learning materials rather than based on price.
I can't comment on that but hope that others will as would be good to get a balanced comparrison between these two training providers who both have good names in the market place.
kind regard,
Shaun.
P.S. to anyone else reading this. Remember that you do not need a training provider to study ICB but you do need a training provider for AAT so to a certain extent the above discussion over prices is comparing apples and oranges where you actually wanted a bannana.
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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.
