I have never done any book keeping courses or work, but I am interested in starting. I have seen an ICB manual book keeping course levels 1-3 with exams for 599 pounds. Is this course going to be enough to get started in a job in book keeping? If not, what else is required? I have limited funds so that is why I was looking at this course. If this is not a good course to go on can somebody please reccommend a more appropriate course? I would like to be able to pay monthly for it, and get a job afterward. Thank you!
actually, after advising two people that OU B190 was not the best option for them I'm going to advise you to take a good look at it.
The OU B190 course is an introduction to bookkeeping run by the Open University and the material in it is excellent.
The exemptions that it can give are to my mind a little too much but that's a whole other story.
Whilst you could gain exemption from IAB on completion (with agreement to membership on application and approval by the IAB board) personally I advise you to study for and take their exams which will set you in better stead for the real world.
With either the IAB or ICB there is no requirement for a training provider although training providers will not tell you that! If you do a course like B190 as a foundation you will be able to go on from that by self study and sitting the relevant exams to gain the skills and qualifications that you need to build a career in bookkeeping and maybe one day accountancy.
Buried in your question is a whole other subject.
Is a qualification alone enough to get you a job... Probably not!
Training providers always advertise unrealistic salary expectations and tell you that this is a career path with lots of opportunities and is relatively recession proof. However, there's a huge catch 22 in that employers want experience not just qualifications as real life is very, very different to the books.
This forces many down the route of setting up in a self employed capacity to gain the experience however there is no great shortage of bookkeepers out there so even going down the self employed route will prove a struggle, at least until you get your first few clients and then they seem to start coming along like buses... Nothing for ages then six at once.
Sorry if the last bit of the reply was a bit of a damper but I think best to temper the promises of training providers with a bit of reality.
Good luck with whatever route you choose to take. Don't forget to keep us all informed of your progress.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
P.S. Amended due to not reviewing my answer on first pass and there being some quite awful spelling issues!
-- Edited by Shamus on Saturday 17th of September 2011 02:48:03 PM
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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.
I have never done any book keeping courses or work, but I am interested in starting. I have seen an ICB manual book keeping course levels 1-3 with exams for 599 pounds. Is this course going to be enough to get started in a job in book keeping? If not, what else is required? I have limited funds so that is why I was looking at this course. If this is not a good course to go on can somebody please reccommend a more appropriate course? I would like to be able to pay monthly for it, and get a job afterward. Thank you!
ICB courses are more for those intending on going self-employed. If you do decide to go this route then Ideal Schools will allow you to pay for your course monthly. Having achieved "Distinctions" in all the exams I have completed (so far) using Ideal Schools as my training rpovider I can recommend them.
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Thank you both for your very helpful replies. Am I right in thinking that an exemption from a course is as good as having completed it? For example, if a course says that I am exempt from manual bookkeeping courses 1-3, then I should know everything contained in those courses? I see that you said, though Shamus, in your reply and replies to other people that you think sometimes the exemptions can be a bit high.
If I was to do the OU B190 followed by home study in manual book keeping 1-3, and then sitting exams, would I be able to become a member of IAB or ICB? Sorry for all the questions, but what about SAGE? Is it a good idea to do the computerised bookkeeping courses too? Because I imagine that would be very expensive to do at home without using a Training Provider.
I intend to do the OU B190 following your helpful advice, but am not sure what would be the best to do from there, to become a member of IAB or ICB, and then develop a career as a bookkeeper. Either a course in manual 1-3 and computerised, or just manual 1-3, or like you said, studying the manual bookkeeping courses myself and sitting the exams.
Been reading about all this a LOT over the last few days! Here is what I have (almost) decided what to do!
OU B190, followed by IAB levels 1-3 in computerised bookkeeping.
I have spent a lot of time researching all of this, and tried to come up with the best way to get into either employment or self employment as a bookkeeper. Do you guys agree with what I have chosen, or have other recommendations? I chose this because I think it pretty much covers everything I would need to do, and get good accreditation by IAB.
Also, the cheapest I found 1-3 computerised is at StarLearn for 590 pounds, though I am not sure if that includes SAGE software or not, as it does not mention it I am guessing it doesn't. Also, their website does not look extremely professional so I am hesitant to choose this site (am aware I do not need to choose now). Anyone know of a more well known training provider for levels 1-3?
Same as Peasie, I highly recommend Ideal Schools. And yes you should be doing manual AND computerised bookkeeping, without the manual knowledge you would struggle in real life bookkeeping and without computerised knowledge you would not get far in the 21st century. And as Shaun said self-study is always an option with the right books. Distance learning providers aren't going to give you so much extra for your money...but they might give you confidence for a price. Also have to agree with previous posts there is NO jobs out there without experience, qualification is far not enough. Saying that, the other day I have seen an apprentice accounts assistant job advertised, probably one place for 150 applicants. If you decide to go with distance learning choose a reputable college/school with good independent(!) reviews there are people who had lots of difficulties with some and paid over the odds for their course,too. Also if employment is what you are looking for than you should be doing AAT (or maybe CAT) not ICB/IAB.
Hi, If you want to be employed I would go AAT every time, thats what people seems to be asking for nowadays. It will give you the edge over IAB/ICB with employment. Off course some on here will disagree with me, but this is only my opinion.
Long dist learning for AAT try Premier training they are good and reasonable.
I agree with you Amanda. IAB/ICB for self employment (although I'm not convinced that going straight into self-employment without any experience is a good idea as I don't think the exams prepare one sufficiently for what they will encounter in the real world) and AAT for employed work. Again just my opinion.
long time no speak. Hope that you are well and the ICAEW study is progressing nicely. On the jobs front the one that comes to my mind was an accounts assistant role advertised by Reed. They had over 900 applicants within 2 hours! If only training companies would stop lieing to people about how easy it is to get into this line of work... But of course that really wouldn't do their bottom line any good at all would it!
Hi Amanda,
Totally agree, for employment accept no substitute than AAT. However, it all goes back tot he experience catch 22 so it's potentially greater expense still with little promise of employment at the end of it. For people stumbling into this profession I think IAB/ICB may be a better way to go as it's cheaper and geared more towards self employment. That said, I would not actually advise anyone to set up self employed without experience either! Real conundrum there.
Hi Andrew,
I've not heard of the company that you have been looking at but that doesn't mean that they are not any good. However, to me shelling out another £590 notes after you've already paid for and done OU B190 seems a bit expensive.
If it's just gaining computerised bookkeeping skills that you are looking to add why not have a look at Premier trainings Sage course. (See http://www.premiertraining.co.uk/courses/sage_accounting/sage_accounting.shtml) which is around £200 for Sage Instants or alternatively £290 for self teach of Sage Line 50 (see here http://premiertrainingstore.co.uk/acatalog/SAGE_50_ACCOUNTS_SELF_STUDY_COURSE__STAGES_1__2_&_.html).
Occassionally you can pick up the Sage training courses (which include workbooks, certification and 180 day trial versions of the software) from Amazon quite cheaply but for a one stop purchase £290 from Premier doesn't seem too unreasonable.
Right, off to read what other posts I've missed today. This work really gets in the way of answering posts doesn't it!
All the best,
Shaun.
P.S. Hi Sheila, Sorry, wasn't ignoring you. I'm just not the fastest typist in the world (or most accurate as you've spotted previously). Think that we're all pretty much in agreement on the experience front.
-- Edited by Shamus on Monday 19th of September 2011 04:20:54 PM
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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.
Thank you all again for such helpful replies, it's good to see that there are so many nice and helpful people in this line of work :) Shamus, that course through Premier Training looks to be an absolute bargain. I can't believe you get the full copy of sage and the exam for 200 pounds. I am pretty much 100% decided now, that I will do the B190 course and then move onto this sage course, and try to go the self employed route. I hope that these 2 combined will be enough to do so. Do you think that it will?
And you're definitely right about the catch 22 - can't go into employment because of no experience, and not recommened to set up self employed without experience either, does make it tricky! I'm sure I'll be able to find that first client though - and from there it surely gets easier.
Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to reply to my post.
-- Edited by Andrew86 on Monday 19th of September 2011 11:27:48 PM
Hey Shaun i was wondering whether those 900 applicants for that specific role were actually applying for a *real* job and not one of the many dupe ones put up on the internet sites to get you to contact, make an appointment for interview and then sign with a recruitment agency. I know these phantom jobs exist as i have been researching for ages now lol.
Its a good point but at the moment I'm thinking that the recruitment agencies certainly aren't short of CV's!
Then again, there is the issue that they now have to destroy them after a year (think that's the time frame) if you're not working for them so maybe they do it to restock their stable every so often.
Regardless as to the legitimacy of the role though there is no getting away from the number of applicants in the time frame.
The building that I'm in is being used by Ranstad interviewing for the new Amazon depot in Rugeley staffs. I was chatting with one of the other people in the build over a coffee and apparently they've narrowed it down to 3,500 interviews for 900 pretty much minimum wage jobs which just shows how much unemployment there is out there at the moment.
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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.
It's definately harder now than it was with the inflation increase in the nineties, and i think we have that yet to come. Maybe we are heading for another 3 million unemployed and probably knowing my luck they'll all be studying bookkeeping.
(when there's a gold rush make sure that you're the one selling shovels!)
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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.
