I am doing city&guild level bookkeeping at the moment.My plan was at the begining do level and sage computerised account level1 and 2.But I find city guild not useful and feeling I am wasting my time.Where I am going for course I think it is not good at all.What I am thinking about right now do the aat level 2 in January.My question If I do level 2 aat than do i have really have to do level3 and 4 for aat or level 2 would enough for me to get a job in this field.
I would think you should get to at least AAT Level 3, although it does depend on what type of job you are looking for. AAT Level 2 or C&G Sage Level 1&2 would most likely just be data inputting or accounts assistant sort of role.
C&G courses are a good start, how do you mean you feel like you are wasting your time? AAT Level 2 wont be much different to C&G Level 2.
What is your target job role? Professional bookkeepers (in my opinion) should be qualified at least to AAT Level 3 or ICB Level 2. That does not mean you can skip the lower levels as they are important too.
Obviously when you start doing a new course begining always simple than it is getting things harder.But in this course the teacher he is making the more compilicated and more diffucult to understand and also what we are doing it it wont be helpfull for me to get a job.I wanted to do acca or cima at the begining but I am not coming from account backround so thats why i took city&guild as a first step so for further education maybe still instead of going acca or cima directly aat level 2 would be better than city&guild and sage.I am not too sure to do acca or cima because it seems very diffucult and I am 26 years old guy so thats why to much time left for me to have an education.I d like to something quickly also I know if you wanna get good result you have to spent time.
well, I'm 50 and doing ACCA so 26 isn't too late for you yet! (same age as one of my children who is just starting ACCA).
ACCA / CIMA qualifications require a quite different mindset to C&G or AAT.
Think of it as with the bookkeeping level qualifications you learn how to do something and with the accountancy qualifications you learn why you do something and you won't be far off mark.
If your intention is to go onto ACCA then might be better to go straight for it. You can get old exam papers with answers for F1, F2 and F3 off the internet (accaglobal website) to test your understanding.
At the moment you are only preparing yourself for a little of paper F3. You time and money might be better spent on the Kaplan study texts for these three papers. (You might also benefit from the I-Learn materials for these papers which is a course on a CD that you can go through at your own pace).
Papers F1 to F3 are the fundamentals papers equivalent to AAT level IV.
When you reach the skills level papers at F4 (through to F9) things move up a gear to BSc level study. (Take a look at the corporate law paper and you'll see what I mean).
Make sure that you know what the qualification is going to turn into before you start as a lot of people drop out when the shock of F4 hits them.
CIMA is a similar picture with the early papers giving you foundation knowledge then getting serious as you progress into the qualification.
ACCA or CIMA will take you five to ten years to complete (and an awful lot of money in study materials).
One thing worth considering is that if you study to ACCA level then you should have no problem with AAT studies if you do decide to go for AAT later. One key here is that AAT requires a training provider where ACCA doesn't.
Furrther evidence of that is that when you read AAT study texts from BPP and Kaplan, often you will find that they are just very cut down versions of the ACCA texts.
You mention that you are learning things that you will not need.... How do you know that you won't need them? If your assumption is that you will only ever be in lower end roles then why contemplate ACCA at all as that qualification is littered with things like Hedge fund accounting that you will need to learn but may never use.
If I had to give just one piece of advice it would be to enjoy studying this subject. Even the parts that you think that you will never use study for the sake of knowledge rather than potential return on investment. If you don't enjoy bookkeeping and accountancy then no matter how much you study it will never go in.
Good luck in your studies whichever route you choose.
Looking forward to your future contributions to the site on your route to whichever qualification you opt for.
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.
I really thank to you the informations you are giving very useful.You are right in a way I have to look old exam paper and see how it is look like and I can make better decisions for the future
I found the City & Guilds Manual Bookkeeping and Accounts really fun. I had no idea where to start with bookkeeping, and by the end of a 15 week course had learned about the trial balance and imprest system. The only thing i would suggest to anybody starting out is that study does not end in the classroom. If you don't know the basics then your stuffed when it comes to the higher levels of AAT. I've got my last 2 exams for level 3 at the end of this month and looking forward to starting level 4 by Xmas. Mind you, i've had some superb help from these guys and gals.
Sounds to me as if the problem lies more with the tutor than the course content. If there are practical points you are unsure of you can put threads on here to clarify things, or ask your tutor for some extra explanation of the things you're finding difficult.
You are giving me encourage for what i am doing.The problem adult learning centre and tutor thats why I made my application for aat level 2 for January and waiting for the interwiev date.
