Many thanks Shaun,

Have a lovely day !


Adrian

Can I assume that you are abandoning the ACCA qualification?

If so, concentrate on becoming an MAAT MIP for starters.

Becoming an agent is just a matter of asking, takes a few days and no money so not important until you are close to taking on clients for whom you need to be an agent.

Actually, you could sort it out in the time it normally takes to turn around the client engagement letter.

kind regards,

Shaun.

Sorry matey, I don't have it yet so I stand to be corrected but my understanding is that its every year...

Hello Shaun and Neil,

Ufff,
To be honest I really like ACCA, I was amazed by the new information in the F6 Taxation, about the tax details.
I have also studied the F5, Linear Programming was something that really enlighten me although I have stopped everything when I have seen my negative result.
Terms like Opportunity Cost, make me feel good, knowledge make me feel good.
This is one of the toughest decisions in my life.
But it comes again the question "why ?"
I am not a luxury consumer. I prefer to have less money and less stress than more money and more stress. I enjoy food from supermarket, I am not a restaurant lover.
I think that if I will be a good accountant MAAT MIP I will earn (I hope) enough income for a decent life.


I can study by myself any books I want, and become MAAT MIP, be my own boss sooner.
On the other hand, to become MAAT, I have to work under the supervision of a qualified accountant for that year as self employed to be counted as work experience.
The same thing as ACCA, but for ACCA it will be more years and instead of doing practical things for my business and get practical skills day by day, I will still have to do things in theory.
And there are only 24 hours in a day:
7 hours evening job for paying rent + 8 hours sleep + 3 hours study ACCA + 2 hours spent to eat, wash, buy food, speak at the phone, and other daily time wastage on various activities it will only remain 4 hours or less to dedicate to my business and to practice the skills I actually need.

The thing that I really do not understand: why make 10 years limit when there are tricky exams and a lot of information in them.
Why not divide the information for 1 exam into 2 exams to be easier, kick and ban the year limit.
The horror scenario will be a person who takes all exams, but fails the last one exactly at the year limit. I hope I am not going sideways :)


I would kindly ask Shaun:
1. What is the main reason for ACCA after AAT as it takes lots of time and effort and it gives no guarantees?

2. Do you think that AAT qualification itself has an uncertain future ?

3. Would it be hard to find an arrangement ?


Many thanks,

Adrian

Adrian99 wrote:

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1. What is the main reason for ACCA after AAT as it takes lots of time and effort and it gives no guarantees?

Its not just the four letters, its the level, depth and breadth of knowledge that becomes ingrained to the point that you no longer think about how you do something but rather everything is about applying that knowledge to the client.

Where AAT is a qualification to have you working in a business, ACCA is a qualification intended for those who will eventually be running the busienss or in positions to influence the future operating decisions of the business.

That does not mean that there are not AAT people in high positions or ACCA people in lesser ones.

It is only where you reach the P level papers that you truly realise the intent of the qualification as the exams change. F1 to F3 was junior work as an accounting technician. F4 to F9 is as though you have been working in practice or industry for a few years. The P level papers put you in a position of advising the directors of a business about how to run their company.

But the way that the ACCA papers fit together is nothing short of brilliant in that you are developed into the position over quite a long period of time.

2. Do you think that AAT qualification itself has an uncertain future ?

No.

I do think that the AAT have made a mistake in dumbing down the qualification but even in dumbed down form it is a sound qualification.

I really don't know why they have dumbed down. There are already more people qualified than jobs available so surely it would make more sense to make the qualification more difficult (not that it isn't already) to reduce the flow of new accounting technicians so maintaining their market value and making them more employable.

Dumbing down will churn out more, (very slightly) less skilled technicians who can only reduce the going rate for the qualification in the market place which I would imagine would have a knock on effect on uptake of qualifications such as ICB.

In answer to the question asked though, the qualification is sound.

3. Would it be hard to find an arrangement ?

I assume by that you mean a training contract and yes, it's incredibly difficult.

Until a couple of years back when buying positions was outlawed it used to be that student accountants were willing to basically work for nothing in order to get the opportunity to gain the experience requirement.

In many ways very much along the lines of the old apprentice system.

That of course favoured those entering the profession who already had money which to my mind is why the profession got the reputation of being a bit of an old boys club.

Nowdays there is opportunity to enter the profession but finding a position can prove a bit of a nightmare and may involve one first going self employed and finding enough clients to buy your way into a training contract in exchange for your client base.

---

 

No, not upset at all and I've only just noticed that another question cropped up between the one that I answered and my reply, lol.

to gain the letters has more scope on the qualifications thatn to gain a practice certificate.

The key to getting ACCA status is the person signing off the experience having a reconised qualification which I believe would include an MAAT.

Note that the work is likely to be signed off over a long period of time so you may end up with several different signatories from different practices that you work with. This long sign off is because there are various competences that you need to have ratified and it may take moving jobs several times in order to be put in the position to have all of them signed off.

I don't think that it is unreasonable to estimate that for many it may take five years to get the two years required with all elements signed off.

What you do need to watch though is that the accountant that you work for must actually be a qualified accountant, not a qualified by experience.

As I say, the search for the right mentor can be problematic and may involve you working for the wrong company first to gain the experience to become of interest to the right company / practice in order to get elements of experience signed off and record the time spent on each element.

One thing that you may be getting confused over as well. The experience signed off by your mentor is done online on the ACCA site.

You can use prior competences but you will need to either get the accountant who signed off your MAAT to do the same on the ACCA site or contact the ACCA to see if the experience will gain you any exemptions from the elements of your experience record for which they are likely to contact the person who signed off the original experience record to seek confirmation of their qualifications and their appraisal of you.

All very messy and much more complex than it sounds when the ACCA tell you that you just need two years experience.

HTH,

Shaun.

Like the pic of Staedtler and Wldorf Neil.

That was very similar to my second Avatar on the site... hang on a sec...

Yep, here was my one....

which got replaced by this one as my Avatar...

(I'm definitely more Delboy than rodders)

Good times.