Accountancy Training

A question about : Accountancy Training

I am hoping somebody can help me.

I currently work for Hmc at a low level. I enjoy my work but our building is 'at risk'. I've been here for 15 years And there has always been rumours that we've only got a year left, we'll always stay open etc etc. Realistically I think we've got up to 5 years left. The option after that will be around a hour to an hour and half commute everyday. With the hours that I work it wouldn't be practical to carry on working here. So I'm trying to put a bit of thought now as to what I need to do over the next couple of years.

I enjoy my work which involves mainly self assessment and tax returns. I've also had many years working on the contact centre. I an currently trying to wade through information regarding accountancy training. There just seems do many options. There are college courses, uni courses which I think at the moment would be to advanced for me, Ou courses as well.

Has anybody trained as an Accountant who could offer me any advice. At the moment I have no qualifications. So I'm thinking my best bet would be to start at GIVE level. Any help would be gratefully received.

Best answers:

• I know some of the staff at my work have been doing the AAT courses. These are done in modules and can be done at some colleges as night classes or as correspondence courses. Do you have any accountancy knowledge?
• An AAT will not make the OP a qualified accountant.
  Unless OP you are just talking about accounts work?
• You could do the tax training - ATT, CTA etc. With those exams you would be able to find work in the tax department of an accountancy firm and then think about whether you want to actually be an accountant. Does your employer offer anything like this, so that you wouldn't have to pay and might get some study leave?
• Thanks everyone for the replies.
  I've read about the AAT courses and I was unsure of how much weight they hold in the accountancy world. The information I read on them sounded like it would lead to a proper accountancy qualification but then I was reading through the information on the open university website and I realised that if you need to do a degree in accountancy the ATT may not be the best way to go.
  I don't have any accountany knowledge except for the phone and letter contact I have with them through my job. I suppose the best course would be to start at the bottom (gcse) and work my way up. It would definitely be the taxation side I'd be interested in and my employer would never let me have time off for it. In fact it may well be a bit frowned upon.
• Try this
  https://www.aatskillcheck.org/home.aspx
  This will tell you if you have any idea what accounts may involve.
• If you want to work in tax, why are you looking at accounting qualifications? Look for a small accountancy firm who wants someone to bash out tax returns, and who will put you through the tax exams in return (as well as paying you).
  I say "small" only because to get into the big ones you'd need a degree or at least some A levels, which it sounds like you haven't got, although if you have been with HMRC for a while that may bypass some of the formal requirements in practice i.e. if you can demonstrate that you're clearly up to the job.
  www.tax.org.uk
  p.s. Job moves in the tax profession are usually done via agencies. Might be an idea to call one of them up, and ask whether they have a feel for your chances of being taken on at entry level with the experience you have.
• AAT is the 'industry' standard, afaik.. If have other accounts type stuff, that also helps..
  City & Guilds - COmputerised Accounts (teaches Sage 50, basics of double entry book keeping) .
  British Computer Society (BCS) - ITQ / ECDL Extra - includes good grounding in Excel (spreadsheets).
• Does depend what you want to do. I know people who have done AAT or CIMA. I'm studying CIPFA but my overall career aims aren't to be a book keeper. The qualification does that stuff at certificate level but moves on to strategy and management type of papers from diploma level.
• AAT is the association of accounting technicians. Basically what it says on the tin - a technician. Roles vary from sale ledger to purchase ledger, cash allocation etc.
  You can also go down the tax route by studying for ATT (association of tax technicians).
  In terms of being a proper accountant then you would be looking probably at either CIMA (chartered institute of management accountants ) or ACCA (cssociation of chartered certified accountants).
  CIMA is more management account based - ie based on internal reporting, helping management make decisions on how best to run the company, where costs can be cut, how much things are costing, how much profit different parts are making etc, whereas ACCA is focussed on how the business presents it's accounts to the public/companies house/shareholders etc. It's more concerned with reporting. Obviously there is crossover and a lot of skills are the same such as using balance sheets and profit and loss accounts but the emphasis is different.
  It will help also if you decide whether you want to work in the public sector or private sector.
  AAT is a good starting point to get into an accounts role and you can see from there a) whether you enjoy it and are willing to spend the next how many years studying (and can afford it) and b) whether you want to go for management or financial accounting. On the other hand you may be perfectly happy to stay at a technician level.
  Why not have a look on the national careers website at different accounting roles to get a feel for it.
  In terms of studying your local college may well do AAT. If you want to do CIMA/ACCA then the big providers are BPP and kaplan which have a variety of different study methods - ie day release, evening, weekend, online, books etc, whatever suits you best.
  Regards
  df
• Many thanks everyone for the input.
  Thanks forthe advice regarding the ATT training. Sorry if I implied that it was not a proper qualification. No offence was meant.I certainly think this is the way to go. Hopefully I can fit this in around my current employment. I can forsee a lot of reading and researching needs to be done so I can try to find a role that suits me.
  Thanks everyone.
• AAT is a proper qualification but will only get you so far.
  ACCA or CIMA will give you more options. There is also ACA.
  If you do AAT, you will be exempt from couple of papers on each of these.
  However you can directly register with them and start taking their exams.
  AAT is mostly an entry level qualification. While ACCA/CIMA/ACA are more advanced. You can also do a tax qualification if you enjoy it.
  However don't forget all of these cost time and money.
  Edit: Sorry just seen dancingfairy's post