The firm I work at is a mixed firm, with ACA (chartered) and ACCA (certified) qualified staff. Of course, some are FCA and FCCA because of length of time they have been qualified. And we also have AAT qualified bookkeepers who visit clients.
One of the newly qualified AAT bookkeepers is looking at progressing on in their studies and becoming an accountant and they are thinking about both ACA and ACCA, but hasn’t decided yet.
Assuming they could get an ACA training contract, (which is likely at our firm as they are extremely competent, and would have attended university etc., had it not been for family circumstances) which should I recommend?
Their circumstances:
They are a single parent, with two primary school aged children and a mortgage. And they are concerned that the inflexibility of the ACA will put them under more pressure because they may not always be able to dedicate the time to it while competing with students who can. If they were to choose ACCA, they could do it over a longer period and without such onerous experience requirements.
They are also concerned that if they were to do ACA, it would be harder to change jobs because of the nature of the training contract. Whereas with ACCA, another bookeeping/accountancy role would be sufficient for them to continue.
Even with the AAT to ACA fastrack, there are only exemptions from the on-line courses of the new ACA syllabus.
In the office, people have only done ACA or ACCA with their particular circumstances, and it is hard to judge or advise someone on the best course to take.
I think they should go for chartered (ACA), because getting a training contract is not easy, and it is an opportunity that should be grasped. Which ever they do, they will be competing with students who have more time, that cannot be avoided.
What do you think they should do?
Disagree – CCA will give a much broader based education and that will be useful outside the profession should they decide to take that route.
Broader in what sense? The ACCAs I know can choose the options they are good at in the latter stages of the qualification and avoid other subjects. ACAs don’t have this option.
When we interviewed for a part qualified accountant with experience, we had many applications from ACCA students who had completed their exams but had no experience. Whereas, because the ACAs were in training contracts, their experience was more clear cut.
It’s some years since I did these quals so I’m likely out of date but in my day, we had a broader range of topics. As I see ACA these days, it can seem narrow. I’ve also been told by a newly qualified CA that ACA looked easier than ACCA but I have no proof. Completed exams with no experience? Not good but then I’d argue if the qualification is good enough then experience shouldn’t be a major issue unless it is audit related where experience most definitely matters.
I’m a bit biased I have to say because I found industry based ACCAs much more savvy on the business context side of advisory.
Yes, its surprising hard to compare, because you won’t find many people who have done the exams on both.
It is my understanding that the new first level on the ACA is designed to counter criticisms that it is not business orientated and to allow it to be compared more favourably with ACCA and the Scottish CA qualification.
We should probably ask the tutors at BPP of FTC to compare, because they are probably in the best position to do so.
David / Dennis,
I have spent the last couple of weeks trawling the net to obtain advice on an issue i think you may be able to help me with.
I am a 26 year old ACCA finalist with 7 years work experience gained within Asset Management, specifically property investment funds.
My current position is as a senior investment fund accountant, this role is extremely diverse as it includes both management accounts, fund valuations and dividend proposals and preparing consolidated financial accounts.
However, post qualification (which i am hoping will be Dec 07) i would like to transfer from commerce to practice.
My question therefore is: Is it possible for an ACCA member to transfer into practice having trained in commerce?
You advice will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
Thanks Sera for taking the time to comment.
I can only speak from my limited experience, but when the firm (which is small) I work at has recruited either qualified or semi-qualified staff we have looked not only at the qualification but at the experience.
If we typically spend 40-60% of time on audit work, then we would look to recruit someone who had audit experience. Otherwise we would have a situation whereby trainees had more experience than the recruit.
If you were moving into a bigger practice, which had more specialised departments, then perhaps you could move into a role which would be more relevant to your experience.
You best bet would be to speak to a recruitment agent, as they would know whether this were a practical possibility.
I expect Dennis would probably question why you would want to make this move at all.
hello. I’m an ACCA student. They say that workplace will find ACCAs, which means that if we have ACCA qualification we wiil have work. I wonder if it is true. And now I read some of the comments, so we have to have some experience though, haven’t we? I started to have doubts in my future career. Brcause in my country we have limited chance to do practising.