New to it all. Anyone done it / doing it by distance learning?

cdnnl77

I would like to train for the Accounting Technician qualification by distance learning at the moment, as I am in employment. My job is not however in any way accounting-related (it is legal) and I do not see the point of asking my employer to support me in doing this as I doubt that they would.

In short : does anyone have any experience of doing it by distance learning, if so how do you find it and how much time does it take up?

Also, how does it work with figuring out where to start and last but not least, what are the employment prospects post-training?

Thanks for any replies.

Rinske

There are a lot of people doing the course in distance learning. As your job is not related, I assume you start on the Diploma route?

There are a lot of units to do, but the easiest way is to do one unit at the time. Start with the foundation level (if you don't skip it), and work your way through those units, if you got a provider, they usually have some list with what units are recommended to be completed before others.

It's doable by distance learning if you got the motivation for it. Tutors are usually just an email/ phonecall away and there is support here on the forums as well. A lot of the questions have been asked already, so the search button will be your friend at the start!

Good luck!
Rinske

anniem

Hi

I've been studying via distance learning for the past couple of years, final two exams in June.

Yes, it's quite straightforward and this forum is a real boost if you're stuck on something.

I suspect that the biggest problem that you will encounter is gaining sufficient experience if you are not in some kind of acccounting role at the moment, however there are plenty of students who study AAT without being in accounts related employment.

You do need to have the equivalent of a year's worth of experience in various aspects of accounting in order to qualify for MAAT status once you have completed your studies, however if you have no accounting background and need to study all three levels then you have time to look for employment in an accounting role to fulfil this criteria.

They are in the process of changing the qualification to QCF (I think that's what they call it) so I'm not sure what the impact of this will be; at present there are two different routes to study - Diploma or NVQ. I have studied the NVQ route and have been able to base some of my study/evidence on what I do at work, which is something you won't be able to do if you're not in an accounting environment. You'll need to study the Diploma route under the current format.

I hope this helps!

Anna