University or AAT?
Jan
Registered Posts: 654 Epic contributor 🐘
Comments
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I saw that this morning. I think going into employment whilst studying AAT and then ACCA was the perfect choice. Personally i think Uni would have been a waste of time for me0
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Would like to know how they quantify this...
"But the government also says university graduates, on average, have better employment prospects and can expect to earn at least £100,000, after tax, more than non-graduates over their working lives".
But regardless of how or whether they can, £100k over a 40+ year career isn't exactly much to shout about. Let's just convince kids to attend sixth form colleges by giving them EMA cash (cheaper at £30 quid a week compared to £60 a week dole) or pressure them into university just so you can disguise the true unemployment figures. Starting to come apart, isn't it?
AAT every single time, it's a complete no-brainer.0 -
Many moons ago I decided not to go to uni - started work, fell in love and bought a house at 18 instead!
My live would probably have been so different to what it is now, but I don't think it would necessarilly been any better. I am still in contact with friends I was at school with and I don't feel as if I have missed out. One has a high powered job and flies round the world, the company she works for is researching a cure for cancer, but to me she is still the girl I played with at 5.
I could never understand Blair's obsession of getting 50% of young people to go to uni. I'm proud of both my daughter who has a 2.1 Bsc and my son who has just finished his electrical apprentership. Of the 3 that came back from travelling last year with my daughter, only she is lucky enough to have found a good job. (Although she is yet to earn the fantastic wage graduates are supposed to earn)
To anyone who has not got the grades/failed exams, don't despare. Life has a funny way of working out, just sometimes down a road you did not plan to go.0 -
I think university is only better than aat if you are wanting to get on a graduate scheme with companies like PWC if not i think aat is as good if not better.
I got accepted on an accounts course at university but as far as i saw it the aat was quicker, you get paid while your doing it and most importantly if you have a job you get praictice experiance at the same time. Also if you want to go on to become chatered whether you go to university or do aat you dont start any further along.
Granted it says you can expect to earn atleast £100,000 more but i wonder if that takes into account the £25,000 student debt you are likely to have0 -
Reading the article they base the salary (100,000) based on uni or no uni. Not on any proper research, like people with an equal professional qualification instead. So I don't think it's a fair comparison at all.0
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Still think he will be lucky to be chartered in 4 years! Would take a lot of work and not many fails.
Degrees have become so comonplace now that you need a masters to have the same impact as you once had.
Its some good publicity for AAT though!0 -
isnt this the same site that reported how many grads would be unemployed two years after they complete and living back a home with their parents0
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AAT I think. I was horrified when I read this and learnt that some students leave with debt that won't be cleared for 25 years!!!!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1303945/Our-invaluable-guide--escape-student-debt-trap.htmlFMAAT - AAT Licensed Member in Practice - Pewsey, Wiltshire0 -
university ?? waste of time...........its who you know and not what you know ?0
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Ive read about a lad who has just got 3 A* and 3 A at A level he cant get a Uni place!0
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messedup89 wrote: »Ive read about a lad who has just got 3 A* and 3 A at A level he cant get a Uni place!
all the education in the world ...but common sense is something that can not be taught !!0 -
mark130273 wrote: »all the education in the world ...but common sense is something that can not be taught !!
We know... Look at you eh lol0 -
I'm glad I'm doing AAT rather than going to university - I don't think it's worth it to come out of university after four years with thousands of pounds worth of debt! At least with AAT I can work full time and save while studying - hopefully I will be able to get accounts experience sooner rather than later.
If you work and study hard enough then you could probably do just as well as someone who gets a degree, and if you continue and do ACCA or CIMA then you could probably do better!!0 -
I think it's all just about being in the right place at the right time. I went to uni 2004-2007. It will take me 10 years to pay off £8000 student loan, however most people I went to school with earn less than I do. If I hadn't moved here for Uni I wouldn't have my (unrelated) job now and I doubt I would have found something better back where I'm from.
I wouldn't have gone to Uni if the fees were as high as they are now but I would have hated to miss out on the whole moving away from home thing. It would have been to easy to stay rent free.0 -
I think doing AAT & working give you a lot more experience (obviously) in real world situations and you can relate your studies to it, most of the time.
It also teaches you 'soft' skills though, like time management and people skills etc, which I think many from Uni wouldn't necesarily learn till they started working....
IMO of course, as i've never been to uni so have no idea what they teach/don't teach!0 -
When I left school after completing my A Levels 6 years ago, they were all for everybody going to uni and not giving any infortmation on what other options are available, so I'm glad the AAT seems to be getting itself out there more now.
I decided quite quickly I didn't want to go to uni, I'd had enough of having no money and wanted to go and get a job! Most of the people I was at school with were amazed I wasn't going to uni, as the grades I got would probably have got me onto a good course. I got a job in a bank and always thought that I could do an Open Uni course later in life. But as it turns out I've now completed AAT and am studying ACCA, which will hopefully give me a degree anyway. Edit - I left the bank 3 years ago to start works in accounts.
As we all know, uni isn't necessarily the best route into accountancy anyway so I don't think I'd be where I am now if I had gone. Who knows how it would have turned out? But I'm really pleased with how things have turned out for me - and also that I now don't have thousands of pounds of debt!0 -
I think doing AAT & working give you a lot more experience (obviously) in real world situations and you can relate your studies to it, most of the time.
Thats the big difference, even if AAT is equivelant to an account degree, you'd much rather have the AAT and the experience.
You really need the qualification and the experience. And I really beleive too many qualifications without the experience can be seen as a negative thing by employers.0 -
Thats the big difference, even if AAT is equivelant to an account degree, you'd much rather have the AAT and the experience.
Is it equivalent to a degree?
I ask because I tried to apply for a job recently, through an agency, and a 'snooty' person (agency) told me that they were looking for someone 'of degree standard' and she therefore felt that I wasn't suitable - seemed to have no understanding of AAT and no thought about QBE!FMAAT - AAT Licensed Member in Practice - Pewsey, Wiltshire0 -
Is it equivalent to a degree?
Thats why I put the 'if'
I think its slightly lower than degree, although where I work they consider it equivalent from a salary rating view and the previous head accountant considered it higher with being a professional qualification.
I would like a conclusive answer!0 -
I read (can't remember where) that the AAT is the equivalent to the first year only of a degree. So how that works for comparison purposes I don't know!0
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No idea!! Everything is subjective. I have a friend who has been chartered for many years (ICAEW) and she occasionally asks my advice on certain topics! So, I really don't think labels always fit too well.0
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I was unemployed for 2 years after I graduated in an unrelated subject.
I then took AAT and have never looked back.
I'm glad I went to uni, I think it was the right thing for me, but I was lucky I didn't have to have a student loan. In real terms, the only thing it did for me was exempt me from Level 2 of the AAT!!
It annoys me that the govt are trying to push every tom d!ck and harry into Uni.
Uni used to be for the most intelligent people and signified something rather more than it does now. No wonder they had to abolish grants - it's not viable with so many going to uni. There is nothing wrong with being in the majority who never used to be the type to end up in Uni, but apparently that's not the case any more.
I'm allowed to say that as I went to an old poly, not a 'real' Uni, so I expect that includes me too!
Vocational qualifications have a lot of worth. As an employer I wouldn't give a fig for a degree or not now, I'm more interested in specific qualifications, experience and personality/ability.0 -
I went to university for a grand total of three weeks. It just really wasnt for me. Most people then felt it was their right to be able to say i was a 'drop out' and that i therefore wasnt bright enough to be at university, if the work was too hard. - the work hadnt even started yet!! lol
i left because i thought i was better suited to the 'work and learn' idea and my best friend was studying the AAT at work and was loving it.
So its taken me a few years, but i now know what i want to do, and i also know that my experience and qualifications so far, are going to help me a lot more than any BA would have.0 -
Mine and OH's friends are now at the age where they're leaving uni and realising how difficult it is to find a job without experience. Two of our friends have just finished their degrees, one is a waitress and the other is a factory linesman. Whereas both of us have good jobs, a nice salary, a house and a baby. Another one of our friends who didn't go to uni went straight into a law firm as an office junior and is now a qualified paralegal.
Uni used to be for the elite but now every bugger can go, one way or another, it's completely lost its credibility.0 -
one of my friends has a 2:1 degree in english literature, and has now decided she wants to do photography so is doing a Open university course in that.
Shes been out of uni a year, and still has no job. Although I put this partly down to her having a lot of things paid for by 'mummy and daddy' so she never had to have a job.0
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