after level 4?

Hi Guys,
Just need a bit of advice really. Due to complete level 4 in June this year and plan to conitnue onto acca or cima, dont know which (whats the difference)? also dont know whether to go to college or do as home learning . i did levels 2 & 3 home learning and level4 at college. My local college doesnt do ACCA or CIMA and dont know where the next nearest college is that does. i am in Littlehampton, West SUssex. Any opinions much appreciated.
I also work in an accounts department for a local charity so i have practical experience too which i guess also helps.
Just dont know which way to go.
Just need a bit of advice really. Due to complete level 4 in June this year and plan to conitnue onto acca or cima, dont know which (whats the difference)? also dont know whether to go to college or do as home learning . i did levels 2 & 3 home learning and level4 at college. My local college doesnt do ACCA or CIMA and dont know where the next nearest college is that does. i am in Littlehampton, West SUssex. Any opinions much appreciated.
I also work in an accounts department for a local charity so i have practical experience too which i guess also helps.
Just dont know which way to go.
Comments
CIMA is Management Accounting, which is generally used in Industry for budgeting, forecasting etc.
I dont know much about CIMA other than my boss telling me it isnt worth the paper it is written on unless you work for a company in industry, whereas ACCA is useful for both, but more so the practice side.
Im sure someone else will a greater and more in depth reasoning that I do however.
As for studying, id personally recommend college, unless you are extremly good at motivating yourself as they are meant to be a lot lot harder than AAT and the extra guidence would be an asset to you.
CIMA goes into more depth on general and strategic management and managment accounting/performance issues, whereas ACCA goes into more depth in tax, audit and financial reporting. A lot of tuition providers say CIMA for industry, ACCA for practice.
Similar to LucyN's comment, my previous line manager (an ACA from a practice background) said ACCA wasn't worth it unless you work in practice. Conversly, on the course for my final CIMA paper, there was a student from a practice!
I guess it depends on what you prefer to study. For tuiton providers you'd probably be looking at BBP or Kaplan or a local uni.
Neil
I know less about CIMA than ACCA, but it is wrong to say that CIMA is not worthwhile outside industry. There are plenty of CIMA qualified accountans working happily in the public sector and within large practices.
So CIMA is better if your future lies in management accountancy and ACCA if your future lies in financial accounting. But my accounting team in a public sector organisation are all AAT/ACCA students or members and all carry out a full mix of management and financial accounting, dusted off with a bit of treasury management and help me out with a bit of technical accounting, amongst all the transactional stuff. (But as a bit of career guidance, every Head of Finance or Director of Finance/Resources I have come across in the public sector have spent significant stints in the technical accounting world).
But back to this debate, there is less to choose between the Chartered Bodies than you would imagine, it is more about: your interests (eg if you hate management theory, why do CIMA, if you live for management accounting why not CIMA), study opportunities, employers preferences.
I'm doing ACCA and I'm a managment accountant, and I find it suits industry just fine. You can choose which final "professional" modules you do, and I didn't pick advanced audit, but the ones which suited my job, if CIMA is better suited, it can't be by much.
x x x
i work in industry and i'm studyin ACCA as are 2 other collegues.
i think theres 5 that are ACCA qualified and there's 2 currently studying CIMA, i think for most jobs it doesn't matter.
Im not sure what the options are of doing CIMA add on modules in the future which i will definitely look to do. You can never have too many strings on your bow!