Syllabus changes for September 2012?

rhian

Hi,

I got a 'Proposed updates for the AAT accounting qualification at Levels 2,3, and 4' booklet from college today and my tutor said the changes were coming into play this September.

Instead of 4 mandatory and 2 optional modules, Level 4 is now going to be 3 mandatory and 1 optional.

I will be doing Level 4 as a self-study so I am wondering what will happen to me, say if I sit two exams before September? Will I still need to carry on with 6 modules like the old syllabus or just carry on in September with what would now be a remaining two exams?

I'm not sure whether to just wait until September or not!

Thank you!

Jo Clark

Hello Rhian

Sounds interesting. I have not seen or heard about this yet. I am wondering if they will merge budgeting and financial performance into one paper, leave financial statements as it is and the project as the third mandatory modules.

I'm not sure about the optional modules. I guess you could combine personal tax with business tax to be one module. This would leave external auditing and credit management and debt control, although I read/heard that this module may be discontinued?

I know that there is a change to level 2 and WEAF going from a 'project' to a 90 minutes? CBA.

Has anyone else heard/read about these changes?


JC

rhian

Hi Jo,

The proposed changes are as follows if anyone's interested:

LEVEL 2 (4 assessments instead of 5):
1) Basic Accounting I and Basic Accounting II and part of Indirect Tax (Indirect Tax currently in Level 3)
2) WEAF
3) Basic Costing
4) Computerised Accounting

LEVEL 3 (5 assessments instead of 7):
1) API and Indirect Tax
2) APII
3) Cash Management and Credit Management & Debt Control (Cred Mgmt currently in Level 4)
4) Costs & Revenues
5) PEAF (will now be a project rather than a CBA)

LEVEL 4 (4 assessments instead of 6):
1) Financial Statements
2) Budgeting and Financial Performance
3) ICAS
One optional:
4) Personal Tax
4) Business Tax
4) External Auditing


I might contact AAT tomorrow, although they have been useless in the past and told me to "search the website" even though I had done many times :glare:

Anyway, if I get a reasonable answer I'll let you all know!

Rhian

Jo Clark

Thanks for that Rhian

Interesting that they are moving a level 4 module to level 3 and making PEAF into a project.

Will be interested to learn more about this so will watch this thread with interest.

welshwizard

Hi

This is all very much in the air and any changes will not be coming in before September 2013 at the earliest.
Hope this helps you all.

rhian

welshwizard wrote: »

Hi

This is all very much in the air and any changes will not be coming in before September 2013 at the earliest.
Hope this helps you all.

Are you certain it's 2013?? My tutor said it was happening this year? Although to be honest she does seem quite confused about AAT most of the time!

You're probably right but I'll give AAT a quick e-mail just incase!

Thank you!

welshwizard

Yes I am sure as I've been to a couple of the Tutor Discussion panels about this and other things.

The only significant changes this year are the changes in the way WEAF and Credit Management are assessed (both to be wholly assessed by Computer Based Tests rather than the LearnPlus projects).

Lisilou

So in Level 2 BA1 and BA2 are going to be merged?

I'm due to take my BA1 next week and was planning to take BA2 after the summer holidays (I'm a distant learning student). Does this mean that I'd end up doing most of BA1 again?

I'm wondering if it would be better for me to hang on until September and take the two combined.

liveprincess

ok so it's not until next year then, phew. Could someone please explain what happens if I start my level 3 in June 2013 in the old syllabus, do AP1, AP2 and cash management and then it changes to the new syllabus. I completely miss credit management and debt control don't I? How does it work in practice?

StuartW

Hi all,

I'd like to state AAT's official position on this at the present time.

No final decision has been taken as to the structure of the revised qualification – all that has been sent out so far is a proposal which has gone for consultation, and no more than that.

Neither have we decided when any changes will be introduced. This information will be made available in mid-July. Full arrangements as far as helping current students through the transition will be made available later in the year.

Sorry I don't have any more information than this at the moment, but any changes that do come in will be communicated thoroughly with everyone likely to be affected.

Thanks,

Stuart

Jo Clark

Hello Stuart

Many thanks for the update.


JC

rhian

welshwizard wrote: »

Yes I am sure as I've been to a couple of the Tutor Discussion panels about this and other things.

Hi, sorry if you took what I said the wrong way, I didn't realise you were a tutor yourself- I was going on what my own tutor had told me.



Thank you everyone for the info- I guess I will still be doing the 6 exams at Level 4 instead of the 4.... sigh!!

welshwizard

StuartW wrote: »

Hi all,

I'd like to state AAT's official position on this at the present time.

No final decision has been taken as to the structure of the revised qualification – all that has been sent out so far is a proposal which has gone for consultation, and no more than that.

Neither have we decided when any changes will be introduced. This information will be made available in mid-July. Full arrangements as far as helping current students through the transition will be made available later in the year.

Sorry I don't have any more information than this at the moment, but any changes that do come in will be communicated thoroughly with everyone likely to be affected.

Thanks,

Stuart

Thanks for this Stuart

As usual, you have put things far better than me.

This is exactly why I said everything was 'up in the air' too many rumours flying here and not enough hard facts (because right now, there are no 'facts').

For those studying now, I wouldn't worry about 12 months form now, I would worry about the units you're studying NOW and the assessments that you're facing in the near future. Realistically, if you're finishing off Level 3 now, you will most likely have finished Level 4 before these changes have come in and, if you're at Level 2, there may well be a phased introduciton of any new/proposed qualificaiton so you would not be affected anyway.