Which path is best for me - ACA or ACCA?

SaifAAT

Hello fellow students,

I am an AAT affiliate member. However, I still haven't gotten any experience in the Accountancy field, but wish to pursue my studies as soon as possible instead of waiting till I get a job offer or any voluntary work.

I have thought considerably about this regarding which route to take ACA (ICAEW) or ACCA and I am thinking I should choose the ACA path, even though it may seem like the riskier option?

I am eligible for 4 exemptions for the ACA course which means I can complete the ACA Professional modules by Dec 15'. However, it was recommended by my tutor to spread them out and complete them by June 16', giving me a chance to gain a year of work experience before I go ahead and start the Advanced modules.

I wanted to ask whether it is compulsory for me to have above one year's work experience before I start the Advanced Stage. Can it not be 2 or 3 months?

Also, is it realistic for me to secure an ACA training agreement when I have no experience in the next 5 months? Which I assume means getting a place within at least a medium sized firm having a broad range of work available to get experience in.

ACCA however is a much more flexible option, giving me no compulsion to attempt all the exams. Only reason I don't want to start the ACCA is because of it having only two exam sittings per year.

Which one would you choose?

Thank you and I appreciate your help.

Nps

I went with the ACCA option as I too had no accountancy experience and wanted to start studying before I left my old career. My understanding (though things may have changed) is that you need to be sponsored by an employer in order to start ACA which simply isn't an option for many of us. I also have too many responsibilities at home which I choose to prioritise over a structured training programme so ACCA was just a much better fit for me.

Again, I may be wrong, but I'm assuming that most trainee firms will be looking for graduates with good degrees from good universities for their ACA programmes and they are most likely to start their training programmes in Aug/Sep. Unless you are an existing member of staff who has already proven themselves, I doubt AAT alone would make you stand out from the crowd in the competition.

ACCA opens up the amount of firms you can work for too. For example, my boss is ICAEW trained so can sign off my ACCA experience as she is chartered, however my firm is not a ICAEW approved employer so she couldn't sign off my ICAEW experience (so far as I know anyway).

As of later this year, ACCA is going to 4 exam sittings per year which may sway your decision.

NeilH

SaifAAT said:

...ACCA is because of it having only two exam sittings per year.

You'll find two per year more than enough to deal with! Also, courses of study are usually geared towards particular sittings so you need to factor this in when planning your study and time frame. Keep in mind the costs, enrolment and exam fees for ACA are noticeably higher than ACCA.

You can undertake ACA as an independent student, but (if memory serves) you need to be in a training contract to take the advanced level.

If you want a training contract, start looking ASAP. Unless you're looking for a formal school leaver or graduate programme, you may be best contacting smaller practices. Practices usually prefer to take on experience trainees or those starting from scratch, so having done the exams (as odd as it may sound) won't necessarily put you ahead.

CeeJaySix

Six professional exams can be sat in the three sittings from March to December without too many problems, you'll be studying quite a lot though.

No it's not compulsory to have a year's work experience before sitting the Advanced stage, but it will make your life a lot easier as far more of the subject matter will have some relevance to you or you will be able to see it in context. This is especially important for the case study. You will however need the 450 days technical work experience with an authorised employer (who are mainly practices, but some large finance departments in industry and various other organisations are also registered) before you can qualify.

You can sit exams as an independent student (ie. no need for a training contract), except for the case study. However as above you must get a training contract at some point to get your work experience to qualify. See here for more info: No it's not compulsory to have a year's work experience before sitting the Advanced stage, but it will make your life a lot easier as far more of the subject matter will have some relevance to you or you will be able to see it in context. This is especially important for the case study.

Most firms do look for graduates to take onto their ACA training programs, but it is possible to gain a place in other circumstances. I left the military at 29, joined my firm as a trainee and finished my AAT, and am now 2/3 through ACA a couple of years later.

Whilst the big firms do have fairly rigid programs with one intake a year, a lot of the smaller firms will hire as and when they need, let you sit exams at your own pace, give you the time off work to attend college courses, and pay for the lot, so its the best of all worlds. That applies equally to ACCA.

Nps is correct re: work experience - you must have an authorised training employer. There's a list on ICAEW's website somewhere. Likewise re: exam sittings, that won't be a factor for much longer. You should however have a look at some past papers from both bodies; the biggest difference seems to be the question style.

SaifAAT

I checked with Kaplan and the fees for ACA is about half of ACCA. That's another thing thats pushing me towards ACA as it is considerably less, which is odd, they may have some contract with ACA i'm not sure. I think BPP have pretty much similar rates.

Thanks for clarifying on the exam sitting guys, not much of a problem there then.

I guess I'll just bite the bullet and enrol for ACA and start applying for jobs as much as possible, taking all your advice on board.

Do you know if there's a specific deadline to finish the ACA? Apparently the ACCA has a 10 year deadline, is there anything like that for the ACA?

Thanks you've all been great help.

NeilH

SaifAAT said:

I checked with Kaplan and the fees for ACA is about half of ACCA. That's another thing thats pushing me towards ACA as it is considerably less, which is odd, they may have some contract with ACA i'm not sure. I think BPP have pretty much similar rates.

Can you say what you were quoted for ACA course fees. I used to work for BPP and I can safely say ACA fees were not half of the ACCA courses and exam fees are circa £150 per paper for ICAEW. The fees I currently have are based on 2014, to complete ACA would cost circa £13 - 14k, ACCA is circa £14 - 15k.

SaifAAT said:

Do you know if there's a specific deadline to finish the ACA? Apparently the ACCA has a 10 year deadline, is there anything like that for the ACA?

It's five years for ACA.

SaifAAT

Well for me it works out less as I have 4 exemptions and two of the remaining certificate level exams are PTX and Law which I will do via Elearning plus all the six professional level modules. It adds up to about 6k - 7k including materials and exam costs . I ignored the Advanced level modules, assuming they'd be funded by the employer.

However, Yeah it works out pretty much 13k, like you said sorry for the misunderstanding.

Cheers

CeeJaySix

I can't see there being much difference in cost, the tuition courses are what swallow the money and they're very similar in duration (we have both ACA and ACCA trainees here). Exam fees are £100 for ACCA exams compared to £85 for ACA (based on professional papers), but that's going to make as little as no odds.

If you want to go for chartered quals I would strongly recommend trying to find a job before you go any further, I'm not convinced getting more qualifications with no experience will benefit you in any way, and it's a lot of money to shell out of your own pocket. Especially true for ACA in the worst case scenario where you can't qualify if you don't manage to find a training contract, then its a lot of wasted time and money.

SaifAAT

Yeah I have thought long and hard on this and I've decided I'll fund myself for two modules for the time being, to be sat in June for the ACCA, continue job searching and fingers crossed I get employed in finance by the end of June.

I just don't like the idea of being idle and doing nothing but waiting for email replies from employers which will most likely be rejections. It's so hard to get that first proper job

ACA sounds daunting now that I think of it and like you said CeeJaySix it can result in a lot of wasted time and money.

Thanks for all the advice!

CeeJaySix

I didn't mean to imply it was daunting; both qualifications are equally challenging and neither should be undertaken lightly, but both are very achievable. ACCA is just slightly more relaxed in where you can gain your work experience, both require the same amount of relevant experience to qualify.

Best of luck with whichever option you choose.