What do I do now?

Romili

I am going to explain my current problem. Last year I signed up with a training provider to do AQ 2013 and have so far sat and passed every exam first time, all but Professional Ethics. PE I have sat once only, but my teachers decided to leave it till last and I have only sat it recently, with it taking weeks to mark in addition to the fact I am in France in July due to an annoyingly timed family holiday. This means that I have an incomplete qualification at the moment, plus only a weeks relevant work experience. I really want to be an accountant and a first look at my options suggests

A- Get a Level 4 apprenticeship- Haven't completed level 3 do I can't start level 4. By the time I have found out my result it may too late to find an employer for Level 4, also assuming that I have passed PE. If I fail, my training provider will only at earliest let me resit in September, likely result in November- far too late. I am guessing not many/none level 4 apprenticeships start November or later.

B- Get a Level 3 apprenticeship AQ2016- I think all my passes can be carried over but excel, which I am strong with so won't be a problem. But would anyone hire or accept an application from someone for a Level 3 apprenticeship when I may have passed by the time the apprenticeship starts, or say I fail it may look as though I may be unable to pass the qualification to a potential employer.

C- Get an accountancy job- Long odds as I don't have a complete accountancy qualification or experience. Or any contacts.

Currently I am thinking the best outcome is a level 3/4 apprenticeship- employer lets me pass level 3 while I sit in at level 4 lessons, enrol on level 4 and pass it that way. But that seems very unlikely to occur. Or I could give up and try an apprenticeship at Level 3 in a similar business/finance role.

I am rather pissed off since I have passed everything first time and this has been caused by poor decisions at Hertfordshire Regional College.

Any advice?

Mike Webster

The timing of the Ethics module is not uncommon - many of us will probably deliver the unit towards the end of the course.

Assessment marking takes as long as it takes unfortunately. Typically, we have 2 weeks from the date of assessment to mark it then a further 2 weeks for internal quality checks. Normally, in colleges, assessing and internal quality assurance is conducted by lecturers and, therefore, they have to fit that work in around their normal teaching hours. Each assessment takes a good 30-45 minutes to mark and comment on. Each assessment can take a similar amount of time to have its quality checks by your provider. Finally, your assessment will be subject to quality checks by an AAT External Verifier. The External Verifier takes a sample from each batch of assessments and checks that marks have been awarded correctly and that the marking is fair just like in the college internal quality assurance process. Once this has all been done, the result is finally released to your Statement of Achievement.

Waiting for results is not nice (indeed, it can be frustrating) but, to put it in perspective, 10 years ago, you would have completed exams in one of two sittings each year (December or June) then you would have had to wait for 8-10 weeks for your results to come through in the post.

I think that it's also important to mention that lecturers only have a certain amount of hours a day to give over to marking when it arises - I wonder how many people would be happy to do their normal job and then more work in their own time - lecturers and assessors do that on a very regular basis - often for no extra pay.

Why not forget the assessment result for now, and think about ways to get a little experience - why not volunteer with a charity?

Enjoy that annoyingly timed holiday (there are many people who work very hard who do not have the luxury of complaining about such things) and maybe, just maybe, your result will be favourable and you will have maintained your clean sweep of first time passes.

Good luck