AAT or CIMA cert?

elliej15

I am looking for some advice as to which qualification I should take.
I have been working in Business for a couple of years now and my current job title is Sales Support, so nothing to do with Finance. However, I have recently been able to help with a few finance related tasks when our finance manager is ill or on holiday e.g. checking Sage for credit levels in order to release shipments and checking for funds coming into the bank. I am very interested in getting into finance/accounting and have an interest in Office Management, which often heavily involved budgeting and accounts. I have three A-Levels and an NVQ L3 in Business but nothing finance related.
I have always originally thought about doing AAT as a way to start off in accounts but a friend of mine strongly advised that I do the CIMA certificate as it covers everything in the AAT but in a shorter space of time. I am just concerned that this may be too much for me and I would be setting myself up to fail. Any opinions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. As it stands, I will be self-funding the first year at least.

mcchoc

If you have no formal accountancy experience, I think you may find that gong straight into CIMA is a vertical climb. One of my brightest ever AAT students went on to CIMA - a short while later she texted to say that it was really tough. And if she found it tough, it must have been very tough. I'd suggest you start at AAT Level 2 with a decent training provider, and then progress as fast as you like through L3 and L4 - you may find that MAAT is as far as you need to go to secure the type of job you want.

elliej15

> @mcchoc said:
> If you have no formal accountancy experience, I think you may find that gong straight into CIMA is a vertical climb. One of my brightest ever AAT students went on to CIMA - a short while later she texted to say that it was really tough. And if she found it tough, it must have been very tough. I'd suggest you start at AAT Level 2 with a decent training provider, and then progress as fast as you like through L3 and L4 - you may find that MAAT is as far as you need to go to secure the type of job you want.

Thank you very much! This is very helpful to know!

Clintm15

I feel it's worth noting here that the aforementioned AAT star student would have skipped the introductory level of CIMA and moved straight to the operational level, using the AAT qualification to gain an exemption.

I don't know how the CIMA certificate level compares to AAT in difficulty however.

elliej15

Clintm15 said:

I feel it's worth noting here that the aforementioned AAT star student would have skipped the introductory level of CIMA and moved straight to the operational level, using the AAT qualification to gain an exemption.

I don't know how the CIMA certificate level compares to AAT in difficulty however.

I would agree.

I see you have done the AAT yourself, would you recommend it?

Thanks!

Clintm15

I would recommend it, but having moved on to ACCA rather than CIMA I'm in no position to offer you a comparative.