Further qualifictions with having a young family

Have a read through some of my old posts, I'm in a very similar position.

Briefly, I started AAT in April last year, whilst pregnant and with a 1 year old (I'd done ACCA F1 but then reverted to AAT to fit in better with being pregnant). Then straight back onto ACCA, from November last year. I've now done 7 out of the 14 ACCA exams over the last 2 exam sittings (I didn't take the exemptions for reasons mentioned in other posts). My children are now nearly 3 and 1.

I've done 3 exams per sitting (with F1 the year before). Lots of work and I couldn't have done it whilst working full time. I'm doing 2 more in December but then dropping to 1 exam per sitting for the P papers as I'll be back at work.

Happy to answer any queries you have.

If you plan to stay in your current role, you've not suggested any reason why doing ACCA is a good idea! BUT, surely it will give you flexibility to move elsewhere? All depends on your intentions I suppose.

Yes, I still stand by my recommendation to do F1-3. F1 is quite separate and not covered in AAT at all so not sure why it is exempted, and it does help a little with later papers. F2 and F3 consolidate all of AAT with a few extra bits, and if you do them straight after AAT, you can get away with a few weeks study. Remember F1-3 can be taken by CBE so you can sit them at any time and it won't add a year to your studies. You also get the first ACCA diploma after F1-3 so you are gaining interim qualifications along the way. That was important to me as my CV was very sparse from an accounting point of view. I also got very high marks on all 3 so it was good to show prospective employers that I serious about the qualification and likely to persevere with it. Again, if you are already employed in an accounting role, this is probably not as important to you.

I did F2 and F3 within 2 weeks of each other, a couple of weeks after my last AAT exam, and then did F6 in the December sitting a few weeks after that, so doing the exempted papers didn't delay me at all (in fact, it sped it up as my exemptions wouldn't have come through in time to allow me to sit F6 in the December).

Yes, it is daunting, it is a big commitment, and it is a lot of work. Sorry, but I can't say otherwise! If you've no need to do it from a job point of view, why the rush to complete it?

Hi Andrew

Just to add my differing viewpoint to Nps's excellent posts. I personally wouldn't sit the exemptions - as you said, you are exempt from them for a reason and length of time studying seems to be a main concern of yours. I didn't sit the F1-3 exams and don't feel as though I've lost out (although now I'm struggling a bit with P3, I've been informed it follows on from one of F1-3, but even if I had sat those exams it would have been 3 years ago at least, so I'm not sure how much help it would have been to me now).

Did you feel confident studying AAT? If so, you should be ok moving onto ACCA without sitting the exemptions. I started by only sitting one paper at a time, as like you I didn't want to do too much and fail everything. After the first sitting I increased this to two at a time, so I completed the F level in two years. I only sat two papers together when I was able to study one at college and one at home, I don't think I could have self studied two at a time, not with having a full time job as well. Sorry, I've just re-read your first post and realised it was 8 years since you studied AAT. In which case, I think at least reading the textbooks for F1-3 would be a good way of easing yourself back into studying, even if you don't want to sit the exams. Would you be in a position to get time off work to go to college?

I am in a similar situation to you where I don't need ACCA for my job, however my boss is very supportive in me gaining a further qualification. I'm doing it more for personal satisfaction, and because I enjoy studying (!!) and think that if ever I was to change jobs (which I have no intention of doing in the near future) it would help me apply for higher level positions.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I can not help with the question of how many papers to take in anyone sitting as I passed my ACCA exams many many years ago when the number of papers and the rules on how to take those papers was very different from now. In my day you were almost forced to take two or three or four at a time to meet the timetable for passing, but there were more papers so less to learn for each paper. But let me tell you a bit about my history and that may or may not help you.

As a freshly AAT qualified Local Government employee, I moved from my junior internal audit post in Devon to a more senior audit post in West Wales, taking my heavily pregnant wife and 18 month old son with me, thinking that was my career and future sorted. I needed no further qualifications for the role I was carrying out.

Moving forward a few years, still in the same post, two small children and another on the way. Money was a bit of a struggle, but ok ish, but I was very frustrated in my work, always recommending, never deciding. I was promoted to head up the Expenditure Team, but that made the frustration worse as I was in an admin team not a professional accounting/audit team. So I hit the study books again, self studying for ACCA using BPP text books. It took me lots of years of studying four nights a week and saturday mornings (except when in revision mode when I stepped up to five nights a week, all day Saturday and Sunday mornings). Always trying to make as much time as possible to spend with, by the end, my four children.

So was it worth it - well since qualifying I have moved between jobs with differing Councils involving: visting schools to audit their finances; to acting as Accountant for sports centres, art galleries, museums and economic development; to advising on financial legislation and making short term investment and borrowing decisions; to advising a pension fund with assets valued at £1 billion on strategies and reporting issues (which had the hardship of spending lots of time in London with Fund managers and attending lots of conferences). And now Head of Finance in a Fire and Rescue Authority, responsible for all financial and accounting activities including pay and exchequer. I spend a lot of time in: London working with CIPFA on their Technical Accounting and Sustainability panels; in Cardiff advising Welsh Government on sustainable development financial reporting and with the Wales Finance Leaders network; I am Deputy Chair of an ACCA Regional Panel, and a member of the ACCA Wales Committee and ACCA public sector group.

I work long hours, but am financially secure and so fulfilled at work to be beyond description. So as I nudge towards retirement and try to leave my mark on the future of Future Generations (Sustainable Development) reporting and on Finanacial Reporting Standards - while completing my Frank Zappa cd collection was studying for ACCA worth it - most definitely YES.

Just out of interest, what did they tell you a newly qualified chartered accountant would earn? Just interested as different agencies have suggested a wide range of figures to me, and the local job adverts for newly qualified's give an even wider range (including salaries that I'd be very disappointed to be earning after all that work).

Thanks CeeJay, they're around the figures I was expecting. Though I did see an advert the other day for a newly qualified (full, not PQ) offering £16,000....(full time). It's not the first either so it does make you wonder!

That's interesting as my interpretation of ACCA qualified includes the 3 years required work experience and completion of all the PER objectives. Are you saying that 'ACCA qualified' could actually just mean that someone has passed all the exams but has zero practical experience? If so, I understand some of the low salary offers now.

Hi - having read this post, i felt that perhaps my experience would help. I am a lone parent who had completed the AAT qualification and decided to carry on with ACCA after taking a year off for maternity leave.
I would recommend you do no more than two papers to begin with as it can be hard to juggle family and study time particularly during revision phase coming up to exams. I would definitely recommend going to taught classes as this will enabe able you to focus with no interuptions which is impossible if you are self taught with a small family.

I would not take the exemptions as you have qualified AAT a little while ago (just after one year away from studying it was a struggle to get back into "study" mode).

The reason that I decided to continue to study after taking a year out on maternity leave (with a one year old) is that I would rather carry on studying when my child was small and complete ACCA so that by the time he needed encouragement/help with his homework I would have the free time (He now understands that I have "college" work! and he doesn't know any different).

Having a small child actually gives me the focus to study as I have limited time and need to make the most of it. (I do not have time to procrastinate which I used to before he came along whilst doing AAT. ) I see my study time as time that I could be spending with my child and therefore make sure I don't waste it. On the contrary having a small family can be beneficial as it will drive you to complete your studies quicker.

I'm not saying it has been easy particularly when you have a sleepless nights and have to get up for work and pay attention at college in the evening or weekends but I strongly believe perseverance will pay off.

Hope this helps.