how long does the acca-Fountations in accountacy take to complete

shadowcomplex

At 33 I am considering a career change to accountancy, im currently in a permanent job earning 40k a year in a completely different industry but I don't think I will progress any further with it. I have no formal accountancy training and I know I will have to take a big drop in wages at the start and im willing to do this, I do however want to get a feel for the course before I leave my current job in case it isnt for me, what options would be best for my situation, I considering the foundations in accountancy by acca which takes place as an evening course at WIT, other options im considering are the 2 accounting tech courses, im aware these courses are 2 years in length and that I also need 2 years industry experience before I qualify but as I have said im going to give any course I do 6 months before I quit my current job

Clogsworth

Hi, I just qualified from ACCA last year. Took me just under 4 years to complete all the exams while working full time. I had two exemptions from my degree course so I had to sit 11 papers. The ACCA exams are sat every June & December. I think 4 papers is the maximum you can take in any one sitting. I never took more than two because I was working full time. I studied in Dublin. My lectures used to start at the end of February for the June exams and at the end of August for the December exams. If you have a business degree of some sort you may be entitled to some exemptions, it doesn't have to be an accountancy related degree. I think you would be better to go straight for the ACCA course rather than doing the tecnician course because if you complete the tecnician course and the decide you want to continue with the ACCA you still have a load more exams to do, you dont get too many exemptions from the tecnician qualification. You might as well start knocking the ACCA ones off straight away. The foundation papers are not too difficult, once you put in a bit of effort and go to the lectures you should be ok. For the ACCA you need 3 years experience in a relevant field as well as the exams to get your qualification. I trained in a practice, so that is a help for some of the papers like tax & auditing. If you train in industry you'll probably find its a help for the financial planning & management papers. Industry tends to pay better but you dont usually get study leave. In the practice I was in I got a weeks paid study leave per paper for the F level papers & 2 weeks per paper for the P levels.

The exam subjects can be quite boring especially some of the pure theory ones. IMO some of the papers have no relevance to the real world. I wouldn't judge the accountancy career based on what you do in lectures because some of the stuff would bore you to tears. Its definitely not the most exciting job in the world but its a good job all the same and the ACCA qualification will open up a lot of doors to you even if you dont want to stick with working as an accountant. Its recoginized world wide so you'll be able to travel with it if you wish.

I hope this was helpful . Give me a shout if you have any more questions!

SBWife

I've done the first 10 exams in just over a year. Intend on finishing the last 4 in December but I've a finance and economics background.

shadowcomplex

Thanks for the reponses,

I have a few questions

I have absolutely no business or accounting qualification, I don't even have an honours degree in a different area. I have a level 7 qualification in chemistry and I have been working in the pharma industry for the past 8 years.

So as you can see I would be starting at rock bottom with accountancy.

Here are my questions, knowing the above.

1.How long would it take me from scratch to become fully cpa qualified?
2.Can I stay in my current field and whilst I study for the exams or is industry experience part of the qualification?
3.I am actually on 45k a year and get full health cover, I know I will have to take a big cut in pay as a trainee but would the hit be not as severe if I was fully qualified?

SBWife

Experience is part of the qualification, 36 months for ACCA.

Fastest time to complete all 14 exams for ACCA would be just under 2 years but more realistically taking two each session 3 1/2 years.

If you've started in the process and take a job in industry (perhaps in finance within the pharma industry) your pay reduction should be less than if taking on a training contract.

I'd look into and compare the elevation programme from CAI with ACCA's mature entry route as both are aimed at people in your position.

abtrought

Hi,

I am in a similar situation, but come from an IT background. Have been undecided for some time regarding which route to take. I had more or less ruled out ACA because a training contract was required. This has since changed with the Elevation Program, now you do not need to have a training contract in place when starting your study. Only requirement is that you have 1 years experience when you get to the FAE. Because a training contract is no longer needed to begin the ACA qualification, it now gives me another option.

I put together costings at to how much each qualification (ACA / ACCA / CIMA / CPA) was going to cost me based on whether I could do some of the subjects through distance learning, exemptions etc. CPA would cost the least, followed by ACCA, ACA and finally CIMA. The cost will differ depending on your circumstances.

starfish30

i'm working full time in an unrelated discipline... and I choose to stay in the job i'm in, and do the ACCA exams bit by bit, so that i can make sure i'm able for it before taking the plunge... Any of the two year courses give hardly an exemptions for the main exams in ACCA and 2 years is a long time...

i did the first 3 f1-f3 in dec, and doing f4 and f5 last may while working full time, so thats 5 out of 14 in one year, when any of the technicians courses would only give you exemptions for the first 3 after two years! Granted if you wanted to finish with a qualification after 2 years and technician is the way to go.

I know I'll still have my work experience to do (3 yrs), but if i pass the exams or a good few of them, I feel like the big risk is over, and i can keep a decent job while i have one.

DRice

just wondering on some popular opninion on boards, which gives the best chance of an entry level job

option 1) all the CAT exams no accounting experience

OR

option 2) f1-f9 of the ACCA exams no accounting experience

I am also working in an unrelated discipline like some of the posters in this thread have done f1 and f2 ACCA (my option 2 above) and currently doing f3 and just wondering if i should have gone for CAT as i will want to be getting a job of any kind when i get to around f9 anyways, should i switch to CAT after f3?

Fussy Eater

It's very brave of people to give up a well paid job to start studying accountancy from scratch when these days in Ireland they might not earn more than 30-40K as a fully qualified accountant! I think accountants are ten-a-penny here so it isn't really a particularly special skill to have in the jobs market.

lizzyrock

If I want to become an accountant and only have QFA (no diploma or degree), is it more worth my while to just go for ACCA, or to go for a degree first? I am in f/t employment, earning 30-40k and could potentially move into a related area within my company for the experience end of it. Just wondered what peoples thoughts on this would be?

I believe ACCA is deemed to be as hard / harder than any hons degree anyway so is there a point in taking the longer route or just go straight for ACCA.

Thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Fussy Eater

lizzyrock wrote: »

If I want to become an accountant and only have QFA (no diploma or degree), is it more worth my while to just go for ACCA, or to go for a degree first? I am in f/t employment, earning 30-40k and could potentially move into a related area within my company for the experience end of it. Just wondered what peoples thoughts on this would be?

I believe ACCA is deemed to be as hard / harder than any hons degree anyway so is there a point in taking the longer route or just go straight for ACCA.

Thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Yeah, in my 20s I did an accounting technician qualification and then an accountancy degree and now I'm in my 30s I really regret not studying the ACCA instead of going to university as I'd be in a much better situation and be without the student loan to pay off! And even though I've four years of related study under my belt the ACCA saw it fit to give me just four exemptions so I've still got a lot of study to do to become qualified.

To my mind if you're a qualified accountant having a degree is totally irrelevant. So take the shortest route that you can to get there.

lizzyrock

Fussy Eater wrote: »

lizzyrock wrote: »

If I want to become an accountant and only have QFA (no diploma or degree), is it more worth my while to just go for ACCA, or to go for a degree first? I am in f/t employment, earning 30-40k and could potentially move into a related area within my company for the experience end of it. Just wondered what peoples thoughts on this would be?

I believe ACCA is deemed to be as hard / harder than any hons degree anyway so is there a point in taking the longer route or just go straight for ACCA.

Thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Yeah, in my 20s I did an accounting technician qualification and then an accountancy degree and now I'm in my 30s I really regret not studying the ACCA instead of going to university as I'd be in a much better situation and be without the student loan to pay off! And even though I've four years of related study under my belt the ACCA saw it fit to give me just four exemptions so I've still got a lot of study to do to become qualified.

To my mind if you're a qualified accountant having a degree is totally irrelevant. So take the shortest route that you can to get there.

Cheers for the advice, that is spot on thanks a million for that. For me it's just about getting into a position within my company that will give me the experience that is need to be qualified.