kenb@manx

As the title suggests, my eldest is looking ahead to a career and is wondering what the most useful subjects at A level and Degree are with a view to becoming an accountant.
Any particular subject ideas (maybe with reasons?) would be most useful.

Thanks
Ken

Da Booga

To be honest mate, the best way would be to get a job with a firm of accountants and do AAT, then ACA (chartered) or ACCA (certified).

There's no substitute for experience in this game in my opinion, i've lost count of the number of chartered graduates i've worked with and ended up teaching them the basic double entry methods etc. as they've not had any (or very little) practical experience.

I'd try and get in a medium size firm (3-6 partners) as these generally give people a lot more experience than a big 4 firm and have less staff per partner etc. The pay will be crap to start with but does quickly increase if you're any good, he'll just have to learn to cope with the jibes from his mates working at McDonalds who earn more than him at first .

HTH,

Gareth

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I'd favour the higher education route rather than progressing through AAT as a first step. IMHO she'd be far better doing A's then opting for a one year foundation or a related degree, (both used to (& still do ?) give the same exemptions from the prof exams.) It would also give the option of a different career path if it didn't work out.

Prof bodies are:
ACA - Tend to be trained & work in practice
ACCA \ CIMA - Industry / Plc based
CIPFA - Public Finance / Local government etc.

http://www.acca.org.uk has some decent info on it.

If you've any more Q's let me know & I'll do my best !

D

milo

if he/she is at the stage of deciding on a-levels.. then they're probably 16 or under.. in which case, keeping options open would be well advised as most people lose count of how many times they change their mind at that age. maths and economics are probably logical a-level options.

little miss fire

I'd agree with DB on this one. I went to college (BTEC) and uni (BA Degree), which got me exemp from the first 4 exams of ACCA, there are 14 in total!!!!

To be finally qualify as an accountant, they suggest that you work for about 3 years at an accountants, and you have to be able to verify your practical experiance before the ACCA will give you a practicing certificate.

I wish him/her all the luck with whatever they decide to do

Rachel (final 3 ACCA exams to sit this year!!!!)

GreenMachine

I studied History at Uni then did graduate coversion for Chartered Accountancy.

'In my day' (mid 80's) it didn't really matter what you had studied before getting in to accountancy - not sure what the prefs are now. Just needed Maths and English 'O' level.

I was never 'interested' in accountancy per se - it was just a means to an end for me, so I took the opportunity to study things that actually interested me at Uni.

If your kid actually finds it interesting, maybe he/she is a candidate for actuarial science instead? Better paid too!

blair

I'd agree with GM above - I did accountancy and computer science degrees before deciding on Chartered Accountancy as a career.

Back when I was sitting the accountancy exams I think the pass rate was actually better for students with a non-accountancy degree

Probably best to have a few numerate type topics in their though, Maths, Physics, Chemistry etc. As in anything else good communication skills are needed to get on so English may also be an option ?

I'd agree it's probably best to study the stuff you enjoy at school - leave the dealing with heaps of kak you donlt really enjoy for when you become qualified and have a job