medium size firm or big 4 for apprenticeship

A real problem a lot of people have with their degrees is that they don't take to them. Perhaps its not what they expected, they find the courses don't meet their skillsets or that they don't like the subject in a university environment. I doubt A+F is the worst for this but lots of people end up being a bit or very fed up with it. Even worse if they struggle with the course (especially in the second year) it can mean getting lower grades than they were capable of on another course.

Now, you could start a new degree if that happens - but at the cost of a year extra in university if you make this decision after the first year. if you are in the second year when you are getting very fed up is a real disaster - very hard to finance a new university course.

The benefit of the BAEcon degree (worth a good look at course options to see what might interest you) is that you can take non A+F courses for pretty much whole years without starting a new degree course. Plus your degree won't show that you were ever studying accounting so nothing difficult to explain in interviews for accountancy based jobs.

I don't know what percentage of people this would benefit - a pretty fair percentage I would imagine. Definitely worth considering.

Hi thanks for the detailed response could you have a look at the two courses and give me your feedback as to which is more useful as im struggling to decide which to go for, Thanks
BAEcon
BSc accounting

These courses are almost as different as you could get for an A+F degree! When do you have to decide?

hi ive received 4 offers and once i received the the 5th im given a deadline but id say ill say i have to have made a decision before april? what are your thoughts?

I've had a look at the courses and will write some notes when I've thought a bit more. What are your other offers and what grades?

I'd have a good look at the BAEcon course and see if the wider choice of options appeals. I think its a question of whether you want to study just accountancy courses for 3 years or have the range of courses that BAecon offers.

Of interest there doesn't seem to the any difference in the number of ACCA exemptions (7) you could accumulate with either course.

Well - of the courses Liverpool, Leeds and UCLAN look largely similar and in line with the Manchester Accounting course. They are very focused courses for entry into accountancy careers and tend to aim to maximise ACCA exemptions. In part this is due to the large numbers of overseas students they can attract. None of these courses give many optional modules - and from what I could see the ones on offer are pretty standard accounting courses.

Possible things of interest:
- UCLAN allows you to go to Cyprus for the second year.
- Leeds offers a study abroad year, but this seems to add a year onto the degree course.
- Liverpool offer a 'year in China' option (plus I think some other year abroad options) - again adding a year to the degree.

In substance the real points of difference (other than UCLAN being lower ranked) are options to study abroad and the far broader and more flexible course should you opt for the BAEcon course at Manchester.

Thanks really appreciate that. So would you say any extra years ie study abroad/industrial experience is worth it or not as doing this will take a year longer to become qualified? And in regards to liverpool , leeds and uclan being similar is it worth opting for liverpool/leeds at all? bc i would much prefer placing uclan as insurance option due to it being local but theres the issue with ranking or is that not important?

Just to check - what were your offers from the two Manchester courses?

I’ll think about the other questions you raised - I had thought about the UCLAN question but think I forgot to respond.

Oh, and what a levels are you studying? How confident are you in hitting the grades?

Thanks really appreciate that. So would you say any extra years ie study abroad/industrial experience is worth it or not as doing this will take a year longer to become qualified? And in regards to liverpool , leeds and uclan being similar is it worth opting for liverpool/leeds at all? bc i would much prefer placing uclan as insurance option due to it being local but theres the issue with ranking or is that not important?

I think there are a number of severable questions here:

- are extra years for study abroad worthwhile?
- are years in industry worthwhile?
- how might rankings/ university reputation matter?

I'll try to respond to each.

As a query to make it specific what are your reasons for considering UCLAN in particular (you note as an insurance offer)? Financial? Wish to stay at home? Would you look to commute to Manchester (looks very do-able by train if you live near enough to a station en-route to Oxford Road)? Would you get the maximum student loan, minimum or somewhere in between?

Yeah so im considering UCLAN as insurance due to its Low grade requirements so if i dont do as well as expected ill have at least a university to go to , Secondly its about 30 mins in car from where i live so its very convenient although manchester does take around 45 mins. Another concern of mine is im not very fond on living away , at least i think im not as it obviously comes with its different responsibilities and experiences and i am quite comfortable at home. Ive just used a student loan calculator , if i live away id get around 7500 but staying at home id get 6000 ish. in terms of commuting to Manchester im undecided as again i need to establish if im comfortable living away

Is the trip to Manchester 45 minutes by car? I wouldn't expect that to be the case in rush hour or for parking to be easy to find.

One consideration you might make is whether you need to use UCLAN as an insurance option. You may find that they are in clearing most years (if not every year) for that course so you would always be able to get in so long as you pass three A levels. Depends a bit on how brave you are and how bad you would feel about a year out in an emergency. As you don't need accommodation you don't have that issue to consider.

Remember that you are in a year of low birth rates and possibly reduced numbers of applications from the EU - its a good year to be brave!

So - years in industry - are they worth doing? There are lots of posts on this subject and those much better informed than I am generally give a resounding yes to this question. The specific query was "...as doing this will take a year longer to become qualified?"

So - other than the general question of the value of years in industry which would get far more traction on another part of this forum (educational debate possibly) lets look at how this might work for accountancy careers and qualifications.

For ACA you can take a year in industry as part of a three year training contract. So you do one year in an approved accounting firm (or some other organisations), complete your final year and then go back for a further two year training contract. Certainly that was pretty common in the past. Current students might know what happens at the moment (which of course may be different when you are applying). I had a look at a couple of big 4 websites and couldn't see any details of how their schemes worked in this regard.

For ACCA you can count the year in industry as part of the 3 years required experience so long as it is appropriate accountancy or finance work. This tends not to be a benefit for non A+F students but can be very valuable for those with lots of exemptions. Therefore a big accounting firm year in industry or a year working in commerce/ industry would be valid experience for meeting the professional training requirements.

One benefit of studying A+F is that it seems to be easier to get years in industry - particularly for accounting roles than more general business/ management students, and you are able to do more and thus learn more in the year.

Edited to add: did you have specific reasons not to want to take any longer to qualify other than a general wish to get on with life? I could add more for particular circumstances.

yh exactly that i just wish to get on with life tbh and quick question , aca or acca or even icaew?

aca = icaew.