Accountant Job prospects with Good GCSEs but average A levels.

If I was to take up an apprenticeship with a small accountancy firm; with a couple of FTSE 100 clients

So I was wondering what sort of future job aspects I could get with my grades.

At GCSE I got an A in Maths and 5 other GCSEs, averageing a B with a Lvl 2 higher diploma in Engineering at Grade B (Equivalent to 7 GCSEs).

At AS Level the first year I took Physics, Maths(Mechanics), English Literature and IT. I failed Physics and Maths(Mechanics), while getting 2 Es at English Literature and IT.

The second year of College I decide to take Business Studies and BTEC IT Diploma, with the 3rd year adding AS Economics to this. I predicted to achieve a MM in IT, C in Business and C in AS Economics.

If I was to take up an apprenticeship with a small accountancy firm; with a couple of FTSE 100 clients, but mainly Medium to Small businesses and achieve the level 4 MAAT and then go on to achieve the ACA qualification, what would my career prospects be like?

Could I use the 160 UCAS points from the IT diploma, 80 from Business A level in addition with the 160 from AAT and have a total of 400? or does that not count?

Would I be better to do a degree an aim to achieve a first

That's a small firm? Maybe just go with a little tech start-up like IBM or a minor FMCG like Unilever?

Those grades really aren't great. Why did the A-levels go so badly? There's a reason why firms put an emphasis on them - the ACA exams (or equivalent) are tough and if those A-level grades reflect your best than academically you might not be up to it. Blunt but honest.

If you think you are up for it (prepare to work much harder than you did at A-levels..) then any kind of apprenticeship that'll get you qualified would be a great shout in your position. Don't fuss over trying to get bigger clients, the national firms are rigid with their 300+ requirements so it won't happen. You can't combine a bit of everything to get there, it's your first full 3 A-levels, so something giving you 160 points will undoubtedly count as two of the three grades if it is counted at all.

Regarding the degree route, all the big firms will still filter based on A-levels so realistically it might not help. Especially if your plan for a first actually works out to something less than a 2.1, which would leave you in a bad situation. However in a more generic sense getting a 2.1 or above may help your future prospects, just not so much in accountancy.

Best bet would be to latch on to any apprenticeship that comes your way if you're serious about the accountancy career path. Once you're qualified and have some experience under your belt, nobody will care about your A-levels

Family issues I guess could be attributed towards it.

However although I am predicted to achieve an MM in IT, I have already achieved a MM and look set to achieve a DM, bringing my total UCAS points to 280, or 320 with AS Economics.

To be honest, I'm not fully sure what you mean when you talk about MM and DM. I understand AS and A2

The point with the UCAS tariffs is that they are supposed to benchmark you against other candidates. If you're doing something other than A-levels, they won't necessarily be weighted the same. If the qualification has a higher potential UCAS point contribution that 120 (an A at A2), then it evidently isn't going to be weighted as 1/3 grades on a UCAS tariff. Similarly I don't think AS are generally considered, as you're expected to have done the equivalent of 3 A2s (which you may well have done? I'm unclear on that). This isn't about just adding everything up - otherwise loads of people would have 500+ points! It's the equivalent of your top three A-levels that will count, and usually on first sitting.

The best way to check whether your grades will cut it is to jump on a few careers sites (try Deloitte and PWC for a starting point) and seeing if they have info on their on converting your grades to their tariff. Both require 300 UCAS, so the equivalent of BBB at A-level.

When I say MM/DM I'm talking about a BTEC National Diploma, D equivalent to A at A2, M to C, P to E

So with a DM in BTEC IT and C in Business Studies, this would be equivalent to ACC

This isn't about just adding everything up - otherwise loads of people would have 500+ points! It's the equivalent of your top three A-levels that will count, and usually on first sitting.

The best way to check whether your grades will cut it is to jump on a few careers sites (try Deloitte and PWC for a starting point) and seeing if they have info on their on converting your grades to their tariff. Both require 300 UCAS, so the equivalent of BBB at A-level.

When I say MM/DM I'm talking about a BTEC National Diploma, D equivalent to A at A2, M to C, P to E

So with a DM in BTEC IT and C in Business Studies, this would be equivalent to ACC

This. I'm pretty sure that the big 4 won't allow you to 'add up' all of your qualifications.



In terms of UCAS points criteria, big 4 for audit typically require 300 UCAS points (BBB) in your A levels first sitting.

This does not mean that your A levels have to all be sat within 2 years. You could do 3 A levels at 18, achieve BBC first attempt in Maths, Econ, History for example. If you then decide at 21 you'll self-study A level business and get another B in that, that new 'B' grade will still count. It's just that for each subject, you need to achieve the grade in the first sitting.

To answer your question, I have seen people achieve their accounting qualification and move into an assistant manager position at the big 4. Thing is, they had 2.1 degrees. I don't know for accountancy experienced hire positions require a degree or have a UCAS tarriff. I would've assumed at that stage, experience and an ACA/CIMA qualification were more important.

Edit: Don't know whether/which accounting firms accept BTECs.

Contrary to this, many (but of course not all) companies would only look at those first set of results from the first two years of A-levels. This is often what they mean by first sitting.

I asked PwC, KPMG and Booz & Co (OK thats now part of PwC) HR about this issue.

Basically I already had my 3 A levels. I wasn't too happy with the grades. In my gap year I took a fourth (and entirely new) A level. The above companies all said they'd accept the grade. What they wouldn't accept was if I resat one of my 3 A levels which I had already obtained a grade in. I haven't met a company which wouldn't allow an A level sat outside the 2 years but then I've only asked the above 3. You may well be right, some companies may not allow this.

So I was wondering what sort of future job aspects I could get with my grades.

At GCSE I got an A in Maths and 5 other GCSEs, averageing a B with a Lvl 2 higher diploma in Engineering at Grade B (Equivalent to 7 GCSEs).

At AS Level the first year I took Physics, Maths(Mechanics), English Literature and IT. I failed Physics and Maths(Mechanics), while getting 2 Es at English Literature and IT.

The second year of College I decide to take Business Studies and BTEC IT Diploma, with the 3rd year adding AS Economics to this. I predicted to achieve a MM in IT, C in Business and C in AS Economics.

I'll be blunt, there's no way you'll pass chartered accountancy exams. The reason accountancy firms care particularly strongly about A-levels is that they represent a similar type of exam experience to the ACCA/ICAEW/ICAS exams. You need to memorise and regurgitate large amounts of information in a relatively restricted time period. There's nothing about any of the above grades that suggests you can do that.

I appreciate you probably don't want to hear that, and I know that the typical advice is "you can do anything if you put your mind to it", but seriously, save yourself a lot of disappointment further down the line and pick a different career route.

Normally I would be more positive than this but your A-Levels really aren't good. I generally believe that most employers (top law firms and chambers aside) take a liberal approach to A-Levels and will accept one bad result but in your case all of your results are disappointing. To a big firm, you simply can't compete with other applicants. To a small firm, you pose too much of a financial and succession risk; they might only be able to train someone once every two years and won't take a chance on someone who may well fail the exams or not apply themselves to their work.

Unfortunately, one of two scenarios screams out from your CV. Either you don't have the academic acumen required to be a good accountant or you don't work hard enough to become a good accountant.

If you really believe accountancy is your vocation, then you're going to have to work extremely hard and go to great personal expense to get there because you've missed your chance to use your A-Levels to get in the door. You will need to do AAT full time at your own expense and then apply for roles in a small firm of accountants or industry. Hopefully they will pay your ACCA/ICAEW/CIMA fees but if they don't you will then need to fund these yourself.

However, if you're already working extremely hard, then please don't do this and instead build a realistic career plan or resit your A-Levels.

x

I did a business BTEC in college and joint a medium sized firm (Top 50). It's perfectly do-able but smaller firms will be more willing to budge on exam results, as they want a nice/enthusiastic person a little more than good results. However as others say you'll not be auditing FTSE100 companies in a small or even medium firm. You'll get some big clients but not FTSE100 ones.