A degree course
Hello! Hope you are doing well. I am 30 years old and London based. I do not yet have degree, I did go to uni at 18 but dropped out due to health reasons. I have been working in mainly admin jobs since. Recently I came upon accounting and finance as a career and began trainee and entry level roles in the field. I am also (suppposed to be) studying for the AAT level 2 in accounting qualification but am struggling.
My academic background has been humanities and social sciences and that is where I feel my true passion and interest is in as I enjoyed writing at school (long time ago now 😅). I wanted to know what it's like studying accounting and finance at uni, is it very mathematical and data related with a lot of statistics? I would love to know how you all find it.
Thanks
Hello! Hope you are doing well. I am 30 years old and London based. I do not yet have degree, I did go to uni at 18 but dropped out due to health reasons. I have been working in mainly admin jobs since. Recently I came upon accounting and finance as a career and began trainee and entry level roles in the field. I am also (suppposed to be) studying for the AAT level 2 in accounting qualification but am struggling.
My academic background has been humanities and social sciences and that is where I feel my true passion and interest is in as I enjoyed writing at school (long time ago now 😅). I wanted to know what it's like studying accounting and finance at uni, is it very mathematical and data related with a lot of statistics? I would love to know how you all find it.
Thanks
I can only give my personal experience, and I can say it's not as mathematical as you think it might be. Don't get me wrong, some of the degrees out there would require you to have an A Level in Maths, but those tend to have financial engineering or financial mathematics modules, something that's a significant overkill in terms of the actual professional accounting qualifications that you end up doing.
If you do a degree that doesn't require A Level maths and is accredited by the major professional accounting bodies (most should be), a lot of the material should be relatively straightforward. The sort of level of maths you would need to know isn't particularly high (it's roughly AS Level maths) e.g.
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Bits on logarithms
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Arithmetic (add, subtract, divide, multiply)
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Hypothesis testing for stats
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Possibly some linear programming if you specifically chose the stats modules
You would very unlikely be looking at: calculus, trigonometry, matrices, etc. unless it's a quantitative degree. In fact, if you're looking for a degree with a lot of maths that would challenge, I would generally look outside of accounting e.g. engineering, physics, maths, financial engineering/mathematics, actuarial science, possibly economics.
A lot of the other modules in an accounting degree tends to be very descriptive i.e. a lot of essays and reports. It will depend specifically on which degree that you picked, but you might be looking into basic business economics, business law, auditing; a lot of which will require you to be somewhat analytical. The mandatory modules would be financial accounting and management accounting, for obvious reasons. You would also likely be required to cover a stats module (not a required subject for the financial accounting qualifications), which is required if you're doing a bachelor's of science (as far as I know).
I personally had a hard time with financial accounting and auditing, because I am more of an analytical person who likes numbers and a lot of analysis. If the numbers don't make sense, the argument falls apart in my opinion. This is not how you need to see the material, so you really had to change the way you look at things. If you're not into descriptive subjects, you might struggle with the same.
I had a significantly easier time with management accounting, economics, anything involving maths, systems, and statistics.
I think a good indicator to see if you would like the descriptive subjects is to see how you fare in your AAT Level 2. Although, I haven't done AAT (because I never needed it), I have looked through the syllabus and I have noted that a lot of it requires you to do bookkeeping and general financial accounting. If you're having problems with AAT, then you might come across similar problems that I did.
Financial accounting will require you to know about double entry bookkeeping. This is usually very formulatic and requires you to go through a pro forma. Double entry is usually the biggest hurdle most students need to get their heads around; once you get it you can get through most of it without problems. As you would have noticed, it's not an intuitive subject and it's not something you were taught in school either. (If you're having problems with this, watch a number of YouTube videos on double entry bookkeeping.)
The thing I notice about the courses for the professional accounting qualifications vs the modules in the accounting degree is that the material in the accounting degree looks more into the theory and the philosophies of accounting, and not as much focus on the techniques and tactics. This makes sense because a degree will ultimately require you to think about the philosophies and theories of a subject, whereas the professional courses focus on how things are done and what are the correct procedures (not so much questioning about them). The degree would focus on developing your research skills, whereas the professional courses will focus on your vocational skills.
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The ultimate aim of doing the degree is to get a professional accounting qualification so you can become qualified as an accountant afterwards. However, you don't need to do the degree in order to study for the accounting qualification. If anything, it's likely going to take you longer to qualify going down the degree route than it would if you just went straight for the qualification.
As you have done your A Levels (or equivalent), what I don't understand is why don't you go straight into the professional accounting qualification. You then don't need an AAT. (For that matter, you could have easily gone straight into AAT Level 3 with your A Levels.) Have you decided on what sort of accountant you want to be? The type can sometimes determine the sort of qualification you would need (note: a financial accountant would be able to go into both financial and management accounting, but a CIMA accountant cannot go into financial accounting, even if the qualifications are very similar). Probably the best accounting qualification to have if you intend to just work in England and Wales is ACA; if you want to be able to work abroad, the most flexible qualification is the ACCA; if you just want to work in management accounting, you're probably better off with CIMA. There are other accounting qualifications that you can look into, but the 3 mentioned are the most popular.
Do also note: you can go into an accounting qualification/job/grad scheme with a degree in social sciences or humanities, purely because you won't need a degree to go into them. Accounting roles typically are about the correct recording of numbers, and to do this quickly because as a back office role, your job doesn't actively bring in money (e.g. it's not sales, or actively solve major problems to the company) and you have a lot to do. The more senior roles involve putting together reports for the higher ups or doing the work for other businesses. If this is not something that sounds like you really want to do, then you might struggle to get a role (in fact, if you don't have the personality for it, you might struggle to get the role in the first place).
If your passion is in humanities or social sciences, why not look into careers that involves writing in these fields? I appreciate a majority of the writing roles in these areas don't particularly pay a lot, but you would likely be happier for it. Should you wish, there are also quantitiative research roles where the government is keen to have graduates for and they tend to have high pay e.g. https://www.faststream.gov.uk/government-social-research-service/index.html. I would just make sure the degree that you do has a lot of stats and that you can demonstrate this.
To be honest I have never been a numbers person and have usually enjoyed subjects like history, politics and english. But in practical terms, looking at the career history I have had so far, finance seemed like a good next step. I admit I have not been very good at the independent study side of things in general and have done better in subjects where there is room to think and come up with ideas. I do enjoy the challenge so far of accounting but looking back at the jobs I've had, there have been highs and lows.
I have mainly worked in financial accounting as a bookkeeper and accounts payable as a junior role. The practical and vocational knowledge in the AAT has helped though it is not as detailed or as descriptive as a degree course would be. I began AAT as I was new to the field and did not have prior knowledge and wanted to learn the basics. Now that I have some experience, I was considering ACCA as a potential option. In my experience so far, I have come across more job opportunities for accounting and have been more successful in getting a job than with other fields so that is why I stick to it. I know I have a lot to learn yet and am willing, just need to knuckle down and put it into practice.
To be honest I have never been a numbers person and have usually enjoyed subjects like history, politics and english. But in practical terms, looking at the career history I have had so far, finance seemed like a good next step. I admit I have not been very good at the independent study side of things in general and have done better in subjects where there is room to think and come up with ideas. I do enjoy the challenge so far of accounting but looking back at the jobs I've had, there have been highs and lows.
I have mainly worked in financial accounting as a bookkeeper and accounts payable as a junior role. The practical and vocational knowledge in the AAT has helped though it is not as detailed or as descriptive as a degree course would be. I began AAT as I was new to the field and did not have prior knowledge and wanted to learn the basics. Now that I have some experience, I was considering ACCA as a potential option. In my experience so far, I have come across more job opportunities for accounting and have been more successful in getting a job than with other fields so that is why I stick to it. I know I have a lot to learn yet and am willing, just need to knuckle down and put it into practice.
Seriously - do you have to dash to university? I'd be very tempted to storm through AAT and then do a couple of ACCA papers. If you want to go to university - great. Do something you like and enjoy.
I beleive most A+F degrees involve a lot of self study. Its not the same as going to one of the really good professional colleges.
Hello! Hope you are doing well. I am 30 years old and London based. I do not yet have degree, I did go to uni at 18 but dropped out due to health reasons. I have been working in mainly admin jobs since. Recently I came upon accounting and finance as a career and began trainee and entry level roles in the field. I am also (suppposed to be) studying for the AAT level 2 in accounting qualification but am struggling.
My academic background has been humanities and social sciences and that is where I feel my true passion and interest is in as I enjoyed writing at school (long time ago now 😅). I wanted to know what it's like studying accounting and finance at uni, is it very mathematical and data related with a lot of statistics? I would love to know how you all find it.
Thanks
Something to bear in mind is you can go into graduate accountancy roles with any degree - having a prior degree in accounting just means you will be on a different track in those grad schemes and skip some of the professional exams due to prior exemptions. You could just as well do a degree in whatever humanities and/or social science subject is of interest then still go into an accountancy role after graduating.
I beleive most A+F degrees involve a lot of self study. Its not the same as going to one of the really good professional colleges.
No I don't have to go, but it feels like something I should do, like a personal goal. When I get stuck I start to question things. I think its because I'm not getting through AAT quickly that I'm doubting.
Not the general ledger but I have experience with petty cash journal, trade payables ledger and preparing aged accounts payable journal for payment
Wait is that the general ledger
Its not a million miles off - good experience to have.
To be honest I have never been a numbers person and have usually enjoyed subjects like history, politics and english. But in practical terms, looking at the career history I have had so far, finance seemed like a good next step. I admit I have not been very good at the independent study side of things in general and have done better in subjects where there is room to think and come up with ideas. I do enjoy the challenge so far of accounting but looking back at the jobs I've had, there have been highs and lows.
I have mainly worked in financial accounting as a bookkeeper and accounts payable as a junior role. The practical and vocational knowledge in the AAT has helped though it is not as detailed or as descriptive as a degree course would be. I began AAT as I was new to the field and did not have prior knowledge and wanted to learn the basics. Now that I have some experience, I was considering ACCA as a potential option. In my experience so far, I have come across more job opportunities for accounting and have been more successful in getting a job than with other fields so that is why I stick to it. I know I have a lot to learn yet and am willing, just need to knuckle down and put it into practice.
I have never been a numbers person and have usually enjoyed subjects like history, politics and english. But in practical terms, looking at the career history I have had so far, finance seemed like a good next step
Most of the jobs in finance strictly speaking doesn't use numbers or calculations that much. The more quantiative qualifications are for quants, investment management (possibly), and actuaries; these people primarily use stats though.
Most of the finance industry runs more on people skills since a lot of it is front end/sales. The back end roles tend to be accounting based, so similar to what you're doing but more in depth (at roughly the same level of difficulty).
I admit I have not been very good at the independent study side of things in general and have done better in subjects where there is room to think and come up with ideas
As you have quickly found out through your AAT, this is not really the case. I think you get more opportunities to be more creative with front end roles and in more marketing/HR oriented roles.
Now that I have some experience, I was considering ACCA as a potential option.
Any reason why ACCA in particular?
It's not like you can't go to another accounting qualification after your ACCA papers, but it will be easier if you pick the one that suits you the most prior to picking it e.g. you can do ACA with 3 more papers after ACCA (instead of doing all 15) and 8 more for CIMA (instead of 14).
I wish you luck then, if you're sure that this is something that you want to do.
There are a few things you should note though:
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A completed accounting qualification is considered the equivalent of a master's degree (even the material is more akin to A Level - don't ask), so under the ELQ policy, you are unlikely to get funding for bachelor's or master's degrees afterwards (but check to see if this is the case). If you want to do a degree, then I recommend doing that first before you do an accounting qualification.
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AAT Level 4 is the equivalent of a foundation degree or the first year of a bachelor's.
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You can go lecture in accounting if you have the qualification
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As others have mentioned, a lot of the material in the qualifications require self study, so it's not all that different from what you do at uni
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As you're not particularly good with numbers, you might want to ensure you go for lessons for the more quantitative modules as the calculations might be a bit more complicated (something that's not really intuitive and have even tripped up STEM graduates) e.g. Management Accounting (F2), Performance Management (F5), Taxation (F6), Financial Management (F9) for ACCA
•
If you do take on an accounting qualification, your employer should be able to help fund/sponsor your studies (the lessons, not the exams or membership fees)
•
With some employers, you are expected to pass first time; if you repeatedly fail the same modules, you can be reallocated to a 'lesser' qualification, or be fired
•
Studying whilst working is not particularly easy, and it doesn't get easier with the more advanced qualifications and modules.
•
If you have a total of 3 years' relevant work experience during your qualification, irrespective of how long it takes for you to complete your studies, you would meet the experience requirement of the qualification
•
You need to make sure the firm you work with have someone qualified under the qualification that you want to go for in order to qualify your experience e.g. if you're studying ACCA, at least one person in the firm needs to be ACCA qualified and you working with them at least occasionally to qualify your experience.
Most of the jobs in finance strictly speaking doesn't use numbers or calculations that much. The more quantiative qualifications are for quants, investment management (possibly), and actuaries; these people primarily use stats though.
Most of the finance industry runs more on people skills since a lot of it is front end/sales. The back end roles tend to be accounting based, so similar to what you're doing but more in depth (at roughly the same level of difficulty).
I admit I have not been very good at the independent study side of things in general and have done better in subjects where there is room to think and come up with ideas
As you have quickly found out through your AAT, this is not really the case. I think you get more opportunities to be more creative with front end roles and in more marketing/HR oriented roles.
Now that I have some experience, I was considering ACCA as a potential option.
Any reason why ACCA in particular?
It's not like you can't go to another accounting qualification after your ACCA papers, but it will be easier if you pick the one that suits you the most prior to picking it e.g. you can do ACA with 3 more papers after ACCA (instead of doing all 15) and 8 more for CIMA (instead of 14).
I wish you luck then, if you're sure that this is something that you want to do.
There are a few things you should note though:
•
A completed accounting qualification is considered the equivalent of a master's degree (even the material is more akin to A Level - don't ask), so under the ELQ policy, you are unlikely to get funding for bachelor's or master's degrees afterwards (but check to see if this is the case). If you want to do a degree, then I recommend doing that first before you do an accounting qualification.
•
AAT Level 4 is the equivalent of a foundation degree or the first year of a bachelor's.
•
You can go lecture in accounting if you have the qualification
•
As others have mentioned, a lot of the material in the qualifications require self study, so it's not all that different from what you do at uni
•
As you're not particularly good with numbers, you might want to ensure you go for lessons for the more quantitative modules as the calculations might be a bit more complicated (something that's not really intuitive and have even tripped up STEM graduates) e.g. Management Accounting (F2), Performance Management (F5), Taxation (F6), Financial Management (F9) for ACCA
•
If you do take on an accounting qualification, your employer should be able to help fund/sponsor your studies (the lessons, not the exams or membership fees)
•
With some employers, you are expected to pass first time; if you repeatedly fail the same modules, you can be reallocated to a 'lesser' qualification, or be fired
•
Studying whilst working is not particularly easy, and it doesn't get easier with the more advanced qualifications and modules.
•
If you have a total of 3 years' relevant work experience during your qualification, irrespective of how long it takes for you to complete your studies, you would meet the experience requirement of the qualification
•
You need to make sure the firm you work with have someone qualified under the qualification that you want to go for in order to qualify your experience e.g. if you're studying ACCA, at least one person in the firm needs to be ACCA qualified and you working with them at least occasionally to qualify your experience.
Now I'm intimidated. But with anything, these are skills and procedures you can learn right?
Admittedly I am stuck at the moment and looking at options. The accounting/office environments where I have worked at before have been competitive and a bit toxic, but I'm guessing not all companies/people are like that. I'm also considering work outside of offices like hospitality and currently doing a course. In my 20's I did not try as many new things as I could have so trying to do that now and include it all.
Thank you again for your help
Admittedly I am stuck at the moment and looking at options. The accounting/office environments where I have worked at before have been competitive and a bit toxic, but I'm guessing not all companies/people are like that. I'm also considering work outside of offices like hospitality and currently doing a course. In my 20's I did not try as many new things as I could have so trying to do that now and include it all.
Thank you again for your help
Now I'm intimidated. But with anything, these are skills and procedures you can learn right?
Yeah. It's usually pretty much standardised, so there's little creativity involved i.e. it's not a math problem.
I should have been clearer; those modules mentioned are a bit more quantitative than the others, but you're still not solving a math problem. The level of maths involved is never really beyond GCSE level. The procedures aren't straightforward though.
The accounting/office environments where I have worked at before have been competitive and a bit toxic, but I'm guessing not all companies/people are like that.
I suppose it depends on the environment. Where things are competitive, you're going to expect a bit of toxicity (at least in my experience).
You can try looking in the public sector, but it's then more bureaucratic and there might be a bit more office politics (at least from what I have heard).
I'm also considering work outside of offices like hospitality and currently doing a course.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as doing a course for hospitality, since you don't really need anything to get into the role.
If you're doing a more specialised qualification like SCAE, a sommelier qualification, hygiene certificate, beer sommelier, tea sommelier, etc. then I can possibly understand. Culinary school is also an option, only if it's from a world renowned institution e.g. Le Cordon Bleu.
I don't know what your alternative aspirations are, so it's difficult to say more. If you want to know anything specific about other industries, I will try to chime in.
Yeah. It's usually pretty much standardised, so there's little creativity involved i.e. it's not a math problem.
I should have been clearer; those modules mentioned are a bit more quantitative than the others, but you're still not solving a math problem. The level of maths involved is never really beyond GCSE level. The procedures aren't straightforward though.
The accounting/office environments where I have worked at before have been competitive and a bit toxic, but I'm guessing not all companies/people are like that.
I suppose it depends on the environment. Where things are competitive, you're going to expect a bit of toxicity (at least in my experience).
You can try looking in the public sector, but it's then more bureaucratic and there might be a bit more office politics (at least from what I have heard).
I'm also considering work outside of offices like hospitality and currently doing a course.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as doing a course for hospitality, since you don't really need anything to get into the role.
If you're doing a more specialised qualification like SCAE, a sommelier qualification, hygiene certificate, beer sommelier, tea sommelier, etc. then I can possibly understand. Culinary school is also an option, only if it's from a world renowned institution e.g. Le Cordon Bleu.
I don't know what your alternative aspirations are, so it's difficult to say more. If you want to know anything specific about other industries, I will try to chime in.
Thank you for your replies so far, they have been very helpful. I'm in a position where I can't really guess what an industry is like unless I have some experience in it so I'm trying to find ways in which I can. Which is why I'm doing a short hospitality course.
I do feel a bit lost but am trying to figure it out. Other options I have some interest in is marketing, hr, teaching, acting and some form of design like graphics. These will probably need qualifications and experience which I don't have yet.
Thank you
I do feel a bit lost but am trying to figure it out. Other options I have some interest in is marketing, hr, teaching, acting and some form of design like graphics. These will probably need qualifications and experience which I don't have yet.
Thank you
I'm going to make the following suggestions just to throw a spanner in the works for you:
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Hospitality - work in hospitality is pretty easy to get; options tend to be in hotels, event management, or restaurants; usually walking into one and asking for work is enough; usually no qualifications are required.
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Marketing - requires no qualifications, but CIM is internationally recognised should you look for one; usually you can take very short courses to give you a flavour; usually get the job via networking
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HR - similar to marketing, but you're looking at CIPD which is only recognised in the UK (laws tend to vary more than anything else when it comes to different countries); relatively easy to get if you're into recruitment. No qualifications really required.
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Teaching - people are practically begging for people to go into teaching, but it's still a lengthy vetting process. Teaching assistant roles usually give you a better flavour, and they tend to be OK to get even if you don't have any relevant qualifications. If you want to get into teaching, you would need a degree + PGCE with QTS or a BEd with QTS. If you want something to ease you into it, consider tutoring through an agency (still debating whether you actually need certain qualifications to be compliant as a tutor, but the agency should know what you need).
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Acting - volunteer at your local theatre; there's usually no money in theatre (or acting in general), but even so there's a lot of competition for roles. You would need to audition for these, but absolutely no qualifications are needed. You can usually apply to be an extra in the background of some play.
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Design - it's a broad industry, so you would need to be really specific. Generally don't require any qualifications, but they tend to expect you to have very good skills and a presentable portfolio. A course is still recommended (because of the complexity of the craft), but I haven't come across one that's usually recognised by any industry; the only industry that has recognised qualifications are those in architecture, but these qualifications/degrees are required by law. If you want to work as an assistant to get a flavour for architecture, by all means. Usually the entry level roles are for some sort of assistant.
I have just finished my 3 year accounting course here at UCLAN. I found that it was more based on problem solving than algebra and maths. There is some maths involved in the course however it is mainly simple maths such as adding, subtracting and maybe a little bit of timings.
Regarding the course there is plenty of new terminology you will need to learn to get through the course however some of this you should be learning in the workplace.
Good luck with the course and any questions feel free to ask me. 😀😀😀
Emma
3rd year Accounting and Finance student at UCLAN
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