What is ACCA Course?
ACCA stands for Association for Chartered Certified Accountants. It is a UK based accounting body, founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the oldest global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant / ACCA qualification. ACCA Course is also one of the most widely accepted accounting qualifications with over 250,000 members and 600,000 students in 180 countries. ACCA is headquartered in London, and works through a network of over 100 offices and centers in 52 countries with more than 7,000 Approved Employers worldwide (India included).
The ACCA Course is divided into 3 levels, Knowledge Level, Applied Skills and Applied Professional level. Knowledge level consists of 3 papers, Business and Technology (BT), Management Accounting (MA) and Financial Accounting (FA). All these papers are on demand computer based exams, can be sat any time of the year from home as well as approved CBE centers. The papers are 2 hours long and consist of Multi task questions, and are all objective type.
The Skills level consists of 6 papers, Corporate and Business Law (LW), Performance Management (PM), Taxation (TX), Financial Reporting (FR), Audit and Assurance (AA) and Financial Management (FM). Again just like knowledge level these are online exams however they are session bases, i.e. ACCA exams are conducted in March, June, September and December every year. The ACCA exams can be done from home as well as ACCA designated centers all over the world. The papers are Multi Task as well as long scenario based questions, with 60% objective and rest long questions. AA is an exception where 30% is objective and rest all long questions.
The final level is professional level wherein there are 6 papers, Strategic Business Leader (SBL– Essential), Strategic Business Reporting (SBR – Essential), Advanced Financial Management (AFM), Advanced Performance Management (APM), Advances Taxation (ATX), Advance Audit and Assurance (AAA). The first two papers i.e. SBL and SBR are essential, and from the remaining 4 you need to select any 2. Therefore ACCA gives you an opportunity to specialize in the area you would like which makes the ACCA Course all the more flexible. Here the format is completely scenario based, therefore only if your concepts are clear, you will be able to crack the papers.
In terms of pass rates, the avg. at KL is about 70%, whereas at SL it is around 45%, and at PL is around 42%. Therefore overall the pass rates are in the range of 40 to 50% which makes it a very doable course. Of course, one cannot assume the ACCA Course to be easy, it is very rigorous, and people should take the advantage of 1 paper every quarter and try and finish the course in about 3.5 years. In terms of eligibility, any who has cleared their 10th should be able to start their ACCA journey through Foundations in Accountancy (FIA) route. If people have cleared their 12th, they directly start with ACCA Course. However, irrespective of the route you chose, the number of papers are 13.
If you are a graduate, then you will get exemptions from the basic streams you graduate from. For e.g. a commerce graduate would easily first 4 papers exemptions, with a fully qualified CA would get 9 papers. Part qualified CA can get anywhere between 3 – 9 papers therefore we would suggest to speak to a course expert to know your exemptions.
Once you are done with ACCA Course, the jobs are available in all the streams i.e. Tax, Audit, Accounting, Finance etc. with most of the MNC’s hiring ACCA’s round the year. Also Big 4’s usually hire in big numbers with salaries starting as high as 6 lacs for fresher ACCA. Therefore when it comes to opportunities, not only do ACCA’s have global options, they also have international opportunities. So overall it’s a great course, and anyone who wants to become a CA however wants to only sit for one paper at a time, and more flexibility of when to sit which papers, then ACCA is the right choice.
If you do plan to do the ACCA Course, you should definitely go with an approved partner who will ensure not only the right level of support but also the push to the students that is sometimes required in courses like ACCA.
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