Can I study for the ACA while working in consulting?

Dear All,

I am a Business Computing graduate, I graduated in 2003. Over the last couple of years I have spent my time sending application forms, attending interviews and working part time for a market research company (a not relevant experience at all!!). I have had my interviews mostly with investment banks mainly for IT jobs or sort of back/middle office jobs, but I have been overall unsuccessful!

Now I am considering studying for the ACA whether or not I manage to get a training contract with an accounting practice. Due to the increased hiring news in consulting, I am more than tempted to apply with a consulting firm. But I still want to study for the ACA as it will definitely open up a world of opportunities.

The question is, can I study for the ACA while working in consulting, is it NOT recommended or is this idea completely ridiculous? Has anyone done this before?

Any advices and comments would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks.

Hi.

I had a quick read and the simple answer is NO. In order to do ACA you need to have, I believe its 1 and half years experience in Audit working and studying at the same time. Once you have that experience a move into a different area is allowed. A suggestion for you is to consider ACCA - the reason why I say this is because the ACCA does not require you to work in audit in order to obtain the memebership. ACCA is also a worldwide qualification and not UK based like ACA if you are considering international consulting roles. Also it maybe worth noting that ACA is mergering with CIMA and the public accounting body CIPA (I THINK) and therefore the presitge of ACA will soon be gone! Just for your information my background is ACCA CTA with PwC and I am now looking at moving into Strategy consulting but finding it quite hard. So if a consulting offer comes your way snap it up! Good luck with it all.

Don't you need practical accounting experience if you do either ACCA or CIMA though? In which case, how could someone working in management consulting gain this experience? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated....Thanks.

I know someone that is studying ACA and working in a management consulting firm. The requirement for ACA is that you need to have accounting experience. Whilst saying that, accounting experience is a broad term and does include 'consulting'. Accounting is the foundation of any work that involves a business and therefore, it can be applied.

However, as consulting firms are generally not registered to have their employees study ACA, I think there could be requirements for you to apply for a special case and just have to explain how your consulting job relates to accounting experience (e.g. financial statement analysis, strategy, budget accounting, KPIs, balanced scorecard etc - these are all studied as part of the ACA)

Just a note though, it's going to be tough working in consulting and studying ACA at the same time! Good luck...

This is my understanding but someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Please furnish me with the detailed informations on how to be part of that programme.

Thanks.