ACCA Studies:

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) markets itself as a "global body for professional accountants" and is one of the largest of its kind, so obtaining one of their qualifications would without a doubt fast-track your accounting career!


ACCA recently updated their qualifications. ACCA Studies now contains five qualifications that you can do. These qualifications are:

• Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Diploma in Accounting and Business
• Certified Accounting Technician (CAT)
• Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA)

The Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting is a great course for students who are interested in working in:

• A junior accounts clerk or a junior bookkeeper role in a small or medium enterprise,
• A wide selection of junior accounting administration positions in a accounting department of larger corporations or even a financial shared service centre.

The Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting is a great course for students who are interested in working in:

• A bookkeeping or cost clerk role in a small or medium enterprise,
• A wide selection of junior accounting administration positions in a accounting department of larger corporations or even a financial shared service centre.

The Diploma in Accounting and Business is a great course for students who are interested in working in:

• Basic bookkeeping,
• The role of a trainee accountant in an accounting practice or a commercial organisation,
• The public sector as an accounts clerk.

The CAT qualification is ideal for students who wish to become Certified Accounting Technicians. This course would prepare them to perform the functions of an accounting assistant who fulfils a very important supporting role within any company's financial department.


Please Note: If you successfully obtain this CAT qualification, you would automatically be considered for the ACCA qualification, as this first qualification grants you certain exemptions.


The ACCA qualification is ideal for students who wish to become Chartered Certified Accountants. Their function would be to fill managerial positions within a company's accounting department and this job comes with a lot of responsibility.


To find out more information about each of these programmes, please click on the following links below, OR, continue reading for an overview of the courses:

• Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Diploma in Accounting and Business
• Certified Accounting Technician (CAT)
• Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA)

The Courses: An Overview

Because there are new courses in ACCA Studies now, we will tell you in detail how all the courses fit into each other.


The first three courses are called the Foundations in Accountancy courses. They are open-access courses. That means that you don’t need to have any previous qualifications to do these courses. These courses are:

• Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Diploma in Accounting and Business

You can do any of these three courses on their own. You don’t need to do for example the Introductory Certificate to be able to do the Intermediate Certificate or the Diploma.


When you do one of these three courses, you will need to do a new module called Foundations in Professionalism. This is a compulsory module for all the courses offered by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. If you do more than one of the courses offered by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants you will not need to do the Foundations in Professionalism module more than once. If you did the module for one course, you do not need to do it again for your next course with ACCA.


If you want to do the CAT qualification, you need to do all three the courses mentioned above. So the entrance criteria for the CAT qualification is now:

• Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Diploma in Accounting and Business

If you want to do the ACCA Qualification, you will need to do the following courses

• Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting
• Diploma in Accounting and Business

The CAT qualification is no longer needed to do the ACCA qualification, but it is highly recommended that you do the CAT qualification before you do the ACCA qualification. This is because some very important subjects are covered in CAT that is not covered in ACCA.

When you register for the ACCA Qualification, you will receive the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business on your way to the ACCA Qualification.

You cannot register for the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business, it is a bonus qualification you get for doing the ACCA Qualification.