Professional Undergraduate Finance Degrees
Speaking about education in the field of finance we can’t miss the most popular undergraduate degrees such as ACCA, CIMA, CFA, and CIM. Therefore let’s take a closer look at these professional finance programmes.
ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
Why study ACCA? Of course this question inevitably comes to any possible ACCA student’s mind. The answer is quite vivid although. ACCA is one of the largest professional accountancy body established in 1940 numbers more than 120.000 members and about 350.000 students worldwide.
ACCA programme is concentrated on professional practice. It gives essential knowledge in financial accounting and reporting as well as in information systems; also provides with deep fundamental knowledge in law, external audit and taxation of corporate and non-corporate entities.
While taking an ACCA course you have to decide a number of other options. For example, whether you are going to find a tuition provider or get ready for the exams by yourself. If you are not sure you have enough responsibility and self-motivation to study at home, then finding the tuition provider is the best option for you. But that’s not as easy as it may seem from the first sight.
Beware of scammers and other cheaters. If you choose to study with the tuition provider, it’s strongly recommended to check the institution to be approved under ACCA’s Approved Learning Partner – Student Tuition programme. When you come up with the decision where to take the ACCA course, be sure to check the necessary requirement for the course.
Minimum Entry requirements:
- Two A Levels and 3 GCSEs in five separate subjects, including English and Mathematics, or the equivalent.
Speaking about career prospects, I can say that ACCA qualification is a key to a new world of perspectives. You can become a Chartered Certified Accountant and work in any finance or management field in any business.
CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants)
First of all, let’s see the main differences between CIMA and ACCA degrees. CIMA is focused on business. CIMA course pays more attention to human recourse management and applied management accounting techniques; also it’s covering deeply operations, marketing, relationship and project management and change management.
Some words about Minimum Entry Requirements:
- at least five GCSE passes (or local equivalent), where 2 out of 5 must be at Advanced level and 2 out of 5 must be in Mathematics and English Language, not necessarily at Advanced level
Speaking about career prospects, I’d like to emphasize that you will have almost endless opportunities for your career promotion. You can find a job of manager, system analyst, HR manager, commercial manager, management accountant, business analyst, chief operating officer, commercial director or even managing director.
CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
It can be quite hard to understand the differences between undergraduate finance degrees; therefore the definition provided is aimed to help you see the differences between CFA and ACCA/CIMA. So CFA is basically focused on financial analysis, it profoundly explores economics, portfolio management, asset valuation, analysis of investments.
To be eligible for the CFA course, make sure you have:
- a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree, or are in the final year of your Bachelor’s degree programme, or have 4 years of qualified, professional work experience, or have a combination of work and college experience that totals at least 4 years.
Summing everything up, it’s needless to say that no matter what finance degree you will choose, it’s always a big plus to your CV and opens huge perspectives to your future career promotion.
If you consider taking a postgraduate degree, check the article about choosing MBA Specialisations.
