Accounting work

[Guest Brendan]

I am in the process of submitting my skills test to the Australian Accounting Authorites, the monitoring agent on behalf the Aussie Govt. Is anyone clear on the critieria as I do not have a degree but I am fully qualified with over 10 years experience.

 

Also, does anyone know what the current situation is for accounting jobs in Queensland / Perth

 

Cheers

 

B

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Hi Brendan

 

I am located in Perth and employers are crying out for accountants. In fact Australia needs accountants desperately.

 

Are you a member of any accounting body in UK?

 

If you do not qualify for positive skills assessment, there may be possibilities with employer sponsored visa's.

 

regards

 

phil

[Guest Brendan]

Bloody hell Phil that was quick. I am a fellow of ACCC (FCCA) and have been qualified for 8 years. I have lots of experience as well as my professional qualification but did not sit a university degree.

 

I recently attended the Australia needs skills expo in London; mainly engineering and health sectors recruiting but most of the State Governments were pretty positive about my chances of getting employment,

 

Cheers B

[Guest Lou76]

Hi Brendan,

 

I'mnot 100% on this but a lack of degree may well not matter. I submitted my skills assessment to the ICAA in Oz and as my degree is non relevant (food & human nutrition) it was basically ignored and I didn't have to submit transcripts. They only wanted my CIMA transcript and exam results etc, and evidence of work experience (employer's references).

 

Good luck!

[Guest spray21]

This is slightly off topic, apologies, but I wonder if any one has any ideas about the following:

I'm thinking of re-training once in Oz next year, and am looking for something that I can work my way up in which will eventually lead to a good salary (even if I start on poor wages whilst training).

I know in the UK it is possible to start off with a company on £12000 or so and then as you sit exams your pay goes up. However when I've searched for similar vacancies on Australian websites they are all asking for graduates.

Will I need to go back to college in Oz before I can retrain, or are there training jobs there as there are here?

Any advice much appreciated! Thanks!

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Hi Guys

 

firstly Brendan

 

The ICAA criteria are as follows FAQ's:

 

Q. I have worked several years as an accountant, but I do not have any formal qualifications. How will my skills be assessed for the purpose of migration?

 

A. You must have formal tertiary qualifications to be considered as a skilled Accountant for the purpose of migration to Australia. If you do not have qualifications, which are assessed as at least comparable to the educational level of an Australian Bachelor degree, your qualifications will be assessed as not suitable for the purpose of migration under your skilled migration occupation. For example, if you have completed an Australian TAFE diploma only, you should not apply for skills assessment with the Institute.

 

The CPA and NIA sites have similar descriptions of teh criteria.

 

I think the description fits your circumstances. Unfortunately, that seems to be pretty clear that you do need a degree or equivalent.

 

That does not mean that you cannot get here under the employer sponsored route,either on a temporary leading to permenent visa or straight to a permenent visa (ENS). Australia is currently in critical shortage including accountants. i know a number of recruiters around town (Perth) and there are many jobs available. However, it is a case of identifting an employer prepared to sponsor you.

 

if you would like more infomation, I would be pleased to provide

 

Spray21

 

Retraining is always possible and encouraged in Australia. Wen you get here (preumably on a skilled visa), nothing stops you training immediately for another skill

 

Hope that assists guys

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Sorry Brendan, I should have said temporary visa leading to a permenent. Striaght to ENS would require a skills assessment or to be paid > $165,000.

 

Reagrds

[Guest V&G]

Extra advice

 

We have a visa appl in at the moment based on my husbands skills (bricklayer - C&G with 20yrs exp), I am a qualified Accounting Technician (AAT) and this year gained my Advanced Diploma in Accounting with CIMA (just got finals to do). I have been running my own business for last few years so no recent full time work experience.

 

My question is how could I finish my training in Australia when we (hopefully) get there - should I continue with CIMA as o/seas student or can I transfer onto an Australia course?

 

Many thanks

 

Vicki

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Hi Vicki

 

How far off your finals are you?

 

There are 3 accounting bodies in Australia

 

Institute of Chartered Accountants ICAA (http://www.icaa.com.au)

 

Cerified Practicing Accountants CPA (http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au)

 

National Institute of Accountants (http://www.nia.org.au) (The Australian AAT is advertised on this site).

 

Should you continue studies - really depend on what you want to do here.

It depends on whether you value the qualification, can convert readily and what you want to do when you get here.

 

My view on qualifications (and this is a personal view only) - you've done most of teh hard work, why not get the qualifiaction to go with it - it always sounds better I feel if you say you are a CIMA qualified, than almost qualified.

 

At the end of the day it is personal choice and there are a number of study alternative - have a browse of the sites above and if you want more help, please let me know.

 

Hope that helps

[Guest V&G]

Hi Phil

 

Thanks for that.

 

It was a bit of a blessing for me when CIMA introduced their new structure last year whereby you get a qualification for completing the "middle" section of their program - this has given my Advanced Diploma. I don't forsee returning to accounting as a full time career as the plan is for me to give up work when we get out there (although everyone is convinced I won't be able to "stay home"). What I'd really like to do is teach maths to primary age kids but not sure how or how long the studies for this would take. Really I guess I just need to know that if we realise we can't manage financially on Grahams wage (bricklayer) then I have the option of going back to work either part or full time as required.

 

We're coming out to Perth in January to do some house, school, job hunting so hopefully thing will become much clearer then.

 

Regards

 

Vicki

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Hi Vicki

 

Please look me up when you get here. Brickies and tradies do well in Perth if their prepared to work hard, which most are.

 

Perth is great and lots of work here

 

Look forward to meeting up when you get here

 

Regards

[Guest spray21]

Vicki - swap! I'm a qualified teacher and looking into accountancy! There must be some sort of character-profile that we both fit in to!

I've seen that I could do a Diploma with a TAFE college - I was hoping that it might give me a leg-up in to a job with slightly decent wages. I might be being too hopeful though! Will investigate more once out there.

[Guest Brendan]

THanks fgor the replies. I have contacted the three ccounting bodies concerned and it appears that two out of the three are open to my qualifications and experience, the CPA being the one that isn't.

 

Now to submit my asessment and get on with the migration proocess.

 

Cheers

 

B

[Guest Phil Olsen]

Hi Brendan

 

Thats great

 

please let us know how you get on

 

Phil

[Alan Collett]

Brendan,

 

You should be OK to proceed as an ACCA qualified accountant - the ICAA (who we use for accountant clients) and the other assessing bodies for accountants (I believe) considers the ACCA qualification as equivalent to an Australian degree => you can reasonably anticipate a positive skills assessment classification.

 

Best regards.

[connaust]

If you require further study to complete or gain a (Australian) qualification we can help.

 

Alternatives are off shore university study and/or VET (Vocational level) with potential for credits and recognition of prior learning RPL, quite economic.

 

On shore 2 year accounting study options available including potential for credit transfer, RPL etc., under grad from AUD10K pa to Masters from AUD12.5K pa.

 

Any questions just ask, we are under contract to most education institutions and do not charge any consulting fees, you pay school fees direct to institution under trust.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew Smith

Cert. IV WPA, B. Bus. & M. Ed.

http://www.aiec.biz

[Guest gail.crease]

Thought I'd add my pennies worth to the discussion. I'm an American qualified accountant with a UK business studies degree with a concentration in accounting. I did my skills assessment with the CPA body. I had to get transcripts which were signed by the appropriate person (one was rejected as it wasn't signed and wasn't on letter headed paper) and course descriptions on every course I'd done which was a nightmare as I've studied in the UK, US, Canada and Bermuda. It took me a long time to get the paperwork together. One old university had merged with another one and don't even do the same degrees now so I couldn't get any course descriptions. In the end I had to write my own descriptions of eveything I'd learned in each course. It was difficult to remember as it was so long ago. Anyway my application was successful in the end. It took 5 months for them to approve it as there were so many accountants applying that they had a big back log.

 

The CPA's focus is on having a degree and they don't recognise ACCA and CIMA if you don't have a degree which I thought was strange. So for ACCA and CIMA go through ICAA for skills assessment.

 

Once I'm in Oz if I want to join their professional body I have to take a tax and a business law exam. This is the same practice in the US if anyone wants to convert to being a CPA over there. I was concerned that I needed to do this before I could work in Australia so I spoke to a recruitment agent at Michael Page. She told me that there was such a shortage that I wouldn't be out of work for more than a month and no I didn't need to convert to an Australian qualification although it would be beneficial if I did it. She did say to gain some local knowledge before I started interviewing. Not sure how to go about this. I hope to contract over there and take jobs in the beginning where I don't need to know anything on Australian tax or GAAP or get a job with an international company. Hopefully I'll pick up local knowledge as I go along.

[Guest oz migration]

Hi Brendan

 

If you need help locating work I would be glad to help as well - if required.

 

Go to our website click on 'Others - professions in demand' and join filling out the details required.

 

I will get back to you from there. As per previous posters there is a lot of work for good> accountants (companies) and even greater for CA.

 

Kind regards

 

Chris

[Guest Missiemo]

Hi Vicki

 

How far off your finals are you?

 

There are 3 accounting bodies in Australia

 

Institute of Chartered Accountants ICAA (http://www.icaa.com.au)

 

Cerified Practicing Accountants CPA (http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au)

 

National Institute of Accountants (http://www.nia.org.au) (The Australian AAT is advertised on this site).

 

Should you continue studies - really depend on what you want to do here.

It depends on whether you value the qualification, can convert readily and what you want to do when you get here.

 

My view on qualifications (and this is a personal view only) - you've done most of teh hard work, why not get the qualifiaction to go with it - it always sounds better I feel if you say you are a CIMA qualified, than almost qualified.

 

At the end of the day it is personal choice and there are a number of study alternative - have a browse of the sites above and if you want more help, please let me know.

 

Hope that helps

 

Hi Phil

 

I have been doing Accounting in the Uk for over 15 years but never qualified, now I am in OZ and no longer need to work to live my husband is encouraging me to gain a qualification, what would you recommend as in which one to take.

 

Thanks

 

Mo