Who employs accounting technicians?
You could either work for a firm of accountants, or in the accounts department of any organisation – commercial, industrial, local and central government, the National Health Service, shops and hotels, charities and voluntary organisations. And what qualifications are needed? You don’t need any formal qualifications to train as an accounting technician. You must be over 16 and have a good standard of English and an interest in maths. But if you have an A-level in accounting or two A-levels in other subjects, or some other specified qualifications, you can gain exemption from part of the training. Where do you train and what do you get? It’s very much on-the-job. Two organisations, the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), offer national vocational qualifications (NVQs) for accounting technicians and the AAT runs training programmes at approved centres and in the workplace. And what about older entrants? Both AAT and A
