The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is one of the highly reputed courses that is accepted globally and has immense scope in the long run. For students who specialize in accountancy in their school groups, the ACCA course will be a perfect fit for them. It focuses mainly on Accountancy and Finance.
The course requires a few pre-requisites in the 10+2 exams, mainly in the subjects of accountancy and mathematics. This sets a strong base for students enrolling for their foundation level ACCA examinations.
But compared to other professional courses, how long does it take for an individual to complete the ACCA course? Let’s take a look at all the requirements and conditions and the time taken for a student to complete the ACCA qualification.
In normal terms, it would take a maximum of 4 years to complete the ACCA course, and be recognized as a qualified professional. One has to pass 13 exams that are divided into 3 levels. But to understand the entire module in detail here is a break-up of the course:
How Long Does It Take To Complete ACCA
1. If you are joining after your 12th:
If a student joins after 12th standard, he has to take a total of 13 papers. These papers will cover different areas of accounting and finance. The candidate can take 8 papers per year, which leads to the student completing the course in 1.5 years in a good run. On average, it takes students 2.5 to 3 years to complete.
2. If you are joining after your graduation:
Depending on your core subjects in your graduation programs, you will be exempted from a few subjects. In most cases, a B.Com graduate will be exempted from appearing for 4 papers, thus reducing the count to 9 subjects and allowing them to complete the course within 1.5 years of graduation. So add the total number of your graduating years with 1.5 and that will the number of years it will take for you to graduate.
3. Other Professionals:
Other professionals like CA, CS, etc. can also take up ACCA and complete in an even lesser time based on their qualification. E.g., A qualified Chartered Accountant will only require taking up 4 papers as 9 papers will be exempted, thus making it possible to complete the qualification in 6 months to 9 months.
Compared to other professional courses, ACCA takes lesser time and doesn’t include work experience as a form of articleship. Even though work experience is compulsory, it is viewed as a job experience as a professional with proper exposure and a salary.
So if all the papers are cleared in the first go, a student can crack it in 1.5 years, and on average, it takes about 3 to 4 years, for the course to complete. For other professional courses, the time period can go up to 6 years. So based on your education base and experience, plan your ACCA course the right way.