PomPom Posted April 12, 2014 Report Share Posted April 12, 2014 Hi All, My OH is currently an FD in the UK with an FCCA qualification (Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant). He is currently looking in Perth for Senior Finance Manager positions and a number of them are asking for individuals to hold CPA or CA qualifications. He has already been granted a permanent residency visa based on his qualification, however we are concerned that his qualifications would not hold any strength with Australian employers. We are planning on moving out to Perth in December but he is really worried he may not get a job and potentially give up a really good job in the UK to find his qualifications mean nothing in Oz. Any advice from anyone would be extremely welcome. Thank you for reading this post and thank you even more if you've taken the time to reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid Posted April 12, 2014 Report Share Posted April 12, 2014 My wife is ACCA and struggled to get a job, the bigger companies only know CPA here so that is the preferred qualification, you can convert when you get here, CPA is making my wife do another 6 exams at $1000 a pop, a lot of smaller businesses accept ACCA it is quite a well known qualification, jobs in accountancy here in Perth seems to be a nightmare, all the Uni's about 4 off them are pumping out qualified accountants every year and then you have all the migrants too, I suppose at a higher level you might not have a problem, get your hubby to join CPA and become an affiliate member pending doing all the exams, so basically your hubby will be a member of the CPA and be able to apply for the jobs, when he gets one he will have to think about converting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PomPom Posted April 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2014 Hi Druid, That's great eat feedback, thank you. Just one more question? Can he become an affiliate whilst were still in the UK. If so, I don't suppose you have a website contact to do this (cheeky of me to ask I know). Thank you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid Posted April 12, 2014 Report Share Posted April 12, 2014 Hi Druid, That's great eat feedback, thank you. Just one more question? Can he become an affiliate whilst were still in the UK. If so, I don't suppose you have a website contact to do this (cheeky of me to ask I know). Thank you again. No reason why he can't do it all from the UK, Google CPA Australia or http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au and take it from there, he will have to pay for an assessment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest10912 Posted April 18, 2014 Report Share Posted April 18, 2014 Hi Druid, That's great eat feedback, thank you. Just one more question? Can he become an affiliate whilst were still in the UK. If so, I don't suppose you have a website contact to do this (cheeky of me to ask I know). Thank you again. I really disagree with the advice about becoming CPA. This is a lesser accountancy qualification even in Australia (where CA is the one to have) and certainly CPA is not of the standard of ACCA. Open book, multiple choice questions? Definitely not as rigorous as ACCA and there should be no need whatsoever for somebody at your husbands level to do this. Save your money. It won't enhance his CV. I can fully understand that your husband is not making any traction now, but very few people do before they arrive and the job market certainly is tight. But Australian employers well understand that UK qualified accountants have UK qualifications. He has a good job, good experience, he can hold his head high and not waste his money on getting qualifications he doesn't need. I do not know any UK accountants that have looked to acquire CPA or CA and I do know a lot of them, maybe 20 or so personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid Posted April 18, 2014 Report Share Posted April 18, 2014 I really disagree with the advice about becoming CPA. This is a lesser accountancy qualification even in Australia (where CA is the one to have) and certainly CPA is not of the standard of ACCA. Open book, multiple choice questions? Definitely not as rigorous as ACCA and there should be no need whatsoever for somebody at your husbands level to do this. Save your money. It won't enhance his CV. I can fully understand that your husband is not making any traction now, but very few people do before they arrive and the job market certainly is tight. But Australian employers well understand that UK qualified accountants have UK qualifications. He has a good job, good experience, he can hold his head high and not waste his money on getting qualifications he doesn't need. I do not know any UK accountants that have looked to acquire CPA or CA and I do know a lot of them, maybe 20 or so personally. We all agree with you, converting to CPA is a load of croc, at the moment my wife is working as a Finance Officer at City of Perth, she won't get a look in upstairs in the Accounts department unless she has CPA, even though she is qualified ACCA & AAT, so basically, if you want to move on you need CPA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest10912 Posted April 18, 2014 Report Share Posted April 18, 2014 We all agree with you, converting to CPA is a load of croc, at the moment my wife is working as a Finance Officer at City of Perth, she won't get a look in upstairs in the Accounts department unless she has CPA, even though she is qualified ACCA & AAT, so basically, if you want to move on you need CPA. I am not just saying that it is a load of croc in principle, but in practice as well. I can think of eight people with ACCA, personally known to me, and none had any issues and all are flourishing in their careers here. I think this advice is misplaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou8670 Posted April 18, 2014 Report Share Posted April 18, 2014 (edited) Interestingly most government agencies in the UK now quote that the applicant needs to be a qualified accountant and recognise that qualifications from other countries are just as valid. With IFRS accounting is becoming more and more global. I also agree with Rupert. If you start again with CPA you're undermining your FCCA qualification. ACCA has a presence in Australia and CPD can be undertaken through the institute. The only benefit of joining CPA may be if you can attend networking and CPD events. Also I think we should all be promoting our ACCA qualifications in WA and raising ACCA's profile rather than trying to undermine it. The advice my hubby received was to state the qualification in full and provide an explanation of what the qualification is and is equivalent to in Oz. I applied for a Senior Finance job in WA Health and secured an interview with my ACCA qualification. I had relevant health experience, met all of their criteria and put in a good application. TBH I would have been shocked if I'd not secured an interview. It was the first and only job I've applied for so I haven't had a negative experience with "only" being ACCA qualified. I do think though that generally it is more difficult for employers to take you seriously if you are not in the country. I think my success above was due to it being a government job and they could not discriminate because of my post code. Also, expect the job search to be slow if arriving in December. We've been warned that recruitment slows down in December through to beginning of February as that's the main school holidays and many employees take leave or offices shut down so there's not a lot of recruitment going on. Good luck with your search but you may, like us, have to take a leap of faith. Lou Edited April 18, 2014 by Lou8670 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest10912 Posted April 19, 2014 Report Share Posted April 19, 2014 Interestingly most government agencies in the UK now quote that the applicant needs to be a qualified accountant and recognise that qualifications from other countries are just as valid. With IFRS accounting is becoming more and more global. I also agree with Rupert. If you start again with CPA you're undermining your FCCA qualification. ACCA has a presence in Australia and CPD can be undertaken through the institute. The only benefit of joining CPA may be if you can attend networking and CPD events. Also I think we should all be promoting our ACCA qualifications in WA and raising ACCA's profile rather than trying to undermine it. The advice my hubby received was to state the qualification in full and provide an explanation of what the qualification is and is equivalent to in Oz. I applied for a Senior Finance job in WA Health and secured an interview with my ACCA qualification. I had relevant health experience, met all of their criteria and put in a good application. TBH I would have been shocked if I'd not secured an interview. It was the first and only job I've applied for so I haven't had a negative experience with "only" being ACCA qualified. I do think though that generally it is more difficult for employers to take you seriously if you are not in the country. I think my success above was due to it being a government job and they could not discriminate because of my post code. Also, expect the job search to be slow if arriving in December. We've been warned that recruitment slows down in December through to beginning of February as that's the main school holidays and many employees take leave or offices shut down so there's not a lot of recruitment going on. Good luck with your search but you may, like us, have to take a leap of faith. Lou Excellent post Lou. You are spot in in every respect IMHO. Good point on networking too, networking is very important in Australia, more so I have found than in UK. I think you can network with CPA anyway, I have been a speaker at CPA event and not being a member was not an issue. They don't want to limit their own network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PomPom Posted April 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2014 Hi Lou and Rupert, Can I thank you both for such in-depth feedback on this subject. My OH is more confident that his hard earned qualifications actually mean something. He is coming over at the beginning of November (ahead of me and our son) in the hope of securing work (and rental etc), so it's interesting what you say about work being tight during school holidays, hopefully he'll avoid that. Once again, thank you so very much for taking the time to reply to my message. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou8670 Posted April 19, 2014 Report Share Posted April 19, 2014 Hi Lou and Rupert, Can I thank you both for such in-depth feedback on this subject. My OH is more confident that his hard earned qualifications actually mean something. He is coming over at the beginning of November (ahead of me and our son) in the hope of securing work (and rental etc), so it's interesting what you say about work being tight during school holidays, hopefully he'll avoid that. Once again, thank you so very much for taking the time to reply to my message. No problem. We'll have been in WA for nearly 6 months by then so keep on touch and happy to help in anyway we can! Both oh and I are also accountants although oh does more operational roles. So hopefully we'd have more of an insight by then. Good luck Lou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verystormy Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Hi Lou and Rupert, Can I thank you both for such in-depth feedback on this subject. My OH is more confident that his hard earned qualifications actually mean something. He is coming over at the beginning of November (ahead of me and our son) in the hope of securing work (and rental etc), so it's interesting what you say about work being tight during school holidays, hopefully he'll avoid that. Once again, thank you so very much for taking the time to reply to my message. Just be aware that many employers stop recruiting from the end of November and dont start again until February. So budget for the possibility he wont find work until February / March Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppulini Posted June 30, 2014 Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 Hi PomPom, I'm curious how things are going for you and whether your OH managed to find work? I've also secured my Permanent Residency and am planning on moving down to Perth end of August. I'm a Financial Controller based in London and am a bit nervous about the job market out there as I've heard it's very competitive at the moment. Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppulini Posted June 30, 2014 Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 For some reason I thought this was posted last year... so you've not yet moved. Sorry for the confusion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou8670 Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 Hi PomPom, I'm curious how things are going for you and whether your OH managed to find work? I've also secured my Permanent Residency and am planning on moving down to Perth end of August. I'm a Financial Controller based in London and am a bit nervous about the job market out there as I've heard it's very competitive at the moment. Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks It's not "easy" to find work but there are finance jobs out there. We're witnessing that the market is not as big as you first think and we're meeting people who know other people we've met or talked to IYKWIM. But there is work out there...just make sure you have plenty of cash because it can take some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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