Practical experience requirements
With effect from January 2011, new arrangements for demonstrating CAT practical experience requirements under the Foundations in Accountancy suite of qualifications have been introduced. Foundations in practical experience requirements (FPER) must be completed by all students who have registered for CAT from January 2011 onwards.
Students who have registered for CAT before the end of 2010, can submit their Trainee Training Record (TTR) up to and including the 31st December 2011, or they may elect to complete the new FPER. After that date only the FPER will be accepted.
Details about this are available on the Practical experience requirements page.
To become a Certified Accounting Technician, you must pass or be exempt from the CAT exams and either:
- achieve a Level 4 NVQ in Accounting (NVQ Route)
or
- meet ACCA's practical experience requirements (Practical Experience Route).
The NVQ route
If you achieve a Level 4 NVQ in Accounting you are not required to complete the Technician Training Record (TTR). However, you will be required to provide evidence of your NVQ achievement e.g. NVQ certificate.
The Practical Experience route
If you follow the practical experience route you must obtain at least one year's supervised work experience and meet the minimum competence requirements for Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) status. You must provide evidence that you have fulfilled the CAT practical experience requirements by completing the TTR forms.
Mixed Practical Experience and NVQ route
If you achieve an NVQ in Accounting at Level 2 or 3, but do not achieve Level 4 then you are required to obtain at least one year's supervised work experience and complete the TTR forms. However, as you have already demonstrated competence in some of the units of competence required for the CAT qualification, you will not need to obtain work experience in those units.
NVQ achievements should be recorded in the TTR and will count towards the CAT competence requirements.
This section also contains further information about matching Accounting NVQs to Certified Accounting Technician units of competence.
Note to students: If you registered on the CAT scheme before 15 August 2003 you can either complete the new style TTR forms or the version you will have received with your original post-registration pack. Please note that you should complete one or the other - a mixture of the two forms will not be acceptable. If you have registered to complete exams on the new CAT scheme, you should complete the new CAT scheme TTR forms.