CAP 1

Shirr

Hi guys,

I am starting a trainee contract with an accounting firm next month where they'll be sending me to college to study with Chartered Accountants of Ireland in October.

I have no previous background in the area and if anyone has any tips it would be extremely appreciated.

I am also wondering if anyone has previously done this mode of part time study and would be able to link me a timetable or tell me the contact hours in college? How many times a week/evenings or weekends? As I am trying to decide if commuting or moving closer would suit me best.

Thanks in advance.

Humour Me

Are you going to based in Dublin? Lectures take place in the Chartered Accountants building on Pearse Street and you will have a mixture of evening and weekend lectures. Evening lectures during the week finish at 9 or later if you are relying on public transport.

Since you are starting at CAP 1, the lectures assume no prior knowledge. It's worth attending lectures to stay on top of the workload so that you are not overwhelmed by the time study leave starts.

Shirr

Yeah, I will be based in Dublin very near Pearse street. My buses home are very infrequent if that is the route I am choosing so it factors in what time lectures will be done.

Thanks for the info and advise. Do you or anyone else know if I will have to attend college once a week on average or will it be more?

Thanks again.

tanit

As Humour Me says Cap1 assumes no previous knowledge but they are considering that you come from college and have experience at studying subjects at college level.

Advice from someone that has been doing Chartered for the last 2 years:

Go to the lectures, if you are in big firm they watch the attendance list like hawks. In smaller firms they may be more lax about. But regardless I found going to the lectures very important it helps you when you are starting to study on you own and if you have any doubts you can ask the lecturer when you are in class. They have online lectures for all the sessions on the student website but they use silverlight and the institute has not yet updated to more "modern" video technologies (okay I give them points for trying to keep up to date with technology, but seriously the whole silverlight plugin in 2017 is ..... annoying)

For Cap 1 they have lectures in Galway, Cork and Dublin. I had to go to Dublin for lectures. You choose the group if you can't go on a regular basis you would be better on Distance and the lectures in that group are always on weekends Saturdays and Sundays and if you don't have exemptions you will have to do the full weekend: lectures on both Saturday and Sunday. So you either go home after the lecture on Saturday and go back on Sunday morning (they started at 10am) or you stay in Dublin. If you stay and have no family or friends to stay with I recommend you Airbnb, book the places in advance around the Chartered House or within walking distance. It's going to be cheaper than a hotel and the places I was staying in the people were very nice and I had no issue whatsoever, I can give you the names in Airbnb if you want

For the rest of the groups they assume they are close to the lectures and you might have them during the week after work. As far as I know the lectures that take place during work week never start before 18.30 and you should have time to get there (so long as you are not in Dublin and the traffic has gone insane). Once you register you will have access to the student website and the old timetables. Use them to choose your group or send them an email telling them your situation and asking them which group will be better for you.

Best of luck with the course

Humour Me

Shirr wrote: »

Do you or anyone else know if I will have to attend college once a week on average or will it be more?

It will depend on how many subjects you are doing. If you are doing all 5 CAP 1 subjects then you will possibly have two lectures a week plus full days Sat/Sun as well. Some firms require their trainees to attend a certain % of lectures. CAI record attendance and report to the firms who monitor attendance on a weekly basis. Your firm will let you know what they expect from you when you start.

What department are you going into - audit, tax, advisory? Depending on your role you may be working a lot of overtime, so factor that into your decision to commute.

The_Pretender

For Cap 1 you will average 1 evening & 1 full day every week. For me it was a Monday or Wednesday 18:30-21:30 along with a full day on the weekend with it being Saturday one week and Sunday the next. Prior to Christmas though it was a full weekend every second week instead of one day every weekend.

Lyra Fangs

I did my cap 1s two years ago coming from a non-business background. I hadn't heard the words debit/credit (in an accounting context) since junior cert.

Going to lectures is tough - full weekends and 1/2 nights a week can be a lot on top of work.

I'll be honest I went to very few lectures but I did watch them all online - they're not as good (particularly for Financial Accounting and Finance - at least when I did cap 1s) and you lose the ability to interact/ask questions but they can be handy when you don't want to sacrifice another weekend.

It comes down to personal preference really - I knew I would watch the online so that suited me but I know people who would say they'd watch the online but it would never happen.

ACASlayer

Go to the physical classes. Participate. Suck it up. 
You'll be exhausted and holding your eyes open with sticks, but you'll push through and get them, and there isn't a better feeling.

Shirr

Thanks for all the help guys, I know it will be tough but manageable now once I keep on top of things!

I will be doing audit so I am not sure how much overtime that will entail. I have contacted my firm and they said we can discuss which type of studying I will be doing - so that sounds positive for doing distance. As I am planning on commuting with rent prices gone insane.

tanit wrote: »

If you stay and have no family or friends to stay with I recommend you Airbnb, book the places in advance around the Chartered House or within walking distance. It's going to be cheaper than a hotel and the places I was staying in the people were very nice and I had no issue whatsoever, I can give you the names in Airbnb if you want

That would be great Tanit, I will be in touch in the next week once I know whether I'll be doing distance learning or not. Thanks