AAT was the perfect foundation for me to study CIMA and advance my career

Studying AAT paved the way for Tom Morfett to achieve the CIMA designation and progress his career at the Ministry of Defence.

When I completed my AAT Level 4 qualifications, my name suddenly became appended with four new letters. No longer was I just ‘Tom Morfett’; I was now ‘Tom Morfett MAAT’. It immediately sent a signal to whoever might be reading my LinkedIn profile or email signature that I was somebody with strong professional qualifications. Now, three years on, my name is set to acquire four more letters: CGMA. These initials stand for Chartered Global Management Accountant. CIMA provides the CGMA Professional Qualification that enables candidates to become CIMA members and earn their CGMA designation. Having already passed the exams, I only need to wait for the results of one final assessment, before I can start using them.

It hasn’t happened without some hard work though. Becoming CGMA-qualified is the end of a six-year journey studying both with AAT and for CIMA’s CGMA Professional Qualification. Alongside this, I’ve been working as an inventory accountant for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). My department oversees and manages the costs of the MoD’s inventory: think uniforms, munitions, vehicle engines, tactical gear and ration packs. It’d be difficult to run a modern military without these!

I might be on my way to becoming a management accountant, but I didn’t have the typical career path for a finance professional: I graduated with a history degree from the University of Leicester. But after leaving university, I worked as a bank cashier and in a shop, where I found myself enjoying the analysis and problem-solving when working with databases and Excel.

The epiphany came when I was working in a shop selling mobility furniture and dealing with pushy customers. I was 25 at the time, and it got me thinking: I really should be looking for something with more career advancement.

The MoD had advertised an entry-level finance assistant role, which offered the option to ‘study while you work’ with the AAT. My application was successful, and I was placed with the MoD’s Inventory Accounting Enabling Team (IAET). Because I wasn’t confident in even the most basic accounting skills, I asked my employers to put me on an AAT course, something I knew would help me understand the work I was doing.

Initially, there were some elements of studying AAT that were difficult, such as double-entry bookkeeping (why does that line go to the ledger and another line go to the control account?). However, once I got my head around the concept of DEB, the rest followed naturally, and I found it easy to get stuck in. Starting at a lower level (AAT Level 2) meant I could pick things up in a nice, gradual manner. It was finally good to apply the theory I was learning in the classroom in the workplace.

The MoD granted me 20 days of study leave every year, which I conducted at a local college and sometimes had to supplement with my own annual leave.

After three years of studying AAT, I applied to study CIMA’s CGMA Professional Qualification. The qualification is management accounting-focused, something that was a good fit for the strategic thinking and decision-making required to operate at higher levels of the MoD’s finance team.

Thanks to having already studied AAT, the initial stages of studying for CIMA’s CGMA Professional Qualification were extremely manageable: AAT proved to be the perfect foundation. In fact, during much of my first year with CIMA there seemed to be lots of ‘recapping’ of what I’d already learned at the AAT. There were a few times when I thought, ‘We did this reconciliation at the AAT last year’, which was fortunately still fresh in my memory. So many of the financial accounting concepts I studied during my first year with CIMA were similar to the ones I had already picked up in my final years of AAT, so I found myself regularly applying my AAT knowledge and exam techniques. Meanwhile, the CGMA Case Study Examinations were like a bigger version of AAT’s Level 4 Synoptic.

Going straight from a history degree to studying the CGMA Professional Qualification would have been difficult. Yes, CGMA Professional Qualification has a foundation year but I might have struggled with that [note: when students complete AAT Level 4 they can skip the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting and fast-track straight to CIMA’s CGMA Professional Qualification ]. But it was the fundamental principles of accounting that I learned at AAT — which spans everything from knowing debits from credits or how different ledgers are interlinked — which has helped me my CGMA journey. These skills have never left me, whether it’s looking at my bank account or here in my job at the MoD…

What is CIMA’s CGMA^® Professional Qualification?

CGMA Professional Qualification is a Level 7 assessment where accounting students can pick up new skills such as financial analysis, project management, negotiation and leadership. After finishing their exams and submitting personal work experience, candidates acquire chartered status, holding the CGMA designation. 

AAT Level 4 is the perfect preparation

If you’ve completed the AAT Professional Diploma in Accounting (Level 4), you can start the CGMA Professional Qualification straight away, bypassing the Certificate in Business Accounting. This means you’ll be exempt from some CIMA’s CGMA exams and gain your qualification sooner.

Christian Koch is an award-winning journalist/editor who has written for the Evening Standard, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent, Q, The Face and Metro. He's also written about business for Accounting Technician, 20 and Director, where he is contributing editor.