Course advice for a newbie please? AAT, ACCA or CIMA?

Hello,

This is my first post here, so here's a brief outline of my situation that will, hopefully, help you understand where I'm at with regards to accountancy. :001_smile:

My main career to date has been as a sound engineer in the film industry but work has become so unreliable in recent years that it's become impossible to rely on it to support my family. I'm currently working as a lorry driver :thumbdown: (it pays the bills!) but I know that work in the film industry isn't going to pick up so with that in mind it's time to make a career change. I'll be 40 next month and have no prior experience in accountancy - other than enjoying and passing Accounting GCSE at school..... which was over 20 years ago now! (oh dear, that makes me feel old! :crying: ).

At the moment I'm more interested in the management side of accounting and being involved with business making decisions rather than opening up my own business as an accountant. *Stupid question alert!* :blushing: ... Does this mean 'industry' is more for me rather than 'practice'?

What I really need to do is find out which courses and professional body to study with. I came to this forum after a friend who has her own practice recommended I went along the AAT route but after reading more about the different bodies - AAT, ACCA, CIMA - I'm a little confused as to the direction in which I should go. I've read plenty of posts on here, and elsewhere, but nothing has really given me enough information that makes me feel like I can make a fully informed decision as to what I need to do next.

So far I have the following (sometimes conflicting) impressions:

1. AAT seems to be favoured by a lot of employers for entry level vacancies.
2. ACCA is more highly regarded than AAT.
3. Almost all the entry level positions require some prior experience. (Catch 22?)
4. You need a degree to get into a decent, good-sized company. i.e. - one who will give you study support and exam leave as well as lots of excellent experience.
5. It's not worth doing AAT if I intend to go along the ACCA route.
6. From my interest in the management side of things, CIMA might be the most appropriate.
7. AAT Level 2 is a good place to begin training as it starts with the basics and goes from there.
8. There isn't any disadvantage to distance learning/self study as opposed to attending college. In other words, passing the exams is all that matters and how you got there isn't really important.

Please excuse me if any or all of them are wrong and feel free to put me right!

So as you can see, I'm a bit lost :blink: and really would appreciate some words of wisdom.

Many thanks.