ACCA Qualification structure and requirements

How does the ACCA Qualification work?

Students progress through three elements of the ACCA Qualification on their journey to ACCA membership, these are:

ACCA exams

Applied Knowledge

The Applied Knowledge exams provides students with a broad introduction to the world of finance and develop your essential understanding and techniques in accounting.  These exams are:

  • Business and Technology (BT)
  • Financial Accounting (FA)
  • Management Accounting (MA)

Applied Skills

The Applied Skills exams build on existing knowledge and understanding and develop strong, broad and practical finance skills required of future strategic professional accountant in any sector or industry. These exams are:

  • Corporate and Business Law (LW)
  • Taxation (TX)
  • Financial Reporting (FR)
  • Performance Management (PM)
  • Financial Management (FM)
  • Audit and Assurance (AA)

Strategic Professional

The Strategic Professional exams prepare students for future leadership positions. They develop the strategic vision using your unique blend of technical, ethical and professional skills. And you can specialise in areas that best suit your career ambitions. Students must complete both Essentials exams and choose two of the Options.  These exams are:

Essentials

  • Strategic Business Reporting (SBR)
  • Strategic Business Leader (SBL)

Options

  • Advanced Financial Management (AFM)
  • Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA)
  • Advanced Taxation (ATX)
  • Advanced Performance Management (APM)

Ethics and Professional Skills Module

Students are required to complete our Ethics and Professional Skills module which develops in students the complete range of skills that employers told us they need. By introducing students to the full spectrum of advanced ethical and professional skills and exposing them to realistic business situations, our students are ready to shine with recruiters and be really credible in the workplace.

Practical Experience Requirement

Being a confident, inspiring and trusted professional comes with experience so to qualify as an ACCA member you must complete a minimum 36 months’ relevant work experience and achieve 9 performance objectives.

Your time in a relevant role and performance objectives need to be signed off by a practical experience supervisor. The practical experience requirement allows you to put the knowledge learnt through your studies into practice in a real work environment.