**This is a Connected Degree** Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course. **Overview** Modern accountancy isn't all about number crunching and spreadsheets. As an accountant you need to be able to understand, visualise and present financial data to ensure businesses make the right decisions. You'll be at the heart of the business, analysing performance and informing strategy. This degree focuses on modern accountancy skills as well as general business. You'll learn to inform and persuade using numbers. You'll work in small groups that replicate the workplace, with a focus on teamwork, real world case studies and developing strategy from financial data. From your second year you'll be able to tailor your learning to your area of specialist interest, choosing your modules to focus on: - professional modules: take the fastest route to becoming an ACCA chartered accountant - finance modules: your best preparation route for working in banking or investment management - analytics modules: combine accounting with data analysis, including data cleaning, visualisation and modelling The course is accredited by 4 key accounting bodies (ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW and CIPFA), so whichever route you take you'll have lots of exemptions from professional exams. **Course highlights** - Be taught by professionally qualified accountants who have industry experience with companies such as KPMG, Deloitte and HSBC - Get on the fast track to becoming a chartered accountant through our accredited exemptions from professional exams - Be employment-ready by using industry-standard software and databases such as Oracle, SAP, Sage and S&P Capital IQ - Choose options in business analytics to develop the skills that modern accounting needs - Benefit from the opportunity to gain additional certifications, for example the ACCA Data Analytics Certificate - Gain a Bloomberg Certificate in our dedicated Bloomberg Suite - Apply your learning by helping student entrepreneurs and local charities such as Age Concern and The Rowans Hospice with their finances **Accredited and recognised by** This course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). This means you receive exemptions from ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW professional examinations. This course offers the maximum number of exemptions for ACCA and CIMA.. **Careers and opportunities** Our graduates go on to work in accounting practice, the finance departments of large corporations, and the finance sector. Previous graduates of this course have got jobs at companies such as: - Deloitte - PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) - Menzies LLP - HWB Accountants - EY Global (Ernst & Young) - JPP Financial - Barclays - Lockheed Martin UK - Lloyds Register - J P Morgan Graduates of this course have secured jobs as: - accountant - auditor - finance analyst - financial consultant - investment broker - tax analyst (Data taken from HESA Graduate Outcome surveys) If you decide at the end of your studies that you don't want to qualify as an accountant there are many other options open to you. The data analysis skills and problem-solving skills you'll develop on this course will open many other doors. You could also choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level, or set up your own business with help and support from the University.