Careers Brief - Finance & Law FdA
Overview
The Finance and Law Foundation degree provides students with knowledge and skills relevant to jobs across the financial and business sectors. There are a wide variety of opportunities with entry at all levels of academic qualification, as well as prospects for mobility and career change. However, the advantages of being an honours graduate can be significant.
Key finance occupations include: Chartered accountant; Chartered certified accountant; Chartered management accountant; Chartered public finance accountant; retail banking and personal financial services; financial management; insurance and pensions; taxation; management consultancy; investment management.
Most finance careers require professional qualifications for career progression, usually taken through further study part-time whilst in relevant employment. Use the website links in Resources below for job profiles and further information.
The employment rate is high from finance and business honours degree courses, though some career opportunities are conditional on achieving a good honours degree qualification. You should be aware that many of the multi-national companies recruit graduate trainees from the Autumn Term of your final year. If you plan to continue onto one-year top-up honours degree courses, you should be prepared for job-hunting before you start your final year. Go to the main Job Applications and Job Search sections of this Careers Guide.
In the legal sector, opportunities are substantially more limited. There are very few openings for non-graduates and the professionally unqualified. Competition is keen to become a solicitor or barrister from good honours graduates, for both the compulsory professional training courses (The Legal Practice Course or The Bar Vocational Course) and practical legal experience (training contract or pupillage). Training in professional law is very expensive with any financial support going to the most able. There is no guarantee that even if you do complete the hurdles to qualify, that you will be able to make a successful career as a lawyer.
Other related non-professional careers include: the Civil Service (in particular, The Lord Chancellor's Department, Customs & Excise, Inland Revenue and Immigration Service); tax adviser; personnel officer; insurance loss adjustor; Trading Standards; police; prison service; probation officer; patent agent; accountancy.
Further Study
Use the Links on the HE Home page, for information on the one-year BA (Hons) Finance and Law (Top-up) at Bournemouth University designed as a progression from your Foundation degree.
You can apply for one-year top-up degrees in a relevant subject discipline at other institutions.
The following offer finance and related top-ups:
Bradford College (Associate of Leeds Metropolitan University); University of Central England in Birmingham; Kingston University; Manchester Metropolitan University; Newcastle College; New College Nottingham; Northbrook College Sussex; Northumbria University; University of Plymouth; University of Salford; Sheffield Hallam University; Southampton Solent University; University of Sunderland; University of Teesside; University of Worcester.
There are no suitable shortened top-up law degrees. Students could look at business law degrees. The University of Lincoln offers a combined top-up including Law.
You can progress into the 2nd or final year of degree courses with similar content. Entry point would depend both on your grades and overlap between your course and the initial year(s) you are missing. For courses not sufficiently similar, you would need to apply for year 1, though with the advantage of a more advanced qualification.
Use www.ucas.com/search (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK) to find a suitable course. Use the university/college links for course details.
You will need to use UCAS (see link above) to apply for courses. Contact the Course Tutor of your chosen course to find out your position, before you make your formal application.
Find out how much this will cost you. Where is the funding coming from? Use the website www.aimhigher.ac.uk for information on student support.
Go to the main section on Further Study in this Guide for more information and help.
Resources
www.prospects.ac.uk
Graduate Prospects is the careers website for higher education students in the UK:
- Drop down 'Careers advice' and click on 'Use your qualification' for 'Your Foundation degree...what next?'
- Drop down 'Communities' and click on 'Professional services, banking & finance' and 'Law'
- Drop down 'My Prospects' and click on 'What jobs would suit me?' for Prospects Planner
jobseekers.direct.gov.uk
Careers database and links to jobs nationally. Search by either clicking on 'careers' and 'choosing a category' or typing in job title.
www.lcan.org.uk
The Law Careers Advice Network - comprehensive links
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/lawmagazine
www.get.hobsons.co.uk
Hobsons (publisher) Graduate Employment and Training
http://targetjobs.co.uk
GTI (publisher) graduate jobs and careers
www.insidecareers.co.uk
Inside Careers (publisher) graduate jobs and careers guide
www.learndirect-advice.co.uk/helpwithyourcareer/jobprofiles
Learn Direct - national learning advice
www.connexions-direct.com/jobs4u
Jobs4U Careers Database - click on 'Job Families & Articles' or Quick Search by typing in job title
