Careers Brief - Finance & Law FdA

Overview

The Finance and Law Foundation degree can provide you with the 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.

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.

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 (especially, The Lord Chancellor's Department, Inland Revenue, Customs and Immigration Service); tax adviser; personnel officer; insurance loss adjustor; Trading Standards; police; prison service; probation officer; patent agent; accountancy technician.

Use the website links below to find out more.

Further Study

You will be able to apply for a Top-up degree. Top-up degrees are designed for direct progression from Foundation degree to achieve an Ordinary or Honours degree.

Alternatively, you could transfer into a related Honours degree. Entry point would depend on your grades, experience and overlap between courses but could be into the final year.

Go to the Links on the HE Home page for information on the BA (Hons) Finance and Law Top-up degree at Bournemouth University (click on sub-heading 'Courses'), which is designed as a direct progression for this course.

Other institutions offering related Top-ups include:

Birmingham City University; Blackburn College; Bradford College; University of Huddersfield; London Metropolitan University; Manchester Metropolitan University; Newcastle College; Northumbria University; Southampton Solent University; University of Sunderland.

To search for degree courses go to www.ucas.com/ (UCAS - Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK). Use the university/college links for course details.

You will need to use UCAS 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? Go to the university/college website for information on costs and finance and to www.direct.gov.uk/uni/ for additional help with student support.

With a good Honours degree (First or 2.1), you could progress onto an appropriate higher level Masters and/or PhD doctorate. This could be to develop your area of study to a more in-depth practical and/or academic level or to gain other specialist training.

For information on all postgraduate courses and research, go to the national online directory at www.prospects.ac.uk/links/pgstudy/ .

Go to the main section Further Study in this Guide for more information and help.

Resources

www.prospects.ac.uk/

Graduate Prospects - online national careers service for HE students studying in the UK:

Drop down 'Careers advice' and click on 'Use your qualification' for 'Your Foundation degree...what next?'
Drop down 'Sectors' and click on 'Banking & finance' + 'Law'
Drop down 'Jobs & work' and click on 'What jobs would suit me?' for Prospects Planner.

www.prospects.ac.uk/links/lawmagazine

Graduate Prospects Law magazine online - for careers with law

http://juniorlawyers.lawsociety.org.uk/

The Law Society Junior Lawyers Division - click on 'A Career in law'

http://targetjobs.co.uk/

GTI publication for graduate jobs and careers intelligence - go to sub-headings 'Career sectors' + 'Careers advice'

www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/

Hobsons/GTI graduate careers publication - Careers advice section

www.insidecareers.co.uk/

Inside Careers publication - specialists in Graduate Careers

http://jobseekers.direct.gov.uk/

Careers database and links to jobs nationally. Search by either clicking on side-heading 'Careers' and choose a category or type in job title.