Accounting

Leaving Certificate Accounting provides students with the knowledge, understanding and skills in accounting and financial management necessary for managing personal and basic company accounts. The learning experiences in accounting develop students’ organisational, logical thinking, planning and problem-solving skills for their future life, work and study. It also develops their numeracy skills within the context of business and enterprise.

Why Study Accounting?

For those considering studying accounting, actuarial studies or finance after the Leaving Certificate it would be unwise to leave Accounting out of their subject choice. It would also be an important subject choice for those thinking of starting their own business. While not required specifically for studying any third level college course, it would be really recommended if Accountancy is the career path you want to follow.

What kind of Student would Accounting suit?

Commonly seen as the mathematical side of business, accounting attracts the more numeratel student. It teaches students the bookkeeping side of business but delves deeper, teaching students to analyse and interpret the figures. Once you can understand and adhere to the basic rules of accountancy it is a subject that you can do very well in.

Recommendations/Tips

The course is numerically based but theory and procedures must be learned also. While the student needs to be comfortable with numbers he or she does not need to be at higher maths level. While the Junior Certificate Business Studies Course provides a foundation for this course, it is not essential and it is possible to take it up at senior cycle. This course offers a hard working student the real possibility of high grades because of the unambiguous nature of the questions. An organised student with a likeness for order will be particularly suited to this course.

This business subject teaches the skills and knowledge needed to understand how business works. Accountancy has the highest percentage of A grades among the Leaving Certificate business subjects and one of the highest among all Leaving Certificate subjects. The syllabus will help you

• To contribute to a balanced and appropriate general education, leading to the personal and social development of each student together with a fostering of the concept of accountability
• To create awareness of the business environment and to provide each student with the knowledge, understanding and skills leading to a personal competence and responsible participation in this changing and challenging environment.
• To encourage the development of self-reliance, mental organisation and agility, clear and logical thinking, planning habits, methods of investigation and processes whereby accuracy can be ensured.
• To enhance numeracy skills and promote awareness of the use of figures computations and statistics in the world of business and enterprise.
• To expose students to aspects of business and enterprise with a view to career and working life, additional studies in accounting or as a basis for further education.

Course Content

Topics covered include:

Exam Structure

The subject is examined at higher and ordinary level. Both levels involve one exam of three hours duration. The exam paper is made up of three sections, the first two are based on the Financial Accounting section of the course and the third covers the Management Accounting section. Questions must be answered from all sections of the exam paper.

Career Possibilities

Accountancy provides a valuable foundation for all business functions and many top executives have an accountancy background. Most chief executive officers of public limited companies have some sort of accountancy qualification.

Career pathways might include:

• Accountancy
• Actuarial Studies
• Marketing
• Business or Finance
• It would also be an important subject choice for those thinking of starting their own business