Unfortunately, this isn’t a simple question…
The AAT study hours and timescales for completing your AAT course will vary considerably according to:
- Which course you enrolled upon, and
- How many hours you are able to allocate to studies per week (on average)
Each AAT course has a set of Guided Learning Hours (GLH), i.e. a recommended amount of time that should be spent studying on your course. The Guided Learning Hours are further broken down into ‘hours per unit’ and the same again for each learning area within that unit:
EXAMPLE:
AAT Level 2 Certificate in Bookkeeping (Previously known as Foundation)
The recommended GLH for this course is 115 hours
The qualification consists of 2 units:
Introduction to Bookkeeping: GLH = 65 hours
Principles of Bookkeeping Controls: GLH = 50 hours
Within the Introduction to Bookkeeping unit, there are 5 learning areas. The GLH for each learning area varies according to the level of content and/or complexity within that area, but in total, the GLH is 65. The same principle will apply to the Principles of Bookkeeping Controls unit.
Calculating the AAT study hours per week
Obviously, each student is unique in terms of preferred learning style and the number of hours available to devote to studying. For some, it may be easy to find 3 hours of peace and solitude during an evening to commit to your AAT study hours whereas, for others, it might be more difficult, e.g. coming home each night from a full-time job along with various family commitments to contend with too!
However, the minimum amount of AAT study hours you should allocate each week (on average) is 6 hours per week. Holidays and unexpected occurrences crop up for all of us, but a good, regular study routine will generally produce the best results.
Using the Level 2 Certificate in Bookkeeping course (as per above), as an example, we have calculated how long this course is likely to take based on the following our AAT study hours per week:
- 6 hours per week = 4.5 months
- 8 hours per week = 3 months
- 15 hours per week = 2 months
Again, it’s important to note that this is a ‘guide’ only – some students will take longer than this, whereas others may be able to complete the course faster than this.
Summary of Guided Learning Hours
If you would like a more detailed breakdown for a particular AAT course qualification, please do get in touch with us by emailing [email protected] or via our contact page here
