2019 Prospectus CN_Prospectus_LowRes | Page 88

A Level A Level 88 Statistics WHAT IS ACCOUNTING? WHAT NEXT? WHAT IS STATISTICS? WHAT NEXT? Accounting involves producing accounting statements from scratch, from the initial invoice or receipt, all the way to calculation of profit and the value of the business. You will understand what the information means to the business, make judgements and give advice in order to improve their financial performance. Accounting is one of the only courses you can study that has a direct route into employment. Some students have gone on to secure apprenticeships in local accountancy firms, whilst others are recruited by international firms offering a “School Leavers” programme leading to professional qualifications. Of course, you may want to go through the university route and this can provide you with some outstanding opportunities, as several of the global accounting practices (such as KPMG and Ernst & Young) now offer their own degree programme, in association with prestigious universities. Statistics is an application of Mathematics but is a fast growing field of study in its own right. More and more areas of our lives are influenced by Statistics and knowing how they fit into other studies is an advantage. Students with an A Level in Statistics have found their skills to be valuable when taking degrees in Anthropology, Biology, Business Studies, Geography and Psychology. You may be surprised at just how many interesting jobs there are for statisticians, such as an Actuary, Accountant, Environmental Statistician, Government Statistician, Sports Statistician, Pharmaceutical Statistician, Biometrician, Forensic Statistician, Health Service Statistician, Medical Statistician, School Teacher and University Lecturer. Statistics is now used so widely that many employers would see a qualification in Statistics as a distinct advantage. Many students have enjoyed Statistics so much that they go on to study it further at university. WHAT WILL YOU STUDY? In the first year you will develop the foundations of double-entry book- keeping, through to the production of final accounts for a sole trader, and then on to looking at and constructing the accounts of Limited Companies by applying relevant accounting concepts. This leads on to analysing these accounts and drawing appropriate conclusions. Once you have developed a confidence with these key concepts, we then develop your knowledge and skills in the second year by looking at larger manufacturing businesses, costing methods, budgeting, and constructing the accounts of partnerships. WHAT OTHER SUBJECTS GO WELL WITH THIS SUBJECT? Business Studies, Economics, Maths and Statistics. CAREERS • Accountant • Finance Sector • Company secretary DID YOU KNOW? FBI accountants finally brought down Chicago crime boss Al Capone in 1931. He was ultimately arrested and convicted for income tax evasion. Statistics is used in everything from deciding how much orange juice Booths or Aldi will buy next year, to whether or not a new drug will indeed cure a serious illness. It is a subject relating to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation and presentation of data. This branch of Mathematics is used in situations involving variability or uncertainty, such as weather forecasting, finance or assessing the effects of medicines. WHAT WILL YOU STUDY? At first, much of the work is learning the ‘tools of the trade’, but we soon start to apply them in analysing data and understanding what it is telling us. You will move from the work covered in GCSE Maths to look at the patterns in Statistics and how they are used in the analysis of situations, in order to make reasonable judgements. For the Statistics course, we highly recommend the Casio fx-9860GII calculators. WHAT OTHER SUBJECTS GO WELL WITH THIS SUBJECT? Maths, Biology, Geography, Psychology, PE, Chemistry, Sociology, Business Studies and Economics. CAREERS • Teaching • Accountant • Health service • Actuary DID YOU KNOW? Florence Nightingale, one of the most prominent statisticians in history, used her passion for statistics to save the lives of soldiers during the Crimean war. Accounting 89