As most of our readers know, the minimum qualification for registration as a BAS Agent within the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 is the Cert IV Financial Services, whether it be the Bookkeeping or Accounting course. 

The difficulty with gaining a qualification as an adult is time!  Time to study and fit classes into our busy lifestyles, or motivate ourselves to do an online course.  Of course there is always with these classroom classes the long time it takes to achieve what we have been doing for years.

Uniting Bookkeepers have always looked to offer flexible learning programs whereby our members can use their already vast knowledge to fast track their qualification.

Over the past several months we have listened to the needs of our members and other bookkeepers and have entered into a commercial agreement with TAFE NSW (Hunter Institute) to deliver the Cert IV Financial Services (Bookkeeping) FNS40304 in a different style which may suit many of our readers.

These are some of the parameters of the course:

• You will need to attend a 6 to 8 hour workshop once per fortnight, this will be on a Friday for Newcastle participants (for other regions this may be a different day) 
• There will be a Current Knowledge Questionaire, so that TAFE can determine if you are knowledge fit to do this course,
•  There will be no workshops in the July period and only one workshop in other BAS months,
• The course will be conducted in a workshop style environment, because of your prior knowledge,
• There will be for some units pre-workshop material to read, and you will need to study at home,
• How you pass is by Assessment Tasks - you will be marked as competent or non-competent,
• After the workshop of each unit you will be given the assessment tasks, therefore you will see along the way that you are passing, or that perhaps you may need to do gap learning,
• TAFE NSW is also looking with us to deliver the gap learning, 
• Time Frame of the course will be 10 to 11 months, allowing for no workshops in July and one workshop only in BAS months and no workshops in late December and January,
• The course will be run by an accredited professionals at TAFE campus in Newcastle & Sydney,
• Expressions of interest are being asked of people interested in Newcastle, Central Coast and Sydney.

We are excited about our venture with TAFE NSW (Hunter Institute).  This is a great opportunity for those of you who wish to gain your Cert IV Financial Services (Bookkeeping).  

There are 13 Units of Competency:
Core Industry Units:

• Communicate in the workplace - FNSICGEN301B
• Use technology in the workplace - FNSICGEN302B
• Apply health and safety practices in the workplace - FNSICGEN304B
• Apply principles of professional practice to work in the financial services industry - FNSICIND401B

Elective Units:

• Establish and maintain a cash accounting system - FNSBKPG402A
• Establish and maintain an accrual accounting system - FNSBKPG403A
• Set up and operate a computer accounting system - FNSACCT407B
• Maintain asset and inventory records - FNSACCT406B
• Carry out business activity and instalment activity statement tasks - FNSBKPG404A
• Establish and maintain a payroll system - FNSBKPG405A
• Prepare Financial Reports - BSBADM408A
• Prepare Financial Statements - FNSACCT405B
• Develop and implement policies and practices relevant to bookkeeping activities - FNSBKPG401A