Diploma: Accounting Sciences

Purpose

The purpose of this qualification is to enable qualifying students to

• Assist with the management of a small business and display entrepreneurial skills.
• Perform accounting and accounting reporting duties.
• Perform management accounting duties.
• Perform internal auditing procedures.
• Render limited tax services, depending on the electives they have chosen.

Rationale

This programme is intended for candidates who do not wish to study for a degree, or do not qualify for direct admission to the institution's bachelor's degree programmes, but wish to obtain a three-year qualification in the accounting sciences and be equipped to enter the labour market in the field of accounting sciences or to start their own business, once qualified.

It will provide students with core knowledge and skills about various basic and more specialised aspects of the accounting, thus equipping them for a career in accounting and management areas of the private and public sectors where their participation will promote sustainable growth and development and maximise prosperity in all sectors of the economy and society.

It is a well-balanced programme that exposes students to disciplines in the field of accounting sciences and it also hones their entrepreneurial skills. It allows students to select the disciplines of their choice in the field of accounting sciences in their final year of study.

Completing the diploma programme also opens the door for qualifying diploma students to the school's bachelor's degree programmes, which would otherwise not have been possible.

It is assumed that students who register for this certificate can

• Learn from predominantly written material.
• Communicate what they have learnt comprehensibly in the medium of instruction.
• With guided support, take responsibility for their own progress in an ODL environment.

Recognition of Prior Learning

All admission through Recognition of Prior Learning must be in accordance with the principles laid down in the Unisa Recognition of Prior Learning Policy.

This qualification can be achieved wholly or in part through recognition of prior learning. However, only 10% of the intake to this programme may be through Recognition of Prior Learning.

The Unisa Recognition of Prior Learning office can supply full details of processes relating to the assessment and accreditation of learning from prior experiences. Evidence can be presented in a variety of forms, including international or previous local qualifications, reports, testimonials mentioning functions performed, work records, portfolios, videos of practice and performance records.

All such evidence should be judged according to the general principle of assessment described in the notes to assessors. Unisa lecturers will act as assessors for Recognition of Prior Learning purposes.

Access to the Qualification

Access is open to learners who are in possession of a National Senior Certificate with

• An achievement rating of 3 or better (an E symbol on Matric Certificates), in four recognised National Senior Certificate 20-credit subjects containing English, at either Home, or First Additional, or Second Additional Level selected as a recognised 20-credit subject for the National Senior Certificate.

Or

• An achievement rating of 3 (an E symbol on Matric Certificates) or better for English, at either Home, or First Additional or Second Additional Level selected as a recognised 20-credit subject for the National Senior Certificate.

Or

• An achievement rating of 3 (an E symbol on Matric Certificates) or better for Mathematics or an achievement rating of 5 or better for Mathematical Literacy as recognised 20-credit National Senior Certificate subjects.

Access is also open to learners with an appropriate Higher Certificate at NQF Level 5.

The qualification has a total of 360 credits, and all the modules have 12 credits each.

A minimum of four Elective modules must be completed for the student to be awarded the qualification.

NQF Level 5 modules

• Financial Accounting 1502.
• Business Management 1501.
• English 1503.
• Decision Sciences 1520.
• End-user Computing 1501.
• Management Accounting 1501.
• Auditing 1501.
• Taxation 1501.
• Credit Management1501.
• Commercial Law 1501.

NQF Level 6 modules

• Financial Accounting 1601.
• Management Accounting 2601.
• Internal Auditing 2601.
• Taxation 2601.
• Entrepreneurship 2601.
• Management Accounting 2602.
• Auditing 2602.
• Business Management 1602.
• Entrepreneurship 2602.
• Ethics and Professionalism in Accountancy 2601.
• Financial Accounting 2601.
• Financial Accounting 2602.

NQF Level 7 modules

• Taxation 3701.
• Entrepreneurship 3701.
• Business Management 2601.
• Entrepreneurship 3702.

Electives

Select four of the following six Elective modules

• Management Accounting 3701.
• Management Accounting 3702.
• Internal Auditing 3702.
• Internal Auditing 3703.
• Taxation 3704.
• Taxation 3706.

1. Demonstrate a solid knowledge base in at least one of the disciplines, namely, financial accounting, management accounting, taxation and auditing.
2. Develop awareness of how the discipline relates to cognate/(related) areas.
3. Solve well-defined but unfamiliar problems.
4. Analyse and synthesise information related to the discipline.
5. Present information using information technology skills.
6. Present and communicate information coherently and reliably.
7. Evaluate own learning and identify own learning needs within a structured learning environment.

Critical Cross-Field Outcomes

This unit standard promotes, in particular, the following Critical Cross-Field Outcomes

• Demonstrate problem-solving skills as well as elementary knowledge of business management principles and applications.
• Serve the commercial and economic needs of a person providing services in the arenas of accounting, taxation, management accounting or auditing.
• Work effectively with others as members of a team, group, organisation, community and contribute to the group output in tasks growing out of business, commerce and management fields.
• Manage and organise activities and life responsibilities effectively.
• Collect, analyse and organise information.
• Communicate effectively using visual and/or language skills in the modes of writing.
• Show responsibility towards and in the environment and health and well being of others, in community and in a national context.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by recognising that problem-solving contexts do not exist in isolation and by acknowledging their responsibilities to those in the local and broader community.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Key technology terms are used correctly.
• Rules are applied correctly.
• Concepts understood and explained correctly.
• Principles and theories are understood and applied correctly.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Selection and application of central procedures of the discipline are performed.
• Life situations are analysed to identify needs and opportunities.
• An awareness of the specific discipline on the business community is developed.
• An awareness of the impact of the economy on the specific discipline is developed.
• An awareness of the impact of the discipline on the community is developed.
• Learning gained from individual experience to knowledge encountered in an academic environment is related, and vice versa.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Procedures and appropriate evidence is used correctly.
• Problems and their solutions are evaluated.
• Correct procedures are chosen to solve specific discipline related business problems.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Knowledge of the specific discipline and its relation to the financial arena is demonstrated.
• Real life situations are analysed to demonstrate knowledge of the principles of decision making within the specific discipline.
• Support is provided in a department providing discipline related services.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 5

• Information is presented effectively irrespective of medium of communication.
• Knowledge of a number of information technology skills for presenting information is demonstrated.
• Knowledge of the risks of working with the various communication media is demonstrated.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 6

• Professional discourse conventions and formats are used appropriately.
• Information is presented in a constructive manner.
• Information is presented within the right context.
• Information is presented at the correct level for the audience or recipient.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 7

• Initiation is taken to address own learning needs.
• Capacity to assist others with identifying their needs is developed.

Integrated Assessment

For award of this qualification, a candidate must achieve each of the compulsory modules as well as the chosen elective modules.

In addition, candidates must demonstrate the ability to engage in the correctional operations selected in an integrative way, dealing with divergent and "random" demands related to these work operations, effectively. Evidence is required that the candidate is able to achieve the purpose of the qualification as a whole at the time of the award of the qualification.

Assessors will assess and give credit for the evidence of learning that has already been acquired through formal, informal and non-formal learning and experience.

Each module completed during this qualification will have two assessment components namely

• Formative assessment: learning and assessment are integrated. The study guides contain self-assessment tasks and feedback. The scheme of work includes assignments based on the learning material and students are given feedback. The process is continuous and focuses on smaller sections of the work and a limited number of outcomes.
• Summative assessment: examinations or equivalent assessment such as a portfolio of a representative selection of outcomes practiced and assessed in the formative stage. Summative assessment also tests the student's ability to manage and integrate a large body of knowledge to achieve the stated outcomes of a module.
• Integrated assessment: All assessment will integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes and applied competence.