What TAFE course would help me to, say do Economics at USyd? If it's not possible then I want to just study Economics at Macquarie preferably. Would I be able to get a diploma in accounting then transfer to economics? Or is there another diploma course related to economics?
I'm not 100% sure - try calling macquarie or if that doesn't work, ask a tafe student adviser.
an accounting diploma or possibly CertIV should get you into BEc at macquarie (I'd advise calling macquarie to be sure) but I'm unsure if you'll get any credit exemptions. If there are core accounting subjects in economics, you should receive exemptions for those. do note that usually it takes a year and a half to complete a diploma (Cert 3->Cert 4-> Diploma), with each cert/dip taking half a year to complete.
also, you have to get credit average marks to be considered by macquarie. this is roughly 70% in each subject. accounting isn't very hard - just make sure you understand the concepts early on, e.g debits and credits, what is an asset, liability, expense, income and most subjects should be easy then on.
if memory serves me right, you'll learn basic accounting, financial accounting, management accounting, accounting software, some theoretical subjects such as learning how to work with people, communicating(very bludgy), business and company law, internal control(security in accounting), financial management in diploma(a bit hard if you're not very mathematically inclined, but I was able to get a distinction for it and I only studied general maths - make sure you do ALL the questions, go through everything that's relevant), and income tax.. quite a hard subject. depends on what tafe you go to but at ultimo it was probably 30-40% fail.