Latest from PQ magazine
A weekly round-up of the latest news from the world of accountancy, brought to you by PQ Magazine, the leading magazine for part-qualified and passed finalist accountants.
Week commencing 19 November 2008
Be my friend!
PQ Magazine is now on FACEBOOK and we want you to be our friends! It really is a chance for you to join in our debates and even start some of your own. How about using it to find yourself a study buddy or exchange exam tips, or even old study texts.
We want this to be your place to comment on ‘life as PQ’. Tap us into the search engine and go to groups, scroll down and there we are. We already have friends from Ireland, Indonesia and Columbia, and of course all over the UK! We are beefing up our website (pqmagazine.com). On top of our weekly newsfeed we are going to add loads more resources in the study and career zones every week just for you. We have exam tips for all our PQs . Isn’t it time you joined our 17,000-plus unique visitors a month and give yourself an edge in the exam hall!
AAT exam tips
The December AAT exams are now looming large. Practicing past papers is still key to passing the exams. The Technician papers have become the marmite level, according to our experts – you either love them or hate them when it comes to exam time! With PEV and DFS it seems practice still makes perfect. However, with PCR and the tax papers exam sitters have come to expect the unexpected. These are papers where the learners beat the crammers. For more detailed help see the December issue of PQ or go onto the study zone at pqmagazine.com.
ICAEW told to get it right
THE ICAEW has been told to ditch the idea of a ‘high-flyers’ network, by its Young Professionals Advisory Board, Chairman Rupert May-Hill told a recent full council meeting that while YPAB supported many of the recently unveiled 2017 strategy initiatives, this wasn’t one of them! He said his committee liked the idea of a alumni network and award ceremonies, and felt younger members were also hugely passionate about corporate social responsibility. But, May-Hall emphasised the high flyers initiative would have only short-term benefits for a small number of members. “That wasn’t one of our ideas,” he stressed, and he seemed genuinely concerned that such a move would in fact disenfranchise more people than it ‘engaged’. See our December issue for the story in full.
Race for Opportunity
Ernst & Young is celebrating after taking a Race for Opportunity’s award for increasing the diversity of its workforce. Ernst picked up the Widening the Talent Pool prize. Over the last two years through its network activities the firm has more than doubled ethnic representation on its formal fast track leadership programme. It has also increased the number of ethnic minorities on its partner track. These initiatives have reduced the turnover of employees with an ethnic background relative to staff as a whole.
London managing partner Scott Halliday said: “In the global business world, a more inclusive and diverse firm will be a more successful one.”
White shirt man
Throw away your stripped shirts what you need is a plain white shirt to put on to go to work. We are told that city workers are trying to distance themselves from those bright and stripy shirts, which they believe are synonymous with city excess. Debenhams has reported sales of your basic white shirts soaring 50 per cent since summer time – when the financial crisis really started to hit home. Thomas Pink has even created a new White Shirt Bar at its Mayfair shop. Debenhams buyer Oliver Williamson is reported as saying: “A plain white shirt sends out the message that you are astute, professional and flexible, and that is exactly what employers an customers are looking for in the current climate.”
But surely the worry has to be the 70 per cent rise in sales of handkerchiefs! Are more real men really getting ready to cry.
Give us feedback
Keep us on our toes and focused, pleaded CIPFA’s E&T director at the recent NSF conference, sponsored by PQ Magazine. He admitted that the institute doesn’t always get things right first time, adding: “But what helps us is your feedback.” He also revealed that pass rates have been improving and his spies have told him that early indications are that this trend is continuing. Ranges of enhancements to the Student Learning Centre were also announced for August time.
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