The environment Setting

LISA NELSON

Competence breeds confidence

It could be a riddle: ‘although you can’t see me, I am always there, hard to find and easily lost, but find too much and it will dearly cost. What am I? Confidence.’ This highlights how difficult to define confidence is, yet there is little doubt that being confident will help you achieve more in both your career and the exam room.

Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of your own abilities or qualities. A type of inner trust that you will succeed, although it doesn’t mean you will. It’s heavily influenced by your environment and the people around you. If you’re confident you will be more resilient, able to cope with failure, try more things and so learn, move forward, and become less anxious. The list is endless.

But how do you become more confident? Here are a few tips: • Fake it until you make it – the clue here is, you will make it, so play the game until you do. • Change your inner dialogue – ‘I can’t’ becomes ‘I can’t yet’. • Be proud of what you have achieved and forgive yourself more often. • Treat failure as a lesson – ask what should I do differently next time? • Work hard – my personal favourite, you become confident through competence.

A final word of warning: beware arrogance and overconfidence. The first will lose you friends, the second can be dangerous!

Lisa Nelson is Director of Learning at Kaplan

In brief

Pap Recaps for ATX and AAA ACCA students have been reminded that self-check modules are available for a range of Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams. ACCA also has knowledge recap e-learning modules on the Student Virtual Learning Centre, and these are now available for APM, ATX and AAA. Students complete the relevant self-check quiz to discover any areas where they need to strengthen, before going on to the relevant e-learning module to top up their knowledge. Pap ICAEW trainee sanctioned An ICAEW PQ has been caught submitting an exam transcript that deleted his exam failures in order to secure employment with another firm. The ICAEW disciplinary committee said Alam Chowdhury’s conduct was dishonest “because he knew he had failed the deleted exams and intended to conceal his exam fails.” The complaints were found proved on Chowdhury’s own admission and the tribunal declared him unfit to become a member and/or foundation qualification holder, and he was ordered to pay costs of £6,685.

Pap AAT revises qualification launch date AAT has confirmed that the new launch date for its new qualification – Q2022 – will be September 2022. AAT explained that rescheduled from February 2022, the new launch date will enable a thorough end-to-end testing of the whole system via a new controlled pilot. AAT director of education and development, Suzie Webb, said: “AAT project teams have been working incredibly hard to develop our new qualifications and assessment platform. Whilst the new qualifications and assessments are now ready to be deployed, we’re extending our testing time to ensure a smooth launch. Our intention is now to run a controlled pilot from early 2022 with selected training providers, prior to a full launch in September.”

Creating standards to save the planet

A new accountancy standard setting body to improve sustainability standards has been created by the IFRS Foundation – the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

The ISSB is tasked with issuing global standards for corporate disclosures around sustainability, and many believe this will help bring accountants to the forefront of combatting climate change and global warming. The creation of the ISSB, a sister body to the IASB, should also help put sustainability reporting on an equal footing to financial reporting.

ACCA said the formation of the new board was ‘a historic and vital next step in clarity for corporate reporting’. CEO Helen Brand said: “This development means we now have a once in a lifetime opportunity to help shape global reporting standards for the benefit of investors, economies and the public good.”

CIMA felt the move will enable the necessary evolution for corporate reporting standards to take place and ensure corporate reporting remains fit for purpose in the post pandemic world.

Meanwhile, ICAS CEO Bruce Cartwright warned: “Global threats require global solutions. The International Sustainability Standards Board must hit the ground running and deliver the high-quality standards that will serve the public interest.”

Cartwright stressed: “Whilst its initial primary focus must be to look to achieve greater international consistency in relation to reporting on the impact of climate change, it must also look to set consistent requirements in other key areas of sustainability including biodiversity and nature loss.”

Tomorrow’s world today

There’s still time to book your place on our online one-day conference, entitled ‘Tomorrow’s World – a bright future for accountants?’

Please note the question mark in the title – we want to discover if the future really is bright!

Our fifth conference with London Business School University takes place on Wednesday 24 November, and you can sign up for your free place at https://tinyurl.com/3ztjcpuk

You can dip in and out of the day, which covers everything from technology, sustainability, the NHS – and much more.

ACCA’s Clare Bennison will be talking about the outcomes from COP26, and CIMA’s Martin Farrar will explain how businesses can future-proof themselves.

We would love to see you there.

Advanced exams run smoothly

ICAEW November Advanced level sitters who booked remote exams were told just two weeks before their exam that if they wanted to guarantee smooth running they needed to switch to an exam hall.

The exam team had been working hard to fix the problems experienced by July sitters, but they were not able to completely resolve the software lagging for exams sat by remote invigilation. ICAEW’s Hazel Garvey (left) told PQ magazine: “We are pleased to confirm that the vast majority of exams, both in centre and remotely ran as expected. Thanks to those students who made the last-minute switch to exam centres, which enabled us to fully support those remotely invigilated students who were unable to move.

“We continue to work hard behind the scenes to fully resolve the technical issues experienced by some students in the remotely invigilated exams earlier in the year, as well as make improvements to our end-to-end processes.”