Acca

Demonstration of Interpersonal and Communication Skills: The research topic and the objectives that I had chosen to meet; about the chosen organisation didn’t prove to be as easy as I was anticipating. I had defined the main objectives of my project that I was intending to achieve at the start, while keeping in mind my basic research questions and performing my research in the light of those objectives. At the beginning I knew nothing about the research methods and techniques, because I had no such experience of performing research on a topic first and to present that research in the form of a project. In additions to the question that I had defined to do my project, there were various other questions put to me by my mentor. They proved really helpful to me in making an outline of my project because the type of questions that I had in my mind were really of very basic level. The first objective of my report was presenting brief view of the various operations of the organisation. This part of the project was comparatively easy because there was a lot of information available that I found while I was researching in the initial days. On the website of Barclays PLC, and from database found at the British Library, I found huge amount of information regarding this objective. But when it was time to squeeze all the necessary information in my project then the limitation of words caused a hindrance. Then it came the analysis part. This was mainly concerned with the facts regarding the figures that were shown in the financial statements of the company. I used all relevant figures from these statements and put them in appendices to calculate the required ratios. Then from those tables I made graphs and commented at it. This was the part that took most of my time. But I think it was worth spending time on this part, because it was a key part of the project. The next part was a little hard for me because the strategic analysis is something that is not studied in skills level module of ACCA. So I had very little knowledge on this. But after studying some books of business, I gradually developed the sense of the common strategic techniques. Also my meetings with the mentor have been really helpful too. Even though he didn’t tell me exactly what to do, from the questions he asked me during meeting sessions with him, I could pretty much guess of what kind of analysis I needed to do and what questions I needed to focus on. In brief this questions and answer part has been really helpful in increasing my knowledge about the organisation and then assessing myself about how good I am going and whether my progress was in line with my objectives. The last objective of my project was to make a conclusion based on my findings in financial and strategic analysis of the company and I have tried to achieve that too. Although I couldn’t access all the risks faced to the company, but based upon my knowledge and information derived from my research of company I have also made some recommendations. Learning from meetings with Project Mentor and giving Presentation: Meetings with my Project Mentor have got significant importance as far as my research and analysis project is concerned. They have helped me not only in providing me an overview of my research but also in finding out my weaknesses that I have always found in my academic life but never thought of improving them myself. I have also learned lots of new skills that would help my throughout my academic as well as professional life. The first step that I took in starting my project was to read ACCA’s guide regarding OBU Research and Analysis Project. I read all about choosing mentor and then set meetings with him and give him presentation. Then I started researching on my project and contacted my Mentor and set my first meeting. He advised me through email that I should go to him with the questions that I want to ask him. After meeting him and having a general discussion about the topics, the first thing he asked me, “So what’s your project plan” I tried to explain my plan as far as I could but as I have never done any project of university level, my plan was not that comprehensive and addressing all the key areas that it should. I came to knew that my entire project is based upon what I plan to do, if my planning is not properly done or doesn’t consider most of the things that it needed, my project will most probably get diverted from the track. On questioning, I also explained to him about the methods that I had been using in research and information gathering process. He also mentioned that, the more time I spend on researching a couple of libraries the better the research would be. When it came to the stage of asking questions to him for any problems that I found, I realised that I don’t remember as many questions as they were arising when I was doing my initial research. It was because I had not written the issues that I came across while researching. This was another important thing that I learnt and decided to always write down anything that I am having problem with and want to ask about that. After learning all this from first meeting I spent all my time in between first and second meeting in conducting my research in accordance with what I had learnt from the first meeting. I tried my best that I don’t repeat what went wrong first one. The second meeting was quite fruitful by the way. Because before attending this, I knew already what I am suppose to do. I had written down all questions that I was going to ask and also I gave a copy of that to my Mentor as well so that he can get an idea of my progress in the project and weather it was in the right direction or have I been diverting away from my point. Anyway the second meeting was really productive for me because rather than focusing on basic things like first one, we discussed more about main financial analysis and different models that I was going to apply in my strategic analysis of the company. Before leaving my second meeting, my mentor told me that I need to give a presentation next time, also being a requirement in ACCA’s guide to RAP. As I had done most of my research already during first and second meeting, now I wanted to concentrate on reviewing my work and on preparation of slides for presentation. After researching on the project for that long and reading and analysing the same figures again and again presentation was not a problem for me. Although I couldn’t summarise in the time given but this was the only thing I couldn’t stick to, even after spending a considerable amount of time on practicing at home in front of my mates and also alone in front of mirror. But on the other hand there was a lesson for me too. Next time whenever I will give any presentation, I will bear in my mind that part of my presentation is weak so I should not let it happen again. Demonstration of Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Doing a project of this kind, has not only improved my academic skills, it has also improved my communication and interpersonal skills and gave me a chance to analyse the current level of my communication skills and then getting feedback and pay attention to this to improve them. Effective communication is really important in any meeting or presentation. The first thing that is crucial in communication is ‘First Impression’. It is said that ‘first impression is the last impression’. When preparing for my first meeting with my project mentor, I tried as much as I could or at least I knew about how to make a good first impression. I was there well before time so that I could feel relaxed before the start of meeting. The duration of meeting was not that long, so I didn’t want to be late and arrive there after running to be there as soon as possible. That would have created lots of tension for me. So instead of concentrating what I was going to ask and explain to the Mentor, I would have spent most of the time in calming down and relaxing. The second thing that I was considering is my look. I dressed up formally and was looking like a professional because I knew I am going for a meeting that is for a project of a degree level. So I should present myself in an appropriate and suitable way. The other main things that I considered making my communication effective include a winning smile on my face, keeping myself confident all the time during meeting and remaining positive and being attentive. The next thing worth considering here is time of my presentation that was a real test of my interpersonal and communication skills and to show that I am confident enough to apply for a BSc degree. It was very brief time for me to show what I have learnt during my project. So the more important thing here was my communication style and describing what I want to. As I have already mentioned, I have been really confident throughout my presentation, there first couple of minutes were stressing for me but soon I managed to overcome it. To keep my speaking clear and understandable, I used different levels of voice projection to stress on key points. I always had an eye contact with my Project Mentor and used my face expressions and hand gestures to show key points of my business and financial analysis. While at the end of my presentation, I answered all the questions asked confidently. I requested my project mentor his feedback on my presentation too. He really appreciated my body language and other communication skills and drew my attention to couple of things that needed improvement. The Impact of Undertaking the RAP in my Accountancy Studies and Employment Role: It would not be wrong to say that perhaps it is first time in my life when I have applied what I have learnt in my studies. Undertaking this project gave me a chance to apply my academic knowledge and skills that I had learnt from studying for and passing first nine of fourteen papers of ACCA, a field of accounting, of which I had no previous knowledge before starting it. On the other hand it has also improved my existing skills and helped me to improve my other weaknesses about which I never used to think simply because there has never been a chance of testing them and getting feedback from some qualified and professional person. Choosing an organisation and then researching on it in so much depth was a first time experience for me but was really interesting. It has really increased my understanding of how businesses operate and specially the finance industry. Also gave me a chance to study business operations and activities and real financial statements and other important parts of annual reports. It has given me a valuable experience and increased my knowledge in accounting to a great extent. It also improved my communication skills and other analytical skills which both will certainly help me in finding my job and throughout my professional career.