PQ magazine June 2016
www.pqmagazine.co.uk / www.pqjobs.co.uk
All the top tips you need for the ACCA June exam sitting as our experts tell it as it is
PwC trainee accountant with gambling addiction ‘died of shame’ Trainee accountant Joshua Jones (pictured), who jumped to his death last summer from the ninth floor of PwC’s London offices, ‘died of shame’ after being overwhelmed by his gambling addiction, his father told the recent inquest. His heartbroken father, Martin Jones, explained that his son, who was just 23, had led a double life. He revealed that when he went to Sussex University Josh blew all his student loans on gambling, and at the time of his death
owed up to £40,000 to banks, loan firms, friends and family. He told the coroner Shanta Deonarine: “Josh begged us not to tell PwC about his gambling. With his hockey and music friends he was life and soul of the party. We and some close friends knew the truth.” PwC’s Chris Butter said: “Josh was
a wonderful young man – bright and diligent, Those colleagues who were fortunate to have worked alongside him feel a great loss.” His father felt that more needed to be done to put pressure on the gambling industry to help addicts. In particular, he wants to see a shake-up of the online gambling industry so addicts can be permanently excluded from sites. The Coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.
AAT CLARIFIES RULES ON NEW RESIT LIMITS
The AAT unveiled the final version of its new-look AQ2016 at the Training Providers’ conference in Birmingham recently. And there is generally good news, although there is one small sting in the tail. The resit rules for 16 to 19 year olds have been changed. Now in any 24-month period (it was 12) these AAT students will have just two attempts to pass an AAT assessment. This new rule does not, however, apply to overseas or Scottish students! The main reason for this change is the fact that the AAT’s Foundation and Advanced qualifications (level 2 and 3) are now approved for Key Stage 5 delivery and will be listed on the performance tables from 2018. All those AATs over 19 years old will be pleased to hear that the Department of Education (DfE) rules do not apply to them and therefore there will be no resit limits at all. Another change is with employer engagement plans. Centres will have to show AAT that they are involving employers in a meaningful way. AAT will be monitoring this for all those providers with 16-19 year old students in England, but good centres should, of course, be doing this already. Percentage marks for each assessment will also be given to students under AQ2016. This will be welcome news and the AAT has shown ‘it is listening’. Students will find these published in their statement of achievement on MyAAT.
AAT’s Suzie Webb Feedback will still be provided, showing the areas where candidates did well and the areas they need to work on. PQ magazine was also able to establish what mark you will need to get a pass, merit and distinction. Remembering the pass mark of AAT assessments is 70%, it is hardly surprising that
a pass is 70%. A merit will be 80% and a distinction 90%. Students will need to take a look at the weightings, for example at Level 4 the new synoptic assessment counts for 35% of the grade. When it comes to the synoptic assessment the AAT has also worked delivery out here too now. So for Level 2 the test will be on average available every three out of four weeks. When it comes to the Level 3 and 4 synoptic test there will be windows six times a year. The AAT’s Director of Education, Suzie Webb, explained that AAT will keep an open mind about the placement of these windows and re-evaluate how this is working on annual basis. One thing AAT PQs will have to get used to is the wait for results. The synoptics all have elements of human marking, more depending on the level of assessment, so results will take six weeks to process. Webb stressed that the synoptic assessments reflect the growing importance for the accountancy profession at all levels to be able to write coherently and effectively as well as deal with technical elements of accountancy. The plan is for the AAT to put lots more online to support PQs. On top of the popular Green Light Tests it plans to introduce a Lucky Dip Green Light Test, which will randomly select areas from across a level. This will be an invaluable revision tool for those sitting synoptic tests.