Oxford Brookes University BSc (Honours)

Skills and Learning Statement

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Word count:
1,748 words (as per ACCA/OBU word count specification)
 1 Introduction

This content contains an evaluation of the experiences and skills learned during the
process of undertaking the Research and Analysis Project (RAP). It attempts to answer
four basic questions as required by Oxford Brookes University (OBU) for the fulfilment
of the requirement of the RAP.

This contentment attempts to answer all four questions required by OBU for the
fulfilment of the requirement of the BSc (Honours) in Applied Accounting.

2 An evaluation of the PM meetings

The meetings with my PM have helped me a lot towards completion of this RAP. The
follow describes the skills learned during these meetings.

2.1 First meeting

One thing I actually learned from the meetings between my PM and I was to always
make room for contingencies. Contingency planning was one of the most important
strategies in risk management. My PM was a very busy man. I learned from this
meeting that there should always contingencies in place when dealing with a someone
with a very busy schedule

During this meeting, I realised that to be a BSc Honours degree holder, there is a lot of
work that needs to be done. I realised that gaining knowledge is not just an end in itself
in terms of learning, but also the ability to put this knowledge into practice, is of
paramount important. A particular event can change the behaviour of someone, which
contribute towards the learning process (Terry, 2006). My mentor warned me time is
very important when attending any meeting

One important thing I did at the first meeting was not to elaborate too much on answers
from the PM, and tried as best as possible for these answers to be short. He was really
happy that I could respond straight to the points. But later after the meeting I realised
that my PM was taking note of my body language which seemed to be in contrast with
my words. He was not happy about this and had to advice me later during the second
meeting.

2.2. Second meeting

At the second meeting, which happened during a weekend with my PM, I was really
ready to ask him a lot of questions as I needed a lot of answers from him regarding the
difficulties I was going through during my research. But the mistake I did was that I
could not write down the specific and technical aspects of these questions, which had
me wasting a lot of my PM’s time, because I had to go over the documents before
giving him the specific questions. So I learned here that when dealing with a project
work always specify all the problems encountered during the process.

2.3. Third meeting

This meeting was my last meeting with my PM and I had to make a presentation. During
the presentation, I wanted to explain in some amount of detail, but my PM pointed out to
me that I should focus on key points rather than trying to explain everything I know, and
be conscious of the time as well. What I learned during this presentation exercise was
the very need to focus on key points and avoid unnecessary details. My PM was very
happy that I was aware that a presentation should not just be in words but to involve a
lot of charts and tables as well.

3. An evaluation of the extent of meeting my project objectives and

hence answering the research question

So far the RAP is concerned; I believe that I have answered the questions to this
research, though there are certain limitations mentioned in the Research and Analysis
Report (RAR). In carrying out the analysis on the financial statements, I have made sure
to state or explain any result obtained and found out the reasons for any changes
observed. As ratio analysis was extensively used during the analysis of the data, these
ratios were different when compared with other years. So I had to go further and did a
thorough analysis. The reasons for any differences in these ratios were either explained
or stated in the report.

As I stated in the RAR, the questions I was going to answer regarding the project were:

• Has the organization been doing well financially over the chosen period for the
research? So far analysis has been done on the financial statements, using both
accounting as well as business techniques to respond to these questions.
Relevant and suitable ratios have been used, especially ratios that relate to the
banking industry, as the case study organisation was a bank, in answering this
question.
• What about the non-financial area performance of the organisation, is it okay? In
responding to this question, I have attempted to use certain techniques like
SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces model to assess the business area performance
of the bank, and also assess the banks efforts in terms of corporate social
responsibility
• Comparing the organisation into some extent with a similar organization in the
same industry in order to know the relative performance of the concerned
organisation, is it relatively doing well or not? I have used MTB, another similar
bank in the same banking industry as DBBL in order to do some comparisons
with regards to industry wide assessment.

As all project work is involved with certain unavoidable limitations, some of these
limitations if taken into account would be an impediment into attaining all the objectives
set for this research.
4. Assessment of the interpersonal and communication skills during
the research

This RAP has helped me greatly in achieving certain interpersonal and communication
skills. Doing the research, I realised the that communication skills is an important part
for every graduate. For the fact that I did all the research work is a personal realisation
that I can use such communication skills to do a research work and come out with
certain solutions.

During the PowerPoint slides attached to this statement, I realised that, though not too
much professional, that I could go on in preparing a PowerPoint from a research work
and make a presentation involving some amount of talking to certain individuals. Now I
can evaluate relevant information sources and come out with the most important points
for a given amount of time for doing a presentation.

Also during the PM meetings I realised that one’s body language is an important
component in interpersonal communication, came to understand the difference in
approach when you are talking with someone in a position of supervisor.

I had to communicate with various people during the process of gathering the data for
my research. Some of these people, talking to them had involved some technicalities.
As I mentioned earlier, there are certain questions of a technical nature that when you
are putting forward these questions to a professional or someone who understands the
particular concerned area, you have to be technical enough in order to get a quick
response from the person. Otherwise, You are going to get the person to kind of
‘decode’ the question first; changing it to his/her own ‘language’ before attempting to
give you an answer or a response.

This RAP has really improved my level of writing. Before, especially when I started my
research, it was really hard for me to pick up the most relevant information from the
variety of sources. But as the work went along, I became confident and developed some
aspects of picking out relevant information in the fastest possible time. I became faster
in word processing as well. Now I can type faster than when I just started my RAP,
because I did all the typing and editing by self. I word type every detail contained in this
RAP.

An evaluation of the contribution of the RAP towards my accountancy

studies and career prospects

Completing this RAP those not only make me fulfil the requirements for the BSc degree,
but also helped me a lot towards my accountancy studies. Now my communication skills
have improved to a level that I can now easily evaluate scenarios in exam type
questions in the ACCA exams, far better than before. Now I also realise that I am able
to read faster and longer than before. Before starting this RAP, I could not read longer
than two hours at a particular period, but now I can sit down to read for longer than four
hours at a particular moment.

The RAP has also helped to read al lot in relevant areas of the ACCA syllabus that
would me through my studies for the Professional Level of the syllabus. This includes
contents I have read in the P3, Business Analysis Syllabus. I have been able to
thoroughly study the models involved in the syllabus

The RAP has also helped me a lot in the area of applying concepts, techniques and
business models in a practical scenario. Now I understand more how to apply
accounting techniques in a practical way. I am now able to use ratios to apply them in
the analysis of the financial performance of a particular company. Before, all I learned
during my previous studies was the use of ratio analysis, given the financial data of a
fictitious company. Now, as I have used these techniques on a real life company, I
realised more the relevant of these techniques and how they help greatly in practice,
and their worth is invaluable.

One other benefit in doing the RAP is the ability to prepare and present an argument in
the form of a PowerPoint presentation in front of a number of people. This has helped
me greatly in that I will now feel confident whenever I am asked by a superior or
supervisor to do a presentation. I am now also able to prepare a financial report and
make clear interpretation and analysis from it.

6. Conclusion

So far this SLS has given an assessment and evaluation of the experiences and skills
gained and learned during the process of completing the RAP. Some important aspects
and critical mistakes made that the PM had to advice me have been explained. And the
fact that I did a lot, though there were limitations, in answering the research questions
has also been mentioned in this content. And more over how my communications skills
have improved and how the RAP has contributed to my accountancy studies and career
prospects, has also been mentioned in this content.

REFERENCES
1. Terry, W. S. (2006) Learning and Memory: Basic principles, processes, and
procedures. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc