ACCA EPSM (Ethics) Module

So now exams are over for this season (awaiting/dreading the next March session!), I know a lot of ACCA students will take advantage of this quiet, winter period to power through the Ethics module.

The EPSM module, replacing the old PEM module in October 2017, is a compulsory requirement which ACCA students must complete, as well as pass the exams, complete the Professional Experience Requirements, in order to achieve the full qualification. The aim of it, per the ACCA website is to apply ethical and professional skills into the workplace – passing the exams isn’t everything. This is a test of our judgement and character.

They give you a scenario and a company that you are working in, and present different challenges and situations before you, where you need to apply those skills. There are 3 end of unit assessments (units 5/6/7) but throughout the other units, there are various interactive activities to complete.

The 6 areas that are tested are:

Ethics & professionalism
Personal effectiveness
Innovation & scepticism
Commercial awareness, analysis, evaluation and problem solving
Leadership & teamwork
Communication & interpersonal skills

So I completed both my Applied level exams in 2019 (AA and TX) and then had an exam season off before starting the professionals. My employer and I weren’t in a real rush to speed through, so I was in a good position to take some time off. I had spoken to ACCA and my tutors about the order of exams, (which I will do a post on soon) and during that time, I found that I could use this time to complete the ethics module, especially relevant as the ACCA recommend doing this before the professional papers – quite timely SubhanAllah! I spent the month of November 2019 on it, on weekends and in the evenings just a unit or two here or there.

The ACCA recommend that the 10 units take around 15 hours to complete. This is not something you need to do in one sitting. It took me just over 19 hours (see my dashboard below) and I did it over about 2-3 weeks, and I remember sitting on the sofa watching dramas while doing it, or listening to lectures in the background! Some of the units, you really do need to concentrate on, so yes, switch off and focus, but it is quite a light hearted activity to work through.

The individual pages with the modules and activities on are as below, you simply click on the one you need to do, and it takes you through things to read and videos to watch.

Below is unit 4 Commercial Awareness, for example. Within each unit, you have the menu button with the lines (bottom left) which you can click. Here, you’ll see the navigation pane of the unit, and you can actually click the red button at and point and save to exit if necessary.

You do need to complete in the set order I believe, rather than sporadically.

The initial units are mainly generic theory and information based, but then unit 8 is on a case study which is so cool. The graphics on this with the video clips of the different people and scenarios are great – kudos to ACCA for pairing with a good animation company! I’m not sure if everyone gets a different scenario. There are also subtitles at the bottom of each clips, to go with that amazing and strong Scottish accent!

All in all, I highly recommend doing it over the winter break, before things get intense in the new year. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, the cost of the module is £78.

Based on the recommendation for doing it before the professional exams, did I benefit from this? To be honest, yes I do think it is a good idea. It puts you in perspective with real life application, and you can relate – in particular the case study – the characters and graphics from the videos become engrained in your mind!

Professionalism is a real focus for ACCA, and they do test it quite strongly in the Strategic Professional level – SBL had 20% of marks stemming from professionalism!

I would recommend, get your laptop, give yourself a month or so and power through! The 15 hours are an approximation – there are no bonus marks for doing it quicker or any penalties for taking longer. Just work at your own pace. If you get some of the activities wrong, or don’t pass the tests, you can do them again at no extra cost. At the end of it, I got a certificate which I have downloaded and saved on my laptop, and then your ACCA dashboard is updated to show you have completed it.

It’s a tick in the box, just needs to be done, and it’s really not that bad at all!

Here is the link to it: https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/student/ethics.html

Hope that helps ! Let me know if you have any questions! ♥