Up-skilling colleagues in FRA

Ok, so as part of my personal development plan at work for 2013 I included that I wanted to introduce some kind of formal training at work with a view to up-skilling junior colleagues. On the back of this I have so far delivered 5 separate training sessions on Financial Reporting on the basis that a lot of the support staff see accounts every day(as they need to key them into our Credit system) but have never been told what they actually mean.

I thought it would be useful to share my personal view/feedback on how it has gone so far.

1) I know a lot more than a I probably think I do (not in an arrogant way, but it’s a massive confidence booster when you realise just how much you have picked up through the CFA exams and how fluently you can talk about this stuff).

2) standing in front of a class and talking about financial accounting is a great way to consolidate what you know. This actually makes me feel really good about myself.

3) despite not having much experience in financial accounts, some people ask some really interesting questions, and probably come at it in a very different way to how I would look at things (you also. Get the odd cocky person who tries to catch you out…obviously you just shoot this person down in flames with complicated technical jargon and über-CFA knowledge 🙂 )

4) do not under estimate how little people know. The best comment I’ve had so far is “why does Total Net Assets and Equity always match? It really bugs me”! Luckily we discussed the balancing part of ‘balance sheet’ at the next session!