ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is a well know certificate for accountants internationally. I have taken this course for the first time and I’m studying now Taxation (F6) at Bangor management centre. Its a fun subject and I really have learned a lot. It teaches you how taxation works in UK along its calculations. You learn about how to calculate taxable incomes from various people. Be it employee , self employed , business man or investors you name it. My exam will be on December 6th and I have been told that I should train my self to answer past exams in order to pass. I was exempted from four ACCA modules (F1-F4) because I have done a master degree in accounting. The funny thing is my taxation tutor has told me that she needs to do higher studies and she already has enrolled in Msc accounting and finance like I did and now she is accepted in my past university (Bangor University). She told me that she needs it to develop her academic skills. She is already good at the professional side but maybe she needs the analytical skills that academics posses (remember my old post : Academic Entrepreneurship). Unfortunately I could not continue at Bangor university to do PHD because my targeted tutors are full and they can not supervise any extra students. So I asked my targeted genial tutor for a recommendation (related to my PhD topic) and she advised me 2 persons. I briskly checked them out and indeed they have a good reputation in accounting research. My current PHD topic which I’m willing to do is about Graphical representation of financial information by corporations. I like that topic and I insist not to change it for any reason. However that have a price as not a lot of academics around the UK universities share this interest, and that made me spent a longer time and bigger effort searching for the right person at the right location. I managed to find some good ones, but I did not choose them because these institutions don’t have a high RAE rating which is very essential for my future career in Kuwait. I’m still waiting for a response from one of the universities, the sooner I get the offer the better, as my time here in UK is crucial and limited.
I have not posted for a while now, because I was on a holiday for nearly a month in Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore. I’m going to write about my trip in more details in another post. I missed my graduation ceremony at Bangor University as it happened 3 days before my arrival in the UK. Anyway I expected that and I was told that I can order a DVD, to be honest with you it does not make any difference with me, at the end we all got our degree certificates . In my case I now hold an MSC accounting and Finance.
Anyway , here is the funny part. After our arrival from our trip to the North Wales my wife had a graduation ceremony , we went with her (me and the kids) to the graduation PJ hall at the Main arts building. My daughter Amina (8 months) was the star of the attendees , she was chatting loudly and screaming in the hall that made every one laugh. I also borrowed my wife’s gown and wore it and took some photos.We met some old university friends and went on to have a light meal at Uno Cafe. We have taken a lot of pictures that day and the days of the master degree are over. We are now in the PHD stage and I’m sure I will have many stories to tell you when I finish.
I was searching for a stock market simulation game in the web and in iTunes. The search was good as I discovered plenty but with different quality. Before I tell you what I found , I would like to talk about stock market games and what they can do for us such as advantages and benefits.
Stock market simulation is an educational tool used today for educational purposes. The main users of this technology are professionals who are involved in investments. They practice their own techniques and strategies in order to improve their skills. Some schools and universities do use them to teach their students stock trading. The simulators mostly follow real market data in real time, they give you the feeling of being truly in the market.
Some organisations and schools organise stock trading competitions. Students are encouraged to manage virtual stocks portfolios and the winner of course is the one with more money or higher money return. My college for example—Bangor business school participates in a national event annually called “stock market challenge” .
Advantages of stock market simulation:
1- Learning by doing :They can teach you how trading and investing works by showing you the basics.
2- Familiarity with industries and companies: You can also get familiar with company names and industries.
3- Portfolio management: You will also learn how to work on your portfolio and manage it.
4- Wisdom and expertise: No one can succeed without making mistakes , learn from your mistakes and apply what you learn in real money
Disadvantages:
Risky behaviour: You are investing virtual money, so you might act with overconfidence and you get lucky with profits because the market trend is your friend (for now). You might think you are ready for the real world and your strategy is superb, you take your wallet and foray some real stocks , BOMB ! You lose money. What happened ? your current strategy don’t work this time. So to protect your self from being caught in this kind of situation, don’t rush into real money, take your time and keep practicing.
Experience bias: I think you know some people who have been driving cars for many years but still bad drivers. Either their skills are not good or they have developed bad habits. The same case goes for investing. No matter how much time you have invested playing stock market game, that does not necessarily make you a good trader. You must learn the rules of the game. Read books , attend seminars and interact with experts- share with them your experience and ask for a feedback. Investing my friend is a group (team) activity and should not be done alone.
My personal advice : Its OK to make mistakes that’s what the simulation is for. However, if you want to learn best , then pretend that the virtual portfolio is a real one.You can act serious by doing what most successful investors do before buying stocks. I wont mention their habits or the process they go through here in this post because its lengthy and worth to be explained properly in separate posts. I will consider it in the future.
There are plenty of simulators out there, I have tried 3 and here they are :
Q: Can you become an entrepreneur if you are an academic ?
A: Yes
I have read some academic articles that focus on the role of academic brains in commercial enterprises. The level of academic varies starting from undergraduate to PhDs and professors. They gave many examples of different industries such as IT, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, etc. There were many questions raised by those researchers such as the skill of academic entrepreneurs, the motive behind joining the business world and my question would be how well did they do ? because being entrepreneur requires different skills and mental framework than being an academic. How did they manage to spin-off from the scientific world to entrepreneurial world?.
In this article I’m focusing on the skills part only, by showing that academics can posses high talents when it comes to problem solving and analyzing. Most of entrepreneurs in the street got the spirit but lack the analytical skills. Academics on the other hand, do not have that problem due to their experience in research.
Obviously Katalin Balázs the author of “Academic Entrepreneurs and their Role in ‘Knowledge’ Transfer“ argues that the main skill they posses is the transfer of knowledge to the small business they establish or participate in. The sample that she covered was Eastern and central Europe such as Hungary, so we can not be certain about the rest of academics in the world. However, we can learn something from it when it comes to understanding common skills that academics can offer for the business community.The author also classified knowledge into subsets and skills :
“
. knowledge of knowledge
· knowledge of people (informal contacts)
· organisational knowledge
· market, partners, firms (who’s who)
· technical knowledge (history of particular pieces of equipment)
”
The above categories according to the author are the type of knowledge that can be transferred from entrepreneurial academics to the business. However , I’m not sure about the people and the market knowledge, because these information are acquired mostly by some one who is deep in the street-market and not just by being at the university only.
As a student at Bangor business school , I like the ‘entrepreneurship’ program that Bangor University offers for young students to prepare them take a future ‘entrepreneur’ job rather than prepare them mentally to pursue a job like what most universities do.
The entrepreneurial tool of the day is : Education. Whether you get an academic degree, read books or attend seminars. They are all important for you if you seek success and improvement in life and business. That does not mean that if you are an academic you are done. There are many types of skills that have to be learned that you do not find at universities. Life is a big school and we shall all continuously be life-long students.
This site is dedicated to help entrepreneurs around the world. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old entrepreneur, its never too late. Talking about old entrepreneurs who are older than 50 years old, I came across a new terminology to describe them : Olderpreneurs ! I first heard the term while I was driving back from the computer labs at Bangor University at midnight few days ago. I was working on an essay “Are German banks riskiers than European competitors ?” with my friends, gladly We finished it today and submitted it. That day I was listening to BBC radio , and I heard a couple of English people talking about olderpreneurs and olderpreneurship, that gave me a wake-up call trigger. They were talking about success stories for olderpreneurs, and funding programs that they can use. I guess the term “olderpreneurs” is only used in UK, thats what google said. The British papers also highlighted that, according to the Guardian. I also found an interesting wiki website calledWikipreneurshipthat specilizes in Entrepreneurship which also highlighted olderpreneurship. The amazing fact that I discovered according to the Guardian : is that success rate at establishing start ups at older age seems to be better than youngsters. They justified that by experience- older people have more experience and better skills. I totally agree with that, experience is an important factor, but what matter most is MOTIVATION. I have seen successful people from all ages, and they are all motivated leaders. The trend according to a UK research shows that the number of olderpreneurs are increasing in UK, interesting and I hopefully see it around the world.
I have most of these photos taken today. The pictures were taken in our neighborhood in Llandegfan – North Wales.I’m studying Master degree in Accounting and Finance at Bangor University- UK. In my country Kuwait , the weather is totally the opposite than here. Its warm and we do not have snow I’m enjoying my time here with my family and friends. Enjoy the pictures !
Me at night in the snow
Me at noon in the snow
Our Neighborhood
My son Ahmad
My daughter Fouz. You can see my neighbor Rob gathering some snow to fight back
I was browsing Bangor University’s library last week , looking for books for my essay. I found a tiny book called : ” A Technique for Producing Ideas “. I borrowed it and I was amazed of the contents. The contents are so rich in meaning that they are bigger than size of the book. The author is an expert in marketing and he shares his success with readers by showing his “producing ideas” principles and methods. The technique is so simple , and the book is worth buying.
I would like to congratulate all my family , friends , colleagues at Bangor University and all Muslims around the world for Eid. I wish every one happiness and healthy life. I’m now in UK away from my home Kuwait , its quite different atmosphere here. I also feel sad because my auntie Amina passed away in Kuwait two days ago. She was like a mother to me , and I will always miss her. I pray to Allah to keep her soul in heaven.
I would like to share a link that aggregates many Kuwaiti blogs and bloggers, its called “Kuwaiti Blogs” . It has a big list. Today I submitted my first essay at Bangor University, the subject was International Financial Markets (IFM) . There are about five Kuwaiti students at Bangor University including me. Im also the accounting representative for post grads. I also updated my photo , you can find it at my “about” page. To know what I am doing at Bangor University, please read my post : MSc Accounting and Finance at Bangor University . I have an advice about blogging : Take it easy during your blogging journey, jot down your thoughts and have fun.
I have been away from my country Kuwait since June 2009. Me and my family are staying this year and the next 3-4 years perhaps in the UK , to be specific in LLandegfan – North Wales . Its a beautiful little town at the heart of Menai Bridge in the Isle of Anglesey, great nature and friendly people. If you have read my “About” page you would notice that I mentioned my reasons for moving to UK. Yes Im doing at the moment an MSc Accounting and Finance at Bangor Business School for one year. Its a great course and It does teach you a great deal about investments and companies . So why I’m studying this major , well Its been 5 years now since I began trading and learning about the investment quarter. So i decided to improve my skills and knowledge and be a professional , I will also write about my learning experience in accounting and finance while Im studying in my blog efouz. I believe this will add value to my original topic “Entrepreneurship” some how and I hope you find it fun and informing.
tutor for a recommendation (related to my PhD topic) and she advised me 2 persons. I briskly checked them out and indeed they have a good reputation in accounting research. My current PHD topic which I’m willing to do is about Graphical representation of financial information by corporations. I like that topic and I insist not to change it for any reason. However that have a price as not a lot of academics around the UK universities share this interest, and that made me spent a longer time and bigger effort searching for the right person at the right location. I managed to find some good ones, but I did not choose them because these institutions don’t have a high RAE rating which is very essential for my future career in Kuwait. I’m still waiting for a response from one of the universities, the sooner I get the offer the better, as my time here in UK is crucial and limited.
. In my case I now hold an MSC accounting and Finance.
I’m enjoying my time here with my family and friends. Enjoy the pictures !
