CIMA Student News

Download your way to an accountancy qualification

Conventional revision aids have become a thing of the past for accountancy students as the iPod generation can now download libraries of information to support their studies in the same way they download music.

The revolutionary new service comes with the launch of a new website, bizpod.org.uk. launched just over a month ago to coincide with the forthcoming exam season.

Over the past year, supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), staff at Bizpod mapped the syllabuses of three of the major accounting bodies, ACCA, CIMA and CIPFA.

The modules of each syllabus were divided into around 100 ‘e-slices’ each; which created a library of about 1,000 downloads for students to use. Each e-slice encapsulates all the key features of a topic in roughly 3 minutes. The modules are all authored and delivered by a lecturer who is a specialist in the subject and often an examiner for one of the major professional bodies.

The current library is increasing continually with new e-slices being added weekly and exam tips being offered to support students prior to the exams. Further modules for additional subject areas will be developed; the company has identified over 5,000 slices which have been commissioned and will be steadily added.

Philip Knowles, one of the directors of Bizpod said:
“We have been very encouraged by the reception to the idea since the launch of the site. The site has proved very popular with over 2500 students accessing the site within two weeks of launch. We have based our business on over 100 man-years of collective teaching experience and believe that the strong level of interest from students who have bought one slice to find out how it works and then come back to make multiple purchases indicates that we have pitched the product correctly.” 

Adrian Pulham, Education and Training Director at CIPFA added:
“CIPFA is proud to be the sponsoring partner of Bizpod - this exciting new way for accountancy and financial management students to reinforce their learning and support their exam revision is at the leading edge of educational technology.  We believe that all students would benefit from the advantages Bizpod has to offer.”