Commercial Management

We are very pleased to announce that Simon Beech BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying GCInstCES has joined our tutorial team for the Certificate and Diploma in Commercial Management. Simon was awarded his degree by the University of Salford in 2006 and has worked in the construction industry for the past 12 years, predominantly in the 'civils' sector plus some time also in fit-out. His experience is contractor-based and he works for a leading UK civil engineering contractor as Lead Estimator on a £multi-million framework. Simon is a serving committee member of the Chartered ICES for N West England and N Wales and is working towards full Chartered ICES Membership. Simon will tutor Principles of Estimating and C Eng Construction.

Crossrail Archaeology Programme

The July/August issue of Civil Engineering Surveyor contains an article by Jay Carver, Lead Archaeologist, Crossrail. You can read the article online through the journal's e-book portal ces.digitalpc.co.uk. Or you can just Google Civil Engineering Surveyor, scroll down to the Institution's journal and click on the July/August issue. The illustrated article is on P17-20. Jay highlights five sites where there were significant finds covering periods from the Ice Age to the 20th century: (1) Royal Oak Portal, where there were fragments of animal bones, mainly bison and reindeer, from the Ice Age 68,000-80,000 years ago; (2) Farringdon, where under the site of a new ticket hall  two phases of plague victim burials were found, probably from the period 1348-9; (3) Liverpool Street, another ticket hall, close to the remains of the Roman city, where a range of various finds from the Roman period have been made; (4 ) Stepney Green, where finds of building remains were made dating to the late medieval and early modern periods when a number of substantial buildings were located there; and (5) Canning Town/Limmo, where tunnel access and a maintenance shaft were constructed on the site of the Thames Ironwork & Shipbuilding Company, which launched many great warships between the mid-19th century up to 1912. Provision for archaeology was made by Parliament in the Crossrail Bill and work started in 2009. Much more will be revealed by 2015.

New A Levels (first exam 2017)
Edexcel along with other exam boards will introduce new syllabuses for GCE Advanced Level subjects for teaching to start in September 2015 with first exams in June 2017. We are likely to receive further information about syllabus structure and content during 2014. This means that you will be able to take exams according to the current specifications until June 1916 - plenty of time, but get them done as soon as you can. 

PAYROLL
Our course in Payroll Management has now been revised for HMRC RTI and is available for enrolment. Under RTI, payroll managers advise HMRC online whenever a payment is made to an employee. This applies to large companies now and to small companies from October this year. Our course will help you through the transition. 
Supplied with Sage Instant Payroll, this course provides you with complete training for the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers Level 3 Payroll Diploma Level 3. You receive the full retain version of Sage with the course together with our specially prepared study material and full tutorial support for up to 12 months. If you would like to take the exam, which you can take at home or in your office, and so gain the Diploma, we need to register you as a Student Member of the ICB when you enrol with us or within 6 weeks of enrolment. ICB Registration costs £48 if you are not already registered or only £25 if you are transferring to us from another course provider. 
Start now and you will finish within the present fiscal year!

AS History Grade A
Congratulations to Wendy Ahl who passed her AS (Early Modern) History GCE in January with a Grade A after six months' study. Wendy had previously taken a short course at Oxford University which included study of Henry VIII and has been reading non-fiction books about the Tudors for as long as she can remember - clearly this special interest helped her in her studies with us. She was the first of our clients who was mistakenly told by Student Services at Edexcel, 'You can't take GCE AL History as a private candidate'. Of course you can! (The Edexcel website has now been corrected.) It's just as well that Wendy persevered and so was able to achieve a fine result.

Short Assignments for VAT
We have recently added three short assignments for marking by your Tutor to our Course: VAT: A practical course in managing your VAT. The course covers in detail the bookkeeping entries needed for VAT and leads to a full practice Assignment. These short additional in-course assignments are set at stages to help you consolidate what you have learnt and to provide an opportunity for your Tutor to check that you are on the right lines. (No increase in price!) If you are taking our Basic Bookkeeping course or the ICB Level I Certificate in Manual Bookkeeping the VAT course offers you wider practice in making the VAT entries. 

Bookkeeping
Congratulations to Janice Sykes (Distinction Level I) and Anya Bruty (Distinction Level II) in the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers examinations in January. Comments from students are always welcome and Janice offered some suggestions for the treatment of various topics. We have discussed these with our Authors and Tutors and as a result we will include some further guidance and interpretation on these in our Exam Supplement. Many thanks, Janice!