“Understanding Company Accounts eLearning Course” for West African Journalists

Why you should do this course?

• Are you a journalist, campaigner or activist who needs a better understanding of how to use company financial statements to find and develop stories? Do you ever get stuck trying to find out who really controls a company?
• Too many journalists have a confidence barrier when it comes to financial statements.
• The Understanding Company Accounts course is highly regarded and accredited by the Continuing Professional Development certification service.
• Facilitated by Finance Uncovered expert journalists, Nick Mathiason, Ted Jeory, Warren Thompson, Malia Politzer and Simon Bowers, this is a course based on four structured online modules that will take you about 15 hours to complete over seven weeks.
• You will get direct access to FU’s trainers and have the chance to bring your own case studies or target companies to the table to see if they can help develop stories.
• This course is not just about numbers: You will become a better journalist, be more able to hold corporates and beneficial owners to account – and gain an edge over your peers.

How it’s structured?

The course takes about 15 hours to complete via four structured modules. You will be given time-limited logins to the learning platform.

• Module 1: Basic Accounting and Business concepts
• Module 2: Unpacking the Profit & Loss/Income Statement, the Balance Sheet and the Cash flow statement
• Module 3: The Notes and the Audit Report
• Module 4: Quiz and Assignment which they mark and send back to participants

Who it is aimed at?

• They believe that all news reporters, citizen journalists and activist researchers would better able to investigate leads if they had the confidence to read company financial statements and use them as an extra source of information.
• The course will not make you an accountant! But it does give you an insight into their world.
• If you are very comfortable using financial statements, then it’s probably not for you.
• For everyone else, it’s likely you will learn something new – and add to your skillset and even give you an edge over your peers.
• The course is in English, but the beauty of accounting concepts and financial statements is that they follow similar formats throughout the world.

How and when is it available?

• They offer the course via a single route only as experience suggests this is by far the best and most rewarding way to take it:
  • As part of a facilitated group of other individual learners, up to a maximum of 15 people and with full access to Finance Uncovered experts. These group/cohort courses will run at regular intervals when they are satisfied they have the right blend of people willing to commit to the training timetable. You will be asked to take the four modules and written assignment at a similar pace over seven weeks, during which they will host four live group seminars over Zoom.
• As well as applications from individuals, they also welcome enquiries from groups of journalists and activists working in the same organisation.
• The course is not free, but there may be occasions when they offer bursary places.

For more information, visit Finance Uncovered.