FAQs on the Ethics and Professional Skills module

Finance professionals need to demonstrate that they understand and can apply ethical and professional behaviour in real-world work situations.  The EPSM helps you develop these practical real-world skills so you can make an impact from day one in organisations. 

The module has 10 units, with 7 learning units and 3 assessment and support units.   For more information on the syllabus and structure read our EPSM syllabus guide.

Just like our exams, we regularly update the module so it contains all the latest ethical, professional and digital skills needed by finance professionals today.  This means there may have been new units added to the module since you completed it and received your completion certificate. 

Should this be the case your completion bar may fall below 100%, but this does not impact impact your completion status and it is not compulsory for you to complete any new content added to the module.  However, you will be able access this new content should you wish to keep your skills up-to-date.

The module takes approximately 15 hours to complete and you are able to access any of the module content again once completed if you wish to refresh your knowledge.

The module will also support you to exam success at Strategic Professional.  We therefore recommend you complete the module towards the end of completing your Applied Skills exams and before attempting any Strategic Professional exams.

The module helps you to develop the professional skills you need to demonstrate in your Strategic Professional exams.  It helps focus your thinking on real world work scenarios, developing your understanding and skills on how to approach the challenges presented. This is very similar to the approach you’ll be required to take at Strategic Professional exams.

Professional skills are specific skills that you generally acquire through work-place experience – for example team-working, communication, negotiation ability.

As a result of the changing business landscape globally, employers are looking for finance professionals to add value immediately. So to have technical knowledge, skills and abilities - combined with professional skills and qualities - will be much more in demand by employers.

There are a series of tests throughout the module and the final unit of the module is an assessment which you will need to pass.  If you don’t pass first time, then you will get feedback and you can try again until you are successful - without having to pay any additional fees. 

There is a one off cost for the module, with no resit fees.  Once a student has paid for the module they will be able to do the assessment multiple times and have unlimited access to the module content.

To find out the cost of the module please visit our pricing page.

No, however EPSM will support your learning for Strategic Professional exams so we would still recommend that you take the EPSM if you have any of these exams yet to complete.

• You will receive a Certificate of achievement. And you will also be given a personalised dashboard of your performancein the end of unit assessment and a transcript showing the skills you will have demonstrated throughout the module
• You’ll have completed one of the three key requirements towards ACCA membership (the others being exams and experience)
• As you work through the module, you’ll be asked to complete different tasks which you would expect to see in a real-world work scenario. You’ll be able to save these outputs in your ‘My portfolio’ section of the module.  You can then use these to present to your employer - or in an interview situation - to demonstrate how you would approach and resolve these real-world scenarios. You could also share them with your PER mentor to demonstrate achievement towards your performance objectives.