Award in Principles of Financial Management

The Award in Principle of Financial Management module seeks to provide students with the skills necessary for an entrepreneur or senior executive within an SME to understand the role of financial management of the business. The course also covers the development of financial management skills as the basis for improved monitoring and management of the financial affairs of the SME organisation. It seeks to identify best practice and provide an overview of current financial management tools and services that are available to entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs. The course enables students to use such tools allowing them to develop, implement and monitor their own financial management programmes. The focus throughout the programme is the importance of managing the cost of control, to ensure that the control process itself is well managed and is appropriate to the scale and complexity of the SME organisation.

 Sessions Covered: 

• Session 1 – Working Management & Cash Management
• Session 2 – Accounting conventions/standards used to present financial statements
• Session 3 – Presentation of three main Financial Statements
• Session 4 – Financial Ratios Analysis – Explanations
• Session 5 – Financial Ratios Analysis – Explanations and Practice
• Session 6 – Budgets & Sources of Finance
• Session 7 – Costings of Products and Services
• Session 8 – Investment Appraisal
• Session 9 – Raising Finance & Company Valuation

Hours of Total Learning for this module:

• Contact Hours: 58
• Self-Study Hours: 128
• Assessment Hours: 14
• Total Learning Hours: 200

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the module/unit the learner will have acquired the following skills:

1. Apply analytical and problem-solving methods such as the discounted cash flow technique in complex scenarios.
2. Apply theories of accounting and corporate finance in corporate strategy design.
3. Plan ahead in information retrieval techniques based on the emerging knowledge and techniques being applied in the financial management field.
4. Identify current, deferred, and future tax liabilities and potential financial obligations of the SME organisation.

Each module will be assessed based on the following components:

1. Quality of Contributions in Forums: 30%
   • Evaluation of participation and the quality of insights shared in online discussion forums.
2. Quality of Contributions in Tutorials: 20%
   • Assessment of engagement and contributions during tutorial sessions.
3. Research-Based Assignments: 50%
   • Completion and quality of research-based assignments that demonstrate understanding and application of the course material.

Passing Criteria:

• Students must achieve an aggregate of 50% or higher across the three components to pass each module.

Scholarship Schemes for Maltese residents:

• MySkills Scheme: Malta residents are eligible for up to 80% reimbursement, capped at €5,000, subject to eligibility criteria. International students would be able to apply for the MySkills Scheme once they obtain their Student Temporary Residence Card (TRC). (For individual modules only)
• Get Qualified Scheme ( Scheme available for Maltese residents ) – 70% refund of course fee as a tax rebate