No man is an island

A very happy St.Andrew's day from Ciobs here in Scotland to all our bloggees throughout the world. Today is the feast day of our patron saint. He is also the patron saint of Greece and Russia I am sure that our bloggees in these places will be celebrating today.

What a week it has been once again. I managed to get to Jersey and the Isle of Man at the beginning of the week. A big thank you to all who attended the courses in these lovely islands and a very special thanks to Sarah and Angie for their warm welcomes.

I must use some of the Manx language that I picked up "Mora Mey" to all of you in Douglas this morning! I hope that I have used the correct spelling and that there is no hidden meaning in this phrase!

Once again colour seems to be absent today. Please sort this out head of blog wherever you are.

Here at Drumsheugh we await candidates for the various on line examinations scheduled to take place here today. Good luck to you all.

I also await a bulb for our super smartboard system. I am promised that it will be here today. I will fit it between exams. I am sure that students would not be in favour of someone trying to fit a bulb into a wall mounted projector during their examinations. On the other hand...........

Monday and Tuesday of next week brings another Apex 1 revision course. Yes folks you are very lucky Raymond will be running this and I am sure that you are in for a fantastic experience over the two days. Remember folks this course and many others are run on a regular basis. Please check www.ciobs.org.uk for further details.

While I am typing this Raymond will be hard at work on this week's podcast.What a talented man he is. This will be uploaded very shortly. So if you want to start the week in an enlightened way then go to http://www.ciobs.org.uk/about/what_podcasts.cfm.

I have just been interrupted in mid blog. A student has arrived to hand in a pile of assignments which reminds me today is the last day for submission of assignments for those students who recently sat the very last Associateship examinations. Farewell to the Associateship exams. These have now been replaced by Chartered Banker.

I better get on and get marking some of these assignments. There will be a tear in my eye as I say goodbye to the old ACIBS.Those were the days handwritten assignments all the way!!

I wish you all a very pleasant weekend and look forward to catching up with you again soon.

I will be away for the next week. So please be kind to MR. Brown.

No man is an island as the saying goes except for Michael Madagascar!!!

Michael (Where is Madagascar? Is it near Mull?)

Normal service is resumed

Well we have a bit of colour today. It's not just Raymond's cheeks (see previous blogs for further details) Someone in blogland must have been listening. I write to you today from the West of Scotland. A day of blue skies and a bit chilly too.

Once again a busy week with the Introductory course in Edinburgh on Wednesday and the visits to Leicester and Birmingham on Wednesday and Thursday.

One of the great things about this role is meeting so many people. Both Raymond and myself have met a great number of new students this week and it this is always a pleasure. The enthusiasm of the new students has been quite overwhelming over the last few days.

I would like to thank the people in Leicester and Birmingham for the very warm welcome that I received in both cities.

Of course I have been delighted this week that all my travel plans went like clockwork. Planes, trains and even a bus have all been on time.

Next week sees visits to Jersey and the Isle of Man at the beginning of the week. Once again this trip has been planned with military precision. I will let you know how it all goes. Will I arrive on time? Will there be students waiting? This is all part of the excitement at CIOBS.

Please check out this week's Podcast at http://www.ciobs.org.uk/qualifications/downloads.cfm This is a solo performance from Raymond and it is well worth a listen. He even manages to mention football this week!Yes folks we cover it all in the Podcasts.

Well another week nearly at an end. I better get on now. I wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you get everything that you wish for.

No doubt there will be more blogging next week from a location as yet to be decided.


Michael ( What size of plane will it be next week?)

Nothing ever stays the same

The only constant is change so they say. Well one thing hasn't changed from last week, the lack of colour and lack of boldness. The powers that be in Bloggland seemed to have withdrawn this function at the moment. Hopefully Colour will return to us soonest. Talking of colour, yes Bloggees, Raymond is back with us and he has a bit of colour on his cheeks. I will not go for the obvious next line here! You can work it out for yourself!

Tomorrow sees the arrival of 12 new students to Drumsheugh Gardens for a Chartered Banker Introductory day. Raymond will be running this and is looking forward to introducing you all to the delights of Ciobs ( The oldest Banking Institute in the world. Not one of the oldest or anything like that, but the oldest) A very warm welcome to you all.

I am off on my travels again tomorrow with a visit to Leicester followed by a short trip to Birmingham on Thursday.(Well a short trip from Leicester that is) I am meeting various people from a particular organisation all of whom are embarking on studies with CIOBS ( The oldest etc. etc.........)

Of course not just the oldest but the best! So if you or any of your colleagues are interested in taking one of many courses please take a look at www.ciobs.org.uk for further information.

Our physical Academy for Chartered Bankers is currently running at Napier University, Sighthill Campus Edinburgh. This week will be the last ever week at this particular place as it is being demolished at the end of the month! with effect from January we shall be moving to Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh.

A big thank you to all the staff at Napier for all your assistance over the last three years.

The work on revision notes continues with Apex 1, Retail Banking (England and Wales) and Business Law (England and Wales)all currently in production and hopefully nearing completion in some cases. Keep watching this space.

Have a great week

Michael ( Have I stayed the same?)

You will be fine

Friday may sometimes be a day for reflection. In my case this week my first thought this morning was what day is it? Where am I? Do I need to get on an aircraft at any stage? Now that I have recovered from all of that I glad to say that it is Friday.

I am back in Edinburgh and it has been a very interesting week and a memorable Friday so far. All sorts of interesting things are going on and the Academy will be going ahead next week in spite of certain "events" that have taken place!!!

My esteemed Colleague Mr. Raymond Brown returns on Monday and I am sure that he is looking forward to that. Welcome back Raymond we have all missed you. (Thought I should put that in just in case he is having a peek at the blog!) I was chatting to a regular reader of the blog earlier, you know who you are Mr. X of Kirkintilloch. He was fully aware of my movements this week in fact he knew more about me than I do! I must say to you mystery man thank you very much indeed for keeping things afloat next week. You are indeed a Legend (Or so he keeps telling me)

My other esteemed colleague Martin Fishman is all tied up with the graduation ceremony tomorrow. Many of you will know of Martin from CIOBS events. This is his biggie tomorrow and I am sure that he was talking to himself earlier. Get well soon Martin. This time tomorrow it will all be over. As the phrase goes “You will be fine"

So as another week draws to a close I would like to say thanks to everyone that I have met over the last five days, lots of new faces beginning what I hope will be a very rewarding relationship with CIOBS.

p.s. Our podcasting continues check it out at

http://www.ciobs.org.uk/qualifications/downloads.cfm

p.p.s. No colours or bold bits today. I think someone is trying to sabotage things.

(I might be fine but the colours they are not!)


A great weekend to you all

Michael (I think I am in Edinburgh)

Flying High

Good Morning to you all and welcome to the new week. Mr Brown is on leave this week so there is no one to stop me blogging ha ha!!!!

What a week it is going to be today I am in Edinburgh and rather chilly it is too. Tomorrow Southampton, Wednesday Edinburgh, Thursday Manchester and back to Edinburgh on Friday. I just thought I would mention this to remind me of where I should be.

I am really looking forward to meeting with you all on the various courses and indeed to the very early starts on Tuesday and Thursday. I am sure it will be fun.

The podcasts that Raymond mentioned last week are now in place and the news podcast will become a weekly feature. That's something else that I will fit in over the next few days.

This Saturday sees our annual graduation ceremony taking place at the Bute Hall, Glasgow University. This is always a wonderful day for all who attend.

Glasgow seems to be the place to be at the moment. The Scotland v Italy world cup showdown takes place on Saturday. I notice that the kick off is at 5.00 p.m this is obviously to avoid a clash with the graduation.

As I am sure everyone is aware the Commonwealth Games are coming to Glasgow in 2014. Once again I am sure that the city will make sure that their events do not clash with any CIOBS events. If not then I am sure that they will have Martin Fishman our Events Manager to deal with.

Next Monday sees the return of our students to the CIOBS Academy at Napier University, which is in Edinburgh and not Glasgow.

All in all it is all happening over the next week or so. I wish you all a good week and hopefully I will get back in touch at the end of the week with an update.

Michael ( Am I coming or going?)

What's Going On?

Hi all,

It's been a long time since the last blog - pressure of business, honest!

Anyway, what's happening at the CIOBS? Quite a lot actually.

Firstly, this week we welcomed a couple of new staff members to our team. Shona and Sandra joined the Business Development team in their role as Customer Relationship Managers - best wishes to the two S's.

As mentioned previously, we have now made some changes to Chartered Banker, our premier qualification. Now available are UK Financial Services and Investment. For further details, just go to the Chartered Banker section of our website!

Visitors to this humble blog had the 'privilege' of hearing our first podcast when we showcased our new Chief Executive. Now, after weeks of highly technical training at the finest recording studios known to man (and woman!), a further two podcasts have been developed. Don't all gasp with excitement at once, please!

Firstly, there is a podcast to explain the changes to Chartered Banker (Downloads section) and we have produced the first of our regular Newscasts. Have a listen - you may even learn something! The podcasts are short (deliberately so!) so downloading should be OK for most.

The lovely and talented Mr Downey, my esteemed colleague, in addition to assisting with the podcasts has been working on the English law version of Business Law - he really is so multi-talented (so he says!). These and the English version of Retail Banking, which yours truly will be starting later this month, will be ready in good time for student revision for the next exam diet in April / May 2008.

Talking about exams, the Autumn diet has just finished, so lets hope that everyone who had that 'pleasure' has acquitted themselves well.

There is so much going on at the moment, I've hardly had time to crush a grape or box Michael's ears - maybe tomorow!

We will also be publishing a list of the Introductory and Regulatory courses (ApExes) for 2008 very soon - again, check the web for those.

Listen, I'm really sorry but I have to go, I think Mr D's gone into a state of depression as he hasn't blogged for a few days - I really must attend to him - on the other hand..................

Speak to you anon and take care.

Raymond

The Mocks are back!!!

Good morning to you all just a very quick message this morning. I can exclusively reveal that the ever so popular mock examinations on our website www.ciobs.org.uk are available once again.

A bit of good news for a new month and something to do during the long dark winter months!



Michael (Always the first with the good news)