The difference between personal and professional ethics

Ethics basically means judging what a person thinks is right and wrong. A person’s morals and principles determine how they define as personal ethics.  A person may think that to have good morals may be they have to be open, honest, truthful etc. this is how they would represent themselves in society.

On the other hand, when an employee is supposed to follow a set of principles in a work environment set by the employers is professional ethics. It could include confidentiality, fairness, transparency, professionalism.

Personal ethics are not followed as strictly as professional ethics are required to be done so. This I believe is the biggest difference between the two. Thus if you violate your personal ethics, you might just harm those around you, but it might also make hardly any difference, depending on your circumstances. Whereas violating professional ethics, a person might incur penalties and other serious repercussions such as disbarment from the professional institute they might be registered in!

NOTE : More often than not people at work resolve moral conflicts by drawing a line between their professional and individual roles. In other words, they separate their work from their personal life and follow their professional code of conduct.

Ethics and professional skills

Increasing your employability

As well as being one of the three key requirements towards ACCA membership, the Ethics and Professional Skills module is designed to increase your employability by exposing you to realistic business situations and developing the full spectrum of advanced ethical and professional skills.

Strategic Professional Exam Success

In an interactive environment, the module is proven to supplement your technical knowledge by helping you develop the ethical and professional behaviors you’ll need to be successful in the Strategic Professional exams.

Therefore you should complete the module in advance of attempting these exams - students who do so are statistically proven to significantly enhance their chances of passing the exams.

Module content

The module is made of learning, support and assessment units.  On 2 April the module was updated to further develop your professional, ethical and digital skills.

View the module content from 2 April 2019

If you completed the module before 2 April 2019 you will subsequently still have access to all the new content, but it won't be compulsory for you to complete this content

Fee and duration

There is a one off cost for the module with no re-sit fees if you need to repeat the final assessment. The module takes approximately 20 hours to complete and once you have paid you'll have unlimited access to the content. 

Module award

On completion of the module you will have access to a transcript of all  completed content and a certificate.  Valuable resources to prove your professionalism to current and future employers.

If you’ve successfully completed the Professional Ethics Module (PEM) under the old syllabus, you don’t need to complete the Ethics and Professional module.  However, you will be able to access it to support your preparations for the Strategic Professional exams.