Our heritage

Our team of volunteer organisers have been arranging courses for tax and accountancy professionals in the Midlands for over 37 years.

We continue to adapt to a changing world, and are delighted to offer our courses to delegates from all over the UK.

Our motivation is to provide delegates with the opportunity to interact with the top speakers in the country, and to support businesses by offering exceptional courses for unbeatably low prices.

As we are a not-for-profit company, delegates get extraordinary value for money.

Your course organiser

Your principal point of contact for all course enquiries is Richard Ransom. Richard is a chartered accountant with over 50 years' professional experience, and is a former President of the Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln Society of Chartered Accountants. He has been organising training courses for over 37 years.

Alongside Richard, Kimberley Shapcott, Cath Walker, Rachel Nelson, Margot Madin, and Anshu Mehan also generously give their experience, patience, dedication, and expertise to provide the great courses you have come to expect.

Your DSCA Courses team

  • Richard Ransom

    Course organiser

  • Kimberley Shapcott

    Volunteer

  • Cath Walker

    Volunteer

  • Margot Madin

    Volunteer

  • Anshu Mehan

    Volunteer

  • Rachel Nelson

    Volunteer

FAQs

How can you make your courses so much cheaper than everyone else?

We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers: veterans of the Accountancy industry and all involved in, or retired from, local Midlands accountancy practices.

Our speakers receive the same fees as they do when they speak at other events, but because we are a non-profit company, any profits are ploughed back into DSCA Courses to subsidise the cost per attendee.

We are also in an amazing position with a Derbyshire based Trust which over the years has looked kindly on our efforts to provide the education of accountancy to Derbyshire based individuals/businesses. The R J Weston Trust has provided us with grants towards subsidising the courses we put on. We are extremely grateful to the Trustees for these non-refundable grants.

Are the courses online or in person?

The courses are online.  

All our courses used to be in person, but Covid moved everything online. We may run in-person courses in future, if enough people tell us that they would like them.

You will be notified well in advance if we arrange a face-to-face event in the future.

How do I book onto a course?

To register for a specific course, simply head to the page of the course you wish to attend, and go through the checkout process.

Be sure to book one place for every individual person who will be in attendance.

Go to the checkout and complete your booking.

IMPORTANT: At the same time as placing your booking, you will also need to fill out the Delegate Registration Form. A link to this form is available on the booking page for each course. A link will also be emailed to you when you receive your Order Confirmation.

In order to complete the Delegate Registration Form, you will need to supply the email address of each delegate who will be in attendance on each course.

After you have submitted the Delegate Registration Form, we will send an email invitation to each Delegate for the date and time of the course. This event invite is where Delegates will access the zoom link, gain access to speakers' notes, and collect their CPD Certificate of Registration, so it is essential that a correct and up-to-date email address is provided.

A zoom link, along with the speaker's notes and/or slides, and your Certificate of Registration for CPD purposes will be made available to all delegates approximately one week before the course begins through this event invite.

How do I make changes to a course booking?

You can make changes to a booking up to 6 working days before a course takes place.

To make a change to your booking, please email info@dscacourses.com.

Do you provide verification of CPD undertaken?

A Certificate of Registration, confirming CPD eligibility will be made available to all delegates about seven days before the event via the calendar invite and by email.

For this reason, it is imperative that correct email addresses are provided in the Delegate Information Form at the same time as you make your booking.

Who are the courses open to?

The courses are open to everyone, not just members of recognized accounting bodies.

Legal point – only those who have booked and paid for a place are allowed to join and view our courses, the notes, and the recordings (where appropriate). No-one else is eligible to view the material as they would be in breach of copyright.

Are the courses recorded?

Each course description carries the information on whether a course will be recorded.

Some of our speakers do not permit us to record, so for those lectures there will be no recording. For the lectures where we are permitted to record, a recording may be made available to attendees who were unable to make the original time.

All recordings will be deleted 14 days after the date of the original course and will not be available thereafter.

Can I record the presentation?

No – it is a breach of your contract with us and the speaker. Where we have obtained permission from the speaker, it is only to provide a copy of the edited highlights to those unable to view on the day.

Who are the speakers?

You can find a list of our current speakers here.

Are you affiliated with ICAEW/ACCA or any other accountancy body?

DSCA Courses is totally independent and has no ties whatsoever to any organized accounting body.

What is a CIC?

DSCA Courses is a CIC. CIC stands for Community Interest Company. 

Do you provide VAT invoices?

We do. Once you have booked and paid for your chosen course/s, you will receive an invoice identifying what you have booked, the VAT content and the totals net and inclusive of VAT, together with confirmation that you have paid.

This is what our course attendees have to say

  • "DSCA provide excellent training for general practitioner accountants.  The content is timely and the sessions are expertly organised.  I have been attending the courses for many years; from when I worked for a large firm through to being a partner in my family firm.  The move from in person sessions to the current Zoom online format was seamless.  The online meetings removes the barrier to needing to travel, which helps with our eco-credentials and allows increased interaction with the lecturer and other delegates using the chat function for example.  It's great to not feel silly asking a question and I get more out of the training as a result!  Also colleagues are able to join in obtaining quality CPD at an affordable price."


    Mondane Carden, P O'N Carden

  • "The DSCA courses are a great and cost-effective way for our Practice to keep up to date with the latest tax and accountancy changes. We have been attending the courses for many years and several of our team attend due to the great content. They have top-notch speakers who provide interesting and insightful content each and every session."


    Kimberley Shapcott, Shapcotts Accountants
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