Short Review – Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals (BFF)

Bloomberg, yes, the people behind the terminal I cannot afford, also offers a series of online courses through their Bloomberg for Education Portal. This is a short review of their most popular course, Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals, BFF for short.

For some context: I recently was looking into different courses on economics and finance because I wanted to know what the educational market has to offer for those looking for some introductory classes. Doing so, I stumbled across the BFF multiple times and ultimately decided to give it a go out of curiousity. Both for the content as well as for their educational approach.

Having a degree in economics, my experience surely differted from the intended one quite a bit. The course is clearly targeted towards beginners without much prior experience and those looking for (entry-level) jobs in the field.

Bloomberg for Education

The Bloomberg for Education Portal is a central hub for Bloomberg’s educational offerings. While there is a lot more content, I will be focusing on the courses and certifications offered through the platform.

However, I want to point out that the platform has tools and resources specifically for educators and their classes (e.g., case studies). While I have not looked at them in detail, they seemed well-designed and quite intesting – of course keeping in mind who they are made by as well as potential underlying motives.

In order to access the courses, I had to buy a license which, according to Bloomberg support (which answered within an hour) will never expire and includes future updates. I have no information on the content roadmap, but since purchasing the license in January, they have already updated some content within the BFF.

The “Professional Rate” for the license set me back approximately 269€ after tax. Given that this is not a subscription and future updates are included, to me, the price is more than just reasonable.

As of June 2024, Bloomberg offers three courses leading to certifications. The certifications are also included in the license.

1. Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals
2. Bloomberg Market Concepts
3. Environmental Social Governance

There is not too much to say about the portal itself. It is functional and provides access to a wide array of content. Aside from that, I would describe the platform as rather utilitarian. It is not winning any design prices, but it works well.

Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals Course

Course Content

The BFF is an introductory course that, based on real-life scenarios, introduces economics and finance fundamentals as well as basics of investment strategies, responsible investing, and various roles and career paths within the field.

The content is spread across four modules: (1) The Purpose of Investing, (2) Types of Investment, (3) Risk and Reward, as well as (4) Portfolio Management.

Each of these modules contains a nice mix of theory and fundamentals as well as real-world cases and examples. For example, I particularly enjoyed some of the more recent examples such as the Wirecard scandal within the Risk and Reward module.

Furthermore, the course introduces key institutions as well as various roles and career paths (so called “Institutional Profiles” and “Professional Profiles”). Doing so, the BFF makes the field and the people working within it a lot more tangible and provides orientation for those who might be interested in getting into finance.

There are, interestingly, also some sections that deal with (personal) investment strategies and personal finance. For example, there is a lesson in which learners find out about their own investment preferences and potential strategies. In those sections, including the ones on applying for jobs in the field, the BFF bridges the gap between an introduction to economics and finance and personal finance concepts.

Being a Bloomberg course, the BFF also features, to some extend, Bloomberg references as well as the Bloomberg terminal. That said, this course is definitely not an introduction into the Bloomberg ecosystem – however, it demonstrates some of the features available.

Course Structure and Learning Experience Design

Overall Concept

The BFF is based around four characters in different professional roles and their perspectives on various issues, cases, etc. For example, in module one we meet Amina who is founding a company and taking it public over the course of multiple years. Similarly, in module 3, we meet Arjun who is an investigative journalist looking into various finanical cases, including financial fraud.

Overall, there is a very good mix of theory and background knwowledge as well as practical case studies faciliated through these characters and their experiences. The learners, using different formats of interactive formative assesments, takes part in these case studies.

The course is designed well, and the storytelling approach works. Nevertheless, the BFF is a quite linear and straightforward experience. It is educationally very, very solid but not innovative in any specific way. To me, given the purpose of the course and the outlined learning objectives, this is absolutely fine, and I do believe that the BFF reaches its educational goals.

Course Structure

The BFF is structured into modules and lessons. Unfortunately, the terminology regarding the course structure is somewhat confusing as it is not consistent between the platform and the course materials.

Following the terminology within the course materials: The BFF is a course. This course is structured into four Modules with three Lessons each. For example, the first module, “The Purpose of Investing” contains three lessons: “Introduction to the Economy and Investing”, “Sources of Finance”, and “Going Public”.

Unfortunately, the platform uses a different terminology. As can be seen above, the lessons, for example, are called “videos” and the modules are called “courses” (not in the screenshot). While this is nothing dramatic, it can be confusing and it feels not very coherent.

That said, the structure of the course makes sense and the narrative character of the course – driven by the four characters – is present and coherent across all modules. All of this comes together in the final lesson in which there is, for example, a “20 Question Challenge,” which provides a chance to recap the whole course through the characters and their experiences.

Lessons

Each lesson is a linear, very SCORMy – think Web-Based Training – experience, featuring a mix of instructional videos, reading, exercises, additional resources, and assessments.

The lessons contain clear learning objects, various learning activities as well as interactive exercises and formative assessment. After going through the lesson, learners are provided with some key takeaways (as a summary) as well as reflective questions for their learning journal.

The lessons are engaging and well-structured. However, they are quite linear and learners have little options to deviate from the prescribed learning path.

Assessment

The course offers a variety of assessment types, making the learning process engaging and interactive. For example, there are drag and drop exercises, single and muliple choice quizzes as well as a gamified assessment called “Finanical Jeopardy”. There are also many formative assesssments during the case studies, for example, letting learners explore different options characters might have.

Aside from these interactive exercises and quizzes, the BFF ask learners to keep a learning journal. Over the course of the modules, there are various reflective questions, includig some exercises linked to the case studies.

As already mentioned above, the final, somewhat summative, assessment relies on revisiting the characters. For each character there are some more general questions as well as case studies fitting for the characters. For example, for Arjun, the journalist, there is a fact checking exercise.

Goind through the course, I enjoyed the exercises and assessments. They provide immediate feedback, helping learners understand their mistakes and correct misconceptions. Furthermore, the journal approach allows for deeper reflection and motivates learners to think about the cases themselves.

Overall Review

The Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals course is a solid entry-level course for anyone looking to gain a foundational understanding of finance and investment. Furthermore, the course also focuses on individuals, their career opportunities, and personal finances.

While the mix between these two perspectives has been challenging me, I believe it makes sense for “beginners”. That said, to me, the level of the lessons was not always clearly aligned. While there are some lessons that go quite deep into ecnonomics, others – especially those focused on personal finance – are much more fundamental.

The use of storytelling and case studies makes the content engaging and relevant. Personally, I truly liked the idea of following four different individuals, emphasizing different perspectives and opportunities within the field.

The platform’s design could benefit from more consistent terminology and a more modern interface, but these are minor issues in an otherwise well-structured course.

Conclusion

Despite a lack of (platform) polish, the Bloomberg Finance Fundamentals course is a valuable resource for diverse learners. It provides clear learning objectives, engaging content, and a variety of exercises and assessments to reinforce learning.

To me, the only actual downside of the BFF, is its rather unclear target group. It is a foundational course, but while some of the material clearly targets everyone interested in economics and finance, parts of the course are tailored very much towards learners looking for a (first) job in finance and/or investment strategies. This also is represented in learning objectives on vastly different levels. I do believe that the BFF would benefit from more clarity regarding its educational goals.

That said, even with my background and previous experience, I took quite a few things away from the course. While I did not benefit (so much) from the foundational introductions, the case studies were interesting and thought provoking. As someone not working in finance, the course also did a great job at introducing different professional roles, going beyond the traditional and including, for example, journalism.

The support from Bloomberg is excellent, and the perpetual license with future updates included is a very fair deal. In addition, having “Bloomberg” on your resume, even if its just a relatively short short, might be beneficial.

Hence, given the quality of the BFF and the very reasonable pricing model, I am looking forward to the two others courses, which are included in my license.