Business Studies and Economics

INTENT

We aim to develop young business people and entrepreneurs.  The courses at BTEC, GCSE and A Level have developed a lot to include a wider understanding of the legal, political, social and environmental context of business. This external environment is rapidly changing and out intention is to develop students into informed and adaptable individuals, ready and to tackle the challenges ahead.

  • Provide a rewarding and stimulating learning experience for students.
  • Ensure the teaching and learning of Business Studies and Economics and theory is applied to the world of today.
  • Break down learning into specific and measurable learning outcomes in preparation for the examination.
  • Equip students with a broad range of transferable skills and useful knowledge in preparation for further study and/or working life.

The specifications we have chosen is aimed to give students the opportunity to explore real business issues and how businesses work. It has been designed with a clear and straightforward structure to enable students to access and engage with the world of business.

With a combination of independent research, teamwork, competition and presentation activities we hope to complement the employability skills that they are developing in other subject areas.

Within the Business Studies and Economics department we develop entrepreneurial, communication, presentation, problem solving, independent learning and confidence within our students as well as ensuring they have a good understanding of business theory to support them in further education or any career they chose to go into.

 

IMPLEMENTATION

 

Business Studies and Economics courses 

Vocational Pathways – BTEC Technical Award in Enterprise (Year 10 and 11)

Level 1/2 BTEC Technical Award is a vocational course that consists of 3 units, two of which are coursework based and one is externally examined. The ‘Exploring Enterprises’ coursework unit focus on different types of businesses, their marketing and identification of consumer needs and the challenges they faced. Students investigate local businesses in order to apply what they have learned. The Promotion and Finance unit is externally examined and the final coursework unit, ‘Planning and Pitching an Enterprise allows students to develop their own business ideas and business models to develop awareness of the elements needed to set up a successful enterprise.

Vocational Pathways – BTEC Business (Year 12 and 13)

Level 3 BTEC National Extended Certificate is a vocational course catering for students whose main strengths are completing coursework.  Students are assessed through a mixture of coursework (Unit 1 & Unit 8) and external exams (Unit 2 & Unit 3).  This includes topics such as business purposes, business organisation, personal selling and customer service. The units offered also include marketing, personal and business finance and recruitment and selection.

A-level Business Studies – (Year 12 and 13)

Students should consider taking this option if they are interesting in running their own business, or in working in a larger organisation. This provides students with a broad experience of the main functional areas of a business and the factors, which affect a business, starting with how a business sets up as a small business, how it grows to a national and eventually an international business.  Business Studies opens up a wide range of related subjects to concentrate on through to University and further education including; Accountancy, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Law, Business Management and many more.

A-level Economics (Year 12 and 13)

This A-level covers two main areas; microeconomics and macroeconomics.  Microeconomics focuses on the basic economic problem of unlimited wants and scarce resources. How do markets determine the price of products and services? Students will look at the effects of demand and supply on an economy and how different industries affect each other.  Macroeconomics looks at how different economics affect each other, for example how China and the European Union affect the success of the UK economy.  Students will concentrate on the main macroeconomic indicators including; economic growth, unemployment, balance of payments and inflation.  Students will study the recent recession and look at how the Government, Monetary Policy Committee, Firms and Consumers affect each other and the success of the economy.