Business Studies

Have you ever thought about setting up your own business? Have you ever considered how a business becomes successful? Or what makes them successful? Have you ever wondered where brands come from, or how you keep people buying your product or service? Well if you have thought about this or other aspects of business then studying GCSE Business Studies sounds the right choice for you! The main objective of this course is to develop a knowledge and understanding of business activity and its importance within the economy. It is designed to develop skills in problem solving and decision making. Most of the exercises and activities will involve making the types of decisions businesses make every day. These decisions are made in all areas of business, for example:

Marketing - how businesses decide who their customers are, how to target them through advertising and pricing, etc. Students will carry out market research and learn to analyse results. Student will breakdown the different marketing techniques used in business. They will analyse one company’s strategies to another’s, and find out the key differences between these and how they impact on the success or failure of a business.

Management of people - learning how businesses recruit and manage their employees to get the best out of them. Looking at the recruitment process from start to finish. Comparing different business sectors and sizes of industry to look at workforce planning, and people management.

Finance - how businesses calculate their profit, obtain their money and how they plan for the future. How a business will alter its financial objectives dependent on external variables and ownership type. Looking at why some businesses get fixated on profit percentages and others just aim to survive!

External factors - how businesses are affected by competitors, legislation, the European Union, environmental and ethical issues. How these can be unpredictable, and what a business person can do to get this to work in their advantage.

The activities will involve students working both individually and in groups. They will be as realistic as possible using, current business case studies through media articles, internet sources and published reports. We encourage students to become aware of what is going on in the business world by watching news and consumer programmes and reading business articles in newspapers and magazines. The assessment is in two parts.

Assessment The new Business Studies Specification does not have a controlled assessment element. Instead it has 2 end of year 11 exams that assess content from the whole of the course. They are broken down into the following: