First and foremost, I am writing this as an International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) student who has chosen BTEC Business as a core subject. IBCP is one of two routes for Post-16 study here at Westminster Academy. It is a course that incorporates the core values of the IB programme, whilst engaging students in career-related education and activities. 

There are lots of different exciting topics that we have learnt about and covered this year in Business Studies. The course is separated into 3 strands. The first strand revolves around creating a marketing campaign; the second explores different types of businesses, and the third focuses on training and development. Since starting the course, the jump from GCSE to IBCP has been positively challenging. To say the least, it has been a very busy 4 months filled with coursework! I prefer coursework based subjects because it means that I can learn about and analyse a business concept in depth. One of my favourite topics that we have covered so far involved looking at different business marketing strategies and how they attract customers. One of the business case studies we were analysing was a luxury artisan ice cream shop called 'Venchi'.

We visited a branch of Venchi during September, spoke to the employees and franchise owners to find out about issues such as pricing strategies; advertisement methods; payment methods; number of employees and locations. It was interesting to find out how the pandemic and Brexit had affected the business, and what was being done to mitigate the challenges. This opportunity was very beneficial as we collected data and information which we could then use as evidence towards our 3-hour exam in January, in which we are required to create a marketing campaign from scratch for a new business. It was a productive and useful day as I got to learn about various marketing strategies, whilst learn how a business runs day-to-day. 

The highlight of the day was most definitely when we ate their ice cream! Personally, I love food so I just picked a flavour that I have never tried before, which was pistachio ice cream and it was worth every penny. 

In summary, Business is a subject that can be used in the real world and that's what makes it so interesting. The opportunities and challenges are constantly changing, and so the knowledge we learn is useful, as hopefully one day, we use this knowledge to create and direct our own enterprises.