Business Studies
“So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.” – Peter Drucker (American-Austrian Management Consultant and Educator)
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: Grade 5 in GCSE English Language and, if studied, Grade 6 in GCSE Business Studies
Subject Leader: Miss K. Todd
Examination Board: Pearson Edexcel
A-Level Syllabus: 9SBO (Three papers end of Year 13)
Examinations: 100%
Non-Exam Assessment: None
What is A-Level Business Studies?
The A-Level Business Studies course introduces you to all you need to know about working in business. You will also have the chance to take part in competitions such as the Stockmarket Challenge and ICAEW’s BASE competitions that offers careers advice on Business and Accountancy careers. This has a focus on helping you to become a good decision-maker and you will learn essential managerial skills, alongside techniques to help you become an analytical problem-solver. These skills are all highly sought after and valued in a wide range of careers.
What makes a good Business Studies student?
A good Business Studies student has to be able to cope with a wide range of subjects and skills. They are numerate to deftly handle financial issues, keen problem-solvers in the operational issues and marketing arenas and able to understand people through psychology in human resources. They will use theory to explore how organisations work and the challenges managers face in leading people, and they will learn to analyse business environments.
What can I expect to learn in Business Studies?
The course is split into 4 themes. In Year 12 you will learn about marketing and managing people in a business contexts. Alongside this you will study how to manage business activities, including financing business growth and resource management.
Year 13 begins with investigating business strategy and decision making, as well as how to assess the competitive and financial stability of a business. In November of year 2 of the course, the pre-release topic for Paper 3 will be available and you will spend time investigating a particular industry ready for the summer exam. This will help you enter the exam hall with a higher degree of confidence.
There are three exam papers all sat in the summer of Year 13. Paper 1 will assess your understanding of marketing, people and global business Paper 2 is on business activities and decisions and strategy and focuses on business operations, such as managing supplier and finance. The final paper covers the whole specification and is an investigation of the competitive business environment that you studied for the pre-release. All three papers are 2 hours in length and have two sections each. Sections A and B each comprise one data response question broken down into a number of parts, including one extended open-response question.
Where could Business Studies take me?
If you would like to study business, finance or management at university, A-Level Business provides an excellent foundation. The skills you learn are also transferable across a broad range of subjects and careers. Whatever you choose to do in the future, you will find that the things you learn in this course will help. For example, you will probably work with lots of different people, so knowledge of motivational theory will help you to work well with others and help them achieve their potential. You might have ambitious plans to start your own business. If that is the case, you will find the marketing and finance topics particularly useful.
