Business Studies

Examining Board: Edexcel

Aim of Course:

In Business Studies, we aim to develop a greater understanding and interest in how businesses and the economy work. This allows the students to apply theoretical concepts into real life situations. Students will find out what is involved in running their own businesses and learn what it would take to be a successful entrepreneur. Students are also better-informed consumer, and know where to go if they are dissatisfied by the goods and services they purchased. In essence, we help students become active, global citizens.

Course Content:

Theme 1: Investigating small business

• Topic 1.1 Enterprise and entrepreneurship
• Topic 1.2 Spotting a business opportunity
• Topic 1.3 Putting a business idea into practice
• Topic 1.4 Making the business effective
• Topic 1.5 Understanding external influences on business

Theme 2: Building a business

• Topic 2.1 Growing the business
• Topic 2.2 Making marketing decisions
• Topic 2.3 Making operational decisions
• Topic 2.4 Making financial decisions
• Topic 2.5 Making human resource decisions

Method of Assessment:

There is no coursework for GCSE Business Studies hence the exams are worth 100% of your total GCSE grade.

Paper 1 (50%): written exam 1 hour 45 minutes – 105 minutes
Paper 2 (50%): written exam 1 hour 45 minutes – 105 minutes

Recommended Reading:

• Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built (Duncan Clark)
• Inner Lives of Markets: How People Shape Them—And They Shape Us (Sharman and Fishman)
• Risk Savvy – How to make good decisions (Gerd Gigerenzer)
• The Box – How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, (Levinson)
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (Brad Stone)
• The Upstarts: How Uber and Airbnb are changing the world (Brad Stone)

Enrichment Opportunities: 

• Bank of England
• Careers Talks
• Student Investor
• Tenner Challenge
• Working in the City
• Young Enterprise

Is Business the subject for you?

Be the next Liv Garfield (Severn Trent CEO)! Do you aspire to be at the head of a successful business? Do you have great ideas for new products or services? Or maybe you want to work for a large company by working in marketing or management. No matter what your vision, the Business Studies A-Level course gives you an incredibly powerful start to launch you on to becoming a business leader.

All the key topics of starting and running a business are covered. Armed with this knowledge, maybe you could be giving Dame Sharon White (John Lewis CEO) a run for his money in a few years’ time or start a business from home! Not everybody wants a global corporation. A lot of people prefer small businesses offering individual service or set up their own business, working for themselves. Whether you’re selling homemade candles or starting your own e-company, you still need to know about business. Like how to get your products to market. How to price them. How to promote them.  And how to get paid.

Course content

1. Students currently study the following topics:
2. Planning and Financing a Business
3. Managing a Business
4. Strategies for Success
5. The Business Environment and Managing

Methods of study

• How to assemble data and assess it
• How to investigate facts and use deduction
• How to put over your point of view fluently
• How to work as a team to achieve results

How will it be examined?

AS qualification will not count towards the final grade of an A Level and
be a separate qualification in its own right (Linear).

AS Level

Paper 1 (50%): written exam 1 hour 30 minutes – 90 minutes
Paper 2 (50%): written exam 1 hour 30 minutes – 90 minutes

A level

Paper 1 (35%): written exam 2 hours – 120 minutes
Paper 2 (35%): written exam 2 hours – 120 minutes
Paper 3 (30%): written exam 2 hours – 120 minutes

Career opportunities

Where will success take me?  This A Level will get you started in business and give you the skills and knowledge to progress to higher education. You could work for a corporation, or maybe a management consultancy. All businesses, and other organisations like charities and hospitals, need sound business skills behind them.