Aims of the course:

To give learners the practical skills and applied knowledge they will need when working in or starting their own business.

Course content:

The OCR Enterprise and Marketing course covers 3 key units:

• Enterprise and Marketing Concepts

This unit will help the learners to understand the main activities that will need to happen to support a start-up business and what the key factors are to consider when starting up a business.

• Design a Business Proposal

This unit will help learners with the skills and knowledge they need to design a business proposal outlining their vision for a new start-up. Learners will be able to identify a customer profile for their own product design, develop market research tools and use these to complete market research for their product.

• Market and Pitch a Business Proposal

This unit will help learners with the skills and knowledge to create a brand identity and promotional plan for their chosen business start-up idea. They will be able to pitch their product proposal to potential investors and will be able to critically analyse the development of both their pitching skills and their start-up plan.

 

Unit 1	Unit 2	Unit 3
Understand how to target a market	Be able to identify the customer profile for a business start-up	Be able to develop a brand identity and promotional plan to target a customer profile
Understand what makes a product or service financially viable	Be able to complete market research to aid decisions relating to a business start-up	Be able to plan a pitch for a proposal
Understand product development	Be able to develop a design proposal for a business start-up	Be able to pitch a proposal to an audience
Understand how to attract and retain customers	Be able to review whether a business proposal is viable	Be able to review the strengths and weaknesses of a proposal and pitch
Understand factors for consideration when starting up a business
Understand different functional activities needed to support a business startup

Assessment:

There are three assessed units:

Unit 1 is an external exam lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. It is worth 50% of the overall grade.

Unit 2 looks at students designing their business proposal. It is completed within lessons in the form of written assignments and is worth 25% of the overall grade.

Unit 3 looks at students being able to pitch their business ideas to potential investors. It is completed within lessons in the form of written assignments and is worth 25% of the overall grade.

Additional resources to support learning in OCR Enterprise and Marketing: 

We recommend that students are encouraged to access resources and lessons tasks via Google Classroom. We advice that students become accustomed with using the resources to develop their independent learning skills.

Students should also encouraged to watch the news for major business stories, or to access business news via the BBC or SKY news app. This will give them a greater understanding of how their studies translate to real life examples.

A Level Business Studies (AQA)

Aims of the course:

The A Level in Business Studies is designed to develop learners' understanding of the key issues affecting modern business, such as the increase in digital technology, business ethics and globalisation.

Students studying this course will develop their ability to analyse the impacts and consequences of business strategy, and to critically assess the long term and short terms issues that should be considered in business decision making.

Course Content:

In Year 12, learners will study the following units;

●       What is business?

●       Managers, leadership and decision making

●       Decision making to improve marketing performance

●       Decision making to improve operational performance

●       Decision making to improve financial performance

●       Decision making to improve human resource performance

In Year 13, learners will study the following units;

●       Analysing the strategic position of a business

●       Choosing strategic direction

●       Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies

●       10 Managing strategic change

Assessment:

The AQA Business studies assessment comprises of 100% examination. This completed in the form of 3 exams to be sat in Year 13. Each of the 3 exams is worth an equal 33.3% of the final grade and are 2 hours long.

Encourage your son /daughter to:

●        Access further resources and tasks from Google Classroom to facilitate classroom learning.

●        Regularly check the news for related business news stories which can be reviewed and analysed to help understand key theory.

●        To offer additional time to revision and review of studied topics.

To complete further reading into the topics covered as part of the course specification.

 

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Business

Aims of the course:

This course enables learners to approach the curriculum in a flexible and bespoke way. It gives learners a good understanding of the financial elements of a running a business, as well as further focus on the marketing options for small businesses. Students can manage their own written work and will develop key independent learning and management skills.

Course Content:

In Year 12, learners will study;

●       Developing a Marketing Campaign

●       Personal and Business Finance

In Year 13, learners will study;

●       Exploring Business

●       Recruitment and Selection Processes

Assessment:

Learners are assessed in the following ways;

Developing a Marketing Campaign - students will sit a 3 hour controlled assessment under exam conditions. A pre-release is given to learners 2 weeks before the exam and can be used to complete research in preparation for the exam. The assessment is externally assessed and is worth 25% of the final grade.

Personal and Business Finance - students will sit a 2 hour exam based assessment. The assessment is externally assessed and is worth 33.3% of the final grade.

Exploring Business - students will complete written assessments in lessons and in their own time based on set assignments. The work is internally assessed and verified, and is worth 25% of the final grade.

Recruitment and Selection - students will complete written assessments in lessons and in their own time based on set assignments. The work is internally assessed and verified, and is worth 16.7% of the final grade.

Encourage your son /daughter to:

●        Access further resources and tasks from Google Classroom to facilitate classroom learning.

●        Regularly check the news for related business news stories which can be reviewed and analysed to help understand key theory.

●        To offer additional time to revision and review of studied topics.

To complete further reading into the topics covered as part of the course specification.